Liked this a lot more on the second time reading it, maybe bacause the unlikeable characters didn't bother me as much this time around. These books might also just benefit from being read multiple times.
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Original review:
Three stars for a book that had the most misleading synopsis on the back cover I've read in a while. I get that you don't want to give away too much in a book like this, but creating completely false expectations for the reader shouldn't be the end result either.

I do think that Smythe is a good author, but when you are good at creating annoying characters, the book overall reads really whiny. I would have gotten more out of this had I felt more sympathy toward a single character in the story. Now I just kept going in the vague hope that the ending would be better than the ending of The Explorer (spoiler: it isn't.)

Still, I do hope Smythe keeps going with the series, if only just to find out if there's an actual end game to all this ( )

Spoiler. Twin brothers fund a space program and one crews the ship to investigate what happened to the Ishiguro (in the previous novel), with the knowledge that one of the missing crew taught them about the anomaly. As in the previous story, some crew die enroute, and the remaining crew station their ship beside the anomaly to witness the Ishiguro caught inside...one becomes trapped inside the anomaly from a spacewalk and gets caught in a time loop, before half the ship gets trapped there, and finally the lone twin decides to fly right in, following what he believes to be a message from his brother, only to discover a copy of his own abandoned ship...and discovers a light coming from the anomaly itself.... ( )

I got this book as part of Goodreads first read programmes. I was initially drawn to by the cover which is reminiscent of the film Gravity which I had just enjoyed.

I didn't at that stage realise it was part two but it is easily read as a standalone story and in some ways is better for that.

It tells the story of twin brothers Tomas and Mira who build a space-ship to attempt to discover what happened twenty years ago to the space-ship Ishiguro which disappeared while exploring an unknown area of space known as the anomaly.

As they travel closer it becomes clear that things may not be what they seem.

Spotting the missing ship in the anomaly is where the story really develops and as the crew die Mira begins to lose his perspective.

If I'd read the first book it would have been more obvious what was happening but reading this one blind meant the terrible happenings were fresh and new to me.

If you are a fan of Star Trek then this is for you. ( )

Twenty years after the disastrous mission to interstellar space described in The Explorer, a pair of Swedish twins organise a second mission. This flight’s purpose is to investigate the “anomaly”, a “blackness of space” thought to be the cause of the loss of the previous mission. This new spacecraft, Lära, however, is not as “Hollywood” as the previous one, it’s smaller and much more compactly designed (although it still has room between the outer hull and the walls of the inner chambers for a member of the crew to hide). One of the twins, Mira, is leader of the expedition aboard the spacecraft, the other twin, Tomas, remains on Earth at mission control. The Echo is told entirely from Mira’s point of view, and this is stuff Smythe does really well. I’m still not convinced by his spacecraft (it’s unlikely, for example the twins would have had to invent a thruster system as all present-day spacecraft have used reaction control systems for close manoeuvring for decades) – or indeed some of the science in the book – but there’s an increasing level of creepiness as the novel progresses and that’s where the novel shines. It’s not just the anomaly itself – the title of the book pretty much signals what the crew of the Lära find when they arrive at it – but Mira himself and his thoughts and relationship with his twin brother, and the way he deals with the deaths of Lära’s crew. I think I could have done with a little more verisimilitude, something that nailed down the tech and science, but that’s a personal preference (and, to be fair, no one is selling The Echo on its scientific credentials, unlike the not-as-scientifically-correct-as-advertised The Martian (and that’s a completely unfair comparison anyway, because Smythe is a very good writer and Weir is a shit writer)). The Explorer and The Echo form the first half of the Anomaly Quartet, and I’m very much intrigued to see what the next two books will do. ( )

I have a soft spot for introspective/psychological disaster novels in space. I picked this up purely as a sequel to [The Explorer], so wasn't entirely sure whether it would tread the same path - the title is suggestive, after all - and ended up enjoying it slightly more than the first novel.

The ill-fated Ishiguro mission set space exploration back decades. Years later, the Hyvonen twins achieve the funding and the mandate to retrace the failed mission's footsteps in order to discover the nature of the Anomaly, which appears to be moving closer to Earth.

If The Explorer was framed as a disaster novel from the start, The Echo is initially framed as research. Mira Hyvonen, our narrator, is highly critical of the previous mission and proud of the scientific rigour and efficiency he and his brother have brought to the new project. They will Do Science and change our understanding of the universe. Hubris is a fine thing.

The Echo becomes a study of Mirakel Hyvonen and his fractured relationship with his shadow self Tomas, who runs ground control as Mira and the crew head deep into space. Tomas can spy on everything on board and override any system (Smythe waves an undefined Magic Engineering wand).

Perched on the edge of the Anomaly, the Ishiguro drifting in front of them, are the crew right to trust Tomas and his motives when he is sat safe at home? Is Mira an echo of Tomas or a clearly-defined strong man in his own right?

There can be no closure here - there will be two more Anomaly books - just a further look into the Anomaly and a flirtation with what it may mean if it reached Earth (which is properly daunting, as are the ethical dilemmas faced by the Hyvonens in confronting it).

However, I can't help but feel the third novel will need to break some (significant) new ground to keep this series going. ( )