First of all a big thank you to the author, publishers and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

I think I would have benefitted by reading the first one before I read this as it’s a series that can also be read as standalones. I enjoyed the characters in this and found it to be an easy and entertaining read. I would like to go back and read the first and then third in this series.

The first book in Cheryl Campbell’s Echoes trilogy, Echoes of War, was a propulsive, exciting discovery of adult dystopian Science Fiction with an unsympathetic main character whose recklessness played into the story so well that I couldn’t imagine the story being better without her. The New England setting, other revelations, and the battle scenes at which the author excels kept me riveted and the ending had me ready for more.

And this brings us to Echoes of Darkness and Dani, who I would have readily admitted would probably be a divisive character among readers, now put me on the other side of the divide. With a first half that seemed to be a bit of a pit of quicksand, Dani’s character no longer worked for me. Perhaps if there had not been a sense that pretty much every single adult was terribly attracted to her, this might not have been the case. But there was no getting back the freshness and excitement of book one. 

That said, if you enjoy well written military Science Fiction with consistent motivations and exciting battle scenes, then Cheryl Campbell is an author you will want to try. 

This is general market fiction and contains mature language and content.

This review refers to a digital galley I voluntarily read via NetGalley, courtesy of Smith Publicity. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own.

3.5 stars

Feels a little bit like the suspension needs tuning in this dune buggy of a ride. It doesn't have anything to do with sand, but it's up and down, there are figurative sandstorms where you don't know what's coming - definitely a good thing.

Dani is everything to this book. Her character is complex in as much as her lives are complex. As she learns more about herself and her past, so does the reader get more insight.

Dani is surrounded by family who all play their interesting parts in this book. It's definitely not a one dimensional character or plot. There's also plenty of action - almost a bit too much in my mind, but only sometimes.

Campbell created a compelling, well thought out universe and it's worth a read.

It's worth noting I picked this up from Netgalley for an honest review. There are elements of same-sex attraction in the book, but it's definitely not a major element and the reader will need to be prepared for M-F attraction as well.

Ups and downs in this book.

I like the main character Dani and her crew. The pacing of the book is fast, it's action packen and picks up even more speed towards the end, when the crew has to show what a well-oiled machine they are together.

Some of the plot twists were predictable, though. And I am still wondering why Dany is depicted as LGBT.

I picked this up on the strength of the endorsements in the blurb; alas, it's nowhere close to being comparable with Murderbot, so setting up that expectation did no favours to an otherwise perfectly decent post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Having missed that it was a series, I hadn't read the first book, but had no trouble following most developments. The set-up (a community of humans and humanoid but enhanced aliens engaged in an ongoing war with another [very genocidal] alien race who wants to wipe them out) was interesting, and there's some intriguing stuff going on with concepts like physical post-death regeneration, the main character's accidental memory loss and how that affects her relationships. The story's quite fast-paced and heavy on action and fight scenes, which are both the book's strong point and the thing that sometimes makes it drag a bit when the action goes on just a bit too long.

My main issue was that I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging. I found it hard to pace their ages since they all constantly act on impulse, go raring off into dangerous missions with little preparation, obsess over who's dating who and whose ex has just blown into town, and otherwise act like teenagers a lot, even the ones that are clearly meant to be grown-ups. The societies (both human/Echo and alien/Wardens) are strongly rooted in military structures, but both protagonists and antagonists constantly defy orders, beat up or kill commanding officers or tell them to fuck off, and generally stomp all over the supposed chain of command, which 1) added to their weird teenage vibe and 2) made me wonder how the hell either of these groups really function when they not only have to deal with hostile forces but also constant insurrection by mad-dashing renegades. At some point it all just seemed to blur together into a long string of explosions, rampant violence and people dying and regenerating a lot. I got a bit bored.

I was also underwhelmed by the writing, which I found overly explanatory and plagued by irritating stylistic tics like referring to characters whose names we know as "the man" and "the woman" WAY too much and ending every other conversation in "Fuck you." The banter was also a bit hit and miss; half the time I didn't get why characters were falling over laughing at pretty lame jokes or belaboured perfectly common-place phrases.

I was initially excited that the MC had a lovely flirty thing going on with her best friend because their chemistry was fun and sparky, but then it quickly defaults to "oh hey, that wasn't really a thing" and they both (re-) fall in love with dudes. Eh. It's nice that your world has LGBTQ+ relationships as a matter of course, but it'd also be nice if that got supported by some actualisation.

Basically, a decent fast-paced action adventure with some interesting concepts that I felt didn't reach their full potential. Felt a bit like reading a novelisation of a video game.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't able to read the first book in the series, but I was able to piece the story together after a couple of pages. It's quite a fast paced read, with lots of action. The character depth is seriously lacking, though, and I wonder if the characters were completely blank in the first book. A solid read, but you should not expect any surprising plot twists or deep characters. There is sarcastic banter, though.

This is the second book in a series, but never fear - it works fine as a standalone and enough details are dropped in to understand where things stand.

The Big Bad Dude, Rowan apparently is very invested in capturing Dani, the main character. So invested, in fact, that he sends some Echoes to attack the caravan she's in, heading back to the main base. Dani survives, as does Mary and a couple of others, and eventually they make their way back to base.

Echoes - of which Dani is one - are self-healers. They can die, but they will regenerate unless you do something drastic: kill them again as they're regenerating, or give them a death that blows apart their bodies in some way, like decapitating them.

We get a lot of days in camp in this one - training, scenarios, that sort of thing. After one of their own - Oliver, a young man - is kidnapped, Dani and co go after him to get him back, heading to Boston after being forbidden to do so by the base commander. But the commander, knowing they were going to do so anyway, puts pressure on her teams to finalize their new secret weapon.

The battles are excellently done, although I had to question Rowan's "leadership" of his teams in his quest to get to Dani. Perhaps more motivations for the drama between them is covered in the first book.

Overall, well-written. it could be a tad tauter in a couple of places, but none of those were show-stoppers. At the beginning, Dani is obviously attracted to Mary, but after getting regenerated, suddenly has the hots for Miles, another member of Team Good Guy. I get it - the B in LGBTQ stands for bi, after all, but I'm a little disappointed with this, given that it seems Mary and Oliver are Dani's foundation of a sort.

The book sets itself up nicely for another book in the series. If nothing else, I'm going to read the next one to see if Rowan gets what's coming to him.

Three stars out of five.

Thanks to Sonar Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

Echoes of Darkness is a quick-paced thrill ride. It did not even feel like I was reading a sequel. I will admit that I do want to read the first book because I missed out on some people getting beat up and now that I know them, I want to see them get beat up (laugh).

Cheryl Campbell writes a science fiction novel that even a non-geek like me can understand. The visuals are so clearly written that the book ran like a movie through my head - freaking awesome! I love the dynamic of Mary and Dani. I have to confess that I am rooting for them. (No spoilers here rainbows!)

Campbell keeps the action fast and Dani’s fists faster. We know who the bad guys are - even if they may not be who you think they are. We know what their mission is, so now let’s see where Campbell is going to take us because I am definitely along for the ride.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the representation in the book and how it didn't feel like it was shoehorned.

If you read my last review, I read the first book in the series, Echoes of War, in like less than 24 hours. This book was no exception to that as I also finished it in the same amount of time. I just can't get enough of the trilogy, and I can't wait for the last book, even though it comes out next year. I really haven't stopped thinking about them since I started them, and I'm excited to see them nicely sitting together on my bookshelf with the rest of my favourites.

Following Dani, Brody, Oliver, Mary, Miles and Hattie, along with all the other characters that we've grown to love (and hate) throughout these two books, it shows their lives in third person, jumping to and from each of them when needed to give the story the sides you need to see to really put it all together. I gladly started this book less than half an hour after finishing the first one. I was very thankful to have the second book ready to go, as that doesn't happen very often with me. As you might know, I'm really bad for leaving multiple books in a series to sit for months or even years after I read one, and I want to change that.

We get to see their lives not long after the first book ended, with Dani and Mary and another character on a supply run. However, things don't go as expected. They're blown off the road by a group of Wardens and their insane tech, and have to be rescued by Gavin and his team, as well as Miles. Though this book isn't as action packed as the first book in the first half, the second half is total destruction, and that's what I love about this trilogy. The characters are everything I want from them and more, and there's really never a dull moment, even when they're simply training, or interacting with each other. I think my favourite might be Oliver, or maybe Hattie, aside from Dani of course.

So in the last one, we saw the armies, one military and one scavenger, come together and take back Portland, and set their eyes on Boston next, even though it's pretty far from them, and there's a whole other area between them. But Dani knows what she needs, especially when things take a turn for the worse, and a kidnapping takes place that forces her hand. I loved the amount of work that was written into the story, not only from Dani, but the rest of the team as well, and the life that was woven in between the annihilation that happens. It really sucked me into the story, and I knew once I picked it up that even though I was debating reading something in between the first and second books, that I wouldn't be able to do that.

Overall, if you're looking for something insanely exciting and action packed, as well as emotional and just really well put together, than you should pick up this trilogy next. Of course I love aliens and destruction, so this was easily one of my new favourites. But I think even if you don't exactly love those things, and are just looking for an action packed book to pick up, I definitely think you should give these a chance.

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This is the sequel to Echoes of War and it is a fun, action packed and suspenseful follow up. Dani is an Echoe with regen capabilities, that basically means that her body can regenerate to a former state in most cases if death comes her way. This strong and capable protagonist is not a typical Echoe, in fact she fights alongside humans against other Echoes called Wardens. And this is where the story gets intense because the main antagonist is so evil and will literally do whatever it takes to get his hands on Dani. I recommend this if your interested in a unique scifi story that will keep you entertained! Also, thank you to Netgalley for this Advanced Readers Copy. Echoes of Darkness comes out October 5th, 2020.

I am very torn on this series. I have a lot of problems with how protagonist Dani's relationships are handled. The antagonists are not very good, especially with regards to the big bad, Rowan. I don't get why he's so obsessed with Dani, but I honestly don't care. That said, the pacing is slightly better, and the action scenes, particularly at the end of the book were great. There's very little world building, but there are some revelations that made me scratch my head.

So the big thing that made me pick this up is that Dani is billed as being LGBT, and the world that they live in definitely doesn't really care about saying a character is in the community. If characters are in same sex relationships, it just is and people move on, which is great! Yet, Dani is the lead, and her relationship with Mary is probably going to be important in the third book, but I was very, very frustrated with the fact that Dani never got to explore her feelings for Mary the way she got to with Gavin and Miles. Dani realizes that she is attracted to Mary (I mean, who wouldn't be in some way), acts on it by kissing her, then their truck gets blown up. She's drugged and then she jumps on Miles and proclaims her love for him. Mary then shoots her down with the line, "I am sorry for confusing you," which is actually made me wince. Mary, who is the most emotionally mature of the whole caste beyond the teenaged Oliver, throws out a very homophobic line. I wish she would have said, "I am sorry for leading you on," or something to that effect. It felt very out of character. Not the backing out of the relationship - Mary seems to be very careful about who she opens up to, so I get it, but whoo boy, that line upset me, on top of how quickly that relationship seemed to be shut down. That said, I do have a feeling that Mary is going to become more important to Dani in the 3rd book, as she is, like the first book, the character that seems to have the more intimate scenes with Dani, even in more subtle ways. Miles has his moments, like when he keeps Dani from completely reverting and losing all her memories by talking her through her regeneration phase when she dies, but Mary, along with Oliver, are Dani's emotional rocks.

I know I talked a lot about Dani's relationships, but they are the bedrock of the book. Though we know the greater world is at war, Dani's actions move the plot along. Rowan - the bigoted Echo - is obsessed with Dani, to the point that he allows a stronghold to be taken while he is off on his own vendetta. The best part of the book is when he kidnaps Oliver and Dani and crew drops everything to go get him back. The whole last 80 or so pages showcases how Dani and her crew use their skills. It was fun, nail biting, and emotional. The stakes were small compared to the action going on around them, but because she was so invested in Oliver, it felt so big. Which is great.

There are still some weirdly placed revelations, like the addition of a new group of beings called "the Ancients", which I hope get addressed in the third book. There's some fairly predictable political upheavals with the leaderships of both the Echoes and the humans, but they weren't that important to this book, so it wasn't that interesting to me.

I'll wrap this up then. This series has a lot of highs and lows. It has some great action scenes, and Dani is a fun protagonist, but there are a lot of lovely ideas that have, so far, been left on the table. Some of the side characters are great. I still love Aunt Hattie and Mary, and Oliver is fine. The villains are weak, and I hope the shakeup at the end of the book helps strengthen them. If you like an action science fiction with a blazing pace, this is for you. If you're coming here because Dani is billed as LGBT, you might get frustrated with that.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Echoes of Darkness is a solid entrant into the pretty packed genre of post-apocalyptic SF. Campbell does a nice job of differentiating her protagonists and supporting cast; at no point did it feel like they were cookie-cutter characters that could replace each other with no hiccups. However, with a genre this full, a novel needs to do something truly outstanding to rise above, and, while this was a fine read, it wasn't anything you couldn't piece together from other bits and pieces of novels. I hadn't read the first in the series (it didn't seem to matter; Campbell does do a nice job of quickly catching the reader up to speed), but I don't think I'll go back for it. If this genre is your cup of tea, you'd probably enjoy Echoes of Darkness. Otherwise, your time is better spent on a more stand-out novel.

Action packed read with a strong bad ass main character in Dani. I haven't read the first book in this series but was able to still catch up to the story line. I liked Dani and how she didn't take any crap from anyone as well as her love of her dog Brody.

This wasn't my favorite read but if you are looking for a action filled storyline this book is a good book
for action with not a lot of depth in storyline.

I thought that the action was great and so was the story. As a lesbian, I am not into bisexual stories, and that’s what this is so it’s not my cup of tea and I can’t see myself going any further in the series. But, nice job on the story itself, it kept me engaged.

A surprisingly good read, especially humors from chapter to chapter. Dani is a relatable character and not at all the usual female characters usually presented in YA (beautiful, deadly etc), it's quite refreshing to see that.
And it has some witty, sarcastic characters AND SIDE CHARACTERS (CUE MARY) AND PLENTY ACTIONS

I read this book without knowing this is the second book of a trilogy, and was a decent read overall.