A Review of Morgan Rhodes’ “Echoes and Empires”
Pure Magic
I’ve probably written about this before, but I have a little bit of a soft spot for young adult (or YA) fiction if it’s done well. There’s something about a story for the sake of a story and pure escapism that draws me to titles such as Echoes and Empires by Canadian author Morgan Rhodes. Not that I don’t mind literary fireworks from time to time but sometimes you just want an easy read. I used to look at adults who read things such as the Harry Potter series with some disdain (I read the first Harry Potter book and I wasn’t too impressed) but I figure now that if people are reading and buying books, any books, it’s all cool. In any event, Echoes and Empires delivers what it was supposed to deliver: tell an engaging story. And it’s the sort of thing that feels more “adulty” than fiction for teenagers, but I’ll get to that in more detail in a moment or two. If you’re looking for a good read to park your brain for a few hours, this YA novel more than does the (magic) trick.
Echoes and Empires tells the story of 17-year-old Josslyn Drake, who is sort of a VIP in the world that this story is set. When we’re introduced to her, she’s attending an annual royal gala hosted by the Queen of the empire she lives in — which is a challenge because her father, the former prime minister, was assassinated at the very same gala event a year prior. As it would turn out, magic exists in this world — but it is viewed as being evil and merely possessing any sort of ability in this dark art is punishable by death. And that’s a problem for Josslyn because she walks in on a theft in one of the Queen’s palace’s rooms, and a magic item is opened up and the contents enter her. Not long after, the thief — a smart-ass 19-year-old named Jericho Nox — kidnaps Josslyn because he needs to get the magic out of her so he can deliver it to his client. Turns out that the magic is memory magic — meaning that it allows the user to see memories belonging to another person — and the magic belongs to the man, a major enemy of the state, believed to have killed her father. Thus, Josslyn and Jericho agree on one thing: the magic needs to be gone, especially if Josslyn wants to keep her life. To extract the magic, however, Josslyn and Jericho will need to enter a prison named the Queen’s Keep to visit a powerful warlock who can do just that. But, as they say, complications ensue and there are double-crosses to be had, and things don’t quite go the way they were planned.
There is a fair bit of plotting to this book, which is a good thing because it keeps the story moving — avoiding the problem of having things slow down to a crawl. There’s tons of action and adventure and a bit of fantasy magic — even though the story is set in modern times (people use cellphones). You can also sprinkle in — mild spoiler alert — a little bit of unexpected romance in this story, too. When you boil things down to essentials, this is just a YA fantasy version of the classic movie It Happened One Night. What makes this book amusing, though, is the witty repartee between Josslyn and Jericho, which has echoes of 1930s style screwball comedy. The pair clearly hate each other’s guts at first, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that Jericho’s sarcasm is just a way of protecting himself from terrible things that have happened to him. Both Josslyn and Jericho are a bit unlikeable at first, but they grow on you as they change and mature. They make this book, well, magical.
However, don’t think about the plot all that much — it might make your head explode. For one thing, the book never adequately explains how witches and warlocks can be imprisoned within the Queen’s Keep without having the means to escape. After all, if you have magic and the people guarding you have only knives and guns, wouldn’t the magic win out? Plus, it turns out that you’re going to invest more of your time reading another book to find out how things resolve. Echoes and Empires is part of a proposed duology, meaning that the novel ends on a massive cliffhanger — with more questions open than answered. It should also be noted that for something that is aimed at readers aged 12 and up (on the publisher’s recommendation), it should be a very mature 12-year-old reading this book. There are swear words employed generously — though the f-word is never used — and there is a fair bit of alcohol abuse (including underage drinking) in the novel. A lot of attention is dwelt with on the male chest, and the novel’s one romantic scene is a bit of the mushy side as well, so this is probably a book that is aimed more at teenaged girls than boys. Still, those are not defects and actually might make the book appealing to some adults who like their fiction to be slightly coarse, but not too coarse.
At the end of the day, Echoes and Empires is an enjoyable book — and certainly leaves you wanting to know how things turn out in the sequel. The engaging characters and zip of the prose, along with the various plot twists, will leave you breathless. This is simply a good tale well told, even if it, at times, doesn’t make a lot of sense (leading one to assume that things such as character motivation will get an airing in Book Two). Echoes and Empires is a magical rollercoaster that adults can step into and be transported away from the ills of the modern world. I’m sure that some older teenagers will get a kick out of this book, too. All in all, Echoes and Empires does have its liabilities, and some parts of the book feel like it was thought up on the spot just to paint characters into a corner, but this is just an exciting, engaging read. The pages are bound to flip fast and furious on this one, so dive in and devour this delightful mash-up of the fantastic and the modern. It even doesn’t matter if you’re over the age of 18 — if you like a decent book that doesn’t try too hard to impress you with big words and complex sentences, this will do.
Morgan Rhodes’ Echoes and Empires will be published by Razorbill on January 4, 2022.
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Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
