Cloning is a common science fiction idea. Every book based on this theme finishes with its author’s own flavour. It is additionally an idea that has developed over the years as innovation and society have changed. In The Echo Wife, Sarah Gailey‘s interesting interpretation of cloning has combined with sharp writing style to make a story that is both provocative and cautionary.
The Echo Wife is an amazingly character-driven story (which I do not know I have ever said about a story with so few characters). It is told from Evelyn’s point of view as scientist and spurned ex-wife. I pointed out those different sides of her character, since that are the most compelling pieces of the story. Watching Evelyn sway between the award-winning and insightful scientist and bitter jilted lover, with lots of space for darkness as the different sides tend to overlap when the lines begin to blur. The 2nd important character of the book is Martine, Evelyn’s clone made by her ex, Nathan, to be the loving, respectful, actually faultless version of a spouse he generally dreamed for.
Martine, as well, has a conflict in her mind. She spends a large part of the book attempting to maintain the ideal spouse exterior she was made to be, while at the same time finding herself. This, obviously, comes with all the baggage one may anticipate. The things got heated when Nathan is discovered dead. The two ladies are constrained into exceptionally disastrous conditions. They are left attempting to figure how to deal with the circumstance and manage the approaching drama. I am not going to get into the plot any further in light of the fact that there are numerous surprises along the way, and I don’t wish to destroy it for you. Simply know it is amazingly entertaining.
I likewise discovered The Echo Wife to be very thematic, as books of this nature tend to be. There is the typical and not-so-subtle warning about the quick movement of unchecked innovation and the results we may reap as a result of it. The most articulated subject in the book, however, is agency – whether made clones ought to reserve the option to settle on their own decisions. This is a theme I have seen introduced in numerous science fiction stories as it relates to sentient AI. However, clones are unique. Clones are not made of metal and wire; they are developed from organic cells that mimic our own. They grow, need food to survive and have sentiments. Will it be advisable for us to have the option to make human clones and condition them to comply? Also, what happens when they don’t? There are tons of good and moral issues at play, and, I love books that make me think about these subjects.
The Echo Wife is a well written, sci-fi novel with a story that is striking and ominous now and again. There are a lot of amazements in the book, also, that keep the interest going completely through. I suggest it to enthusiasts of science fiction.
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