Echo Series by Kent Wayne

I got liked by DirtyScifiBuddha who has written the Echo Series,check out his bio Here.Unfortunately I couldn’t find much about this series and I couldn’t read it so I relied mostly off other sites.

Echo Series

Approaching Shatter#1

More than a thousand years before the action of this book, the earth was abandoned because of environmental degradation, and humanity settled on the earth-like planet of Echo. Echo has stagnated, its citizens living under the autocracy of the Regime. There is perpetual civil war with the Dissidents. The military is highly developed, with specialized, lethal weapons. Additionally, its soldiers are also specialized and are offered enhancements.

One of those soldiers is Atriya, a member of the elite Crusaders unit. He trains for fun. The reader is told about Atriya:

“He embraced the pain. In a way, he was addicted to it. Not the pain itself, but the validation it gave him.”

One day, as he is out running, he comes across a Crusader (or “Crew”) Selection class. Part of the class is punishing those who fall behind (“stragglers”) with severe physical abuse and humiliation. The instructor, Clement (hmmm… an odd name for a character in that job….), recognizes Atriya as “Crew” and asks if he’d like to join in the abuse.

The ritual is nothing new to Atriya, but he finds himself unable to take part.

The Taste of Ashes#2

Most of us change gradually—over the course of decades. For Crusader Atriya, it will happen in a single, agonizing day. On the edge of a decaying cityscape, Atriya struggles to hold onto his identity as he faces death from both enemies and allies alike. In the process, his old self is torn away, and he catches a glimpse of what he may one day become. Twelve hundred years ago, humanity left Earth to settle on Echo. Despite hopes for a golden age, an era of darkness fell. Government and corporations merged into the Regime. The military and police merged into the Department of Enforcement. Over half the planet is covered by crumbling cityscapes and the elite live high above, removed and remote from the greater populace on the moon-city of Ascension. Hope lies in Atriya, but before he can break the cycle of darkness and ignorance on Echo, he has to do it within himself.

The Dialectic of Agony#3

This is an amazing book by Kent Wayne. It’s about the trials and tribulations encountered by the protagonist, Atriya, who is a Crusader, working for the Enforcement Department, in order to survive in an oppressive regime. The story begins with a glance into the near future when humans left the earth to settle in a similar planet, Echo.

Since then, business and government have come together to form the regime, often known as the Regime. The military and the police are now combined into the Department of Enforcement. For millennia, a conflict has existed between the Regime and the rebels known as the Dissidents.

The Moon City of Ascension, a futuristic metropolis,adorned with spectacular architecture is home to society’s elite. Buildings branch and whirl like vines and trees on Ascension.

These creations would not be able to stand without the aid of a gravity-manipulating device known as the Gravity Artifice. The majority of inhabitants on Echo are employed in energy refineries and live in the six biggest cities on the planet. Crime, hardship, and despair are rampant throughout the scapes. These megalopolises are encircled by The Wastes, enormous tracts of desolate terrain. The Wastes is populated by a large number of cannibals and scavengers and represents humanity’s return to its prehistoric roots. Within the Department of Enforcement, there is a top-tier soldier-police organisation called The Crusaders. Crusaders have a linkup, a piece of cybernetic apparatus. An operator’s ability to engage in combat is significantly increased by the device that attaches to their spine. Crusaders fight their enemy while doing acrobatic manoeuvres across the battlefield, unlike conventional warriors.

A Jury member is cruelly crippled in Volume 1 by Crusader Kishchan Atriya, who practises an extreme form of Orthodoxy, Echo’s dominant religion. His mentor and master of hand-to-hand combat, Verus, heals his wounds using a magical energy she refers to as kaia. She tells Atriya that Mandala City, a purported Dissident bastion that has evaded the Regime for decades, is where she developed this skill. Atriya’s altercation with the Jury has consequences, and he must decide whether to volunteer for a Specter mission into Cityscape 4, a deadly hub of Dissident activity, or work for the man he injured and will undoubtedly try to kill.

He gets designated as the lead Crusader on a raid into Cityscape 87 before he has a chance to decide whether to accept or reject this mission. He learns shortly after the briefing on the raid that the officers in charge of the assault are actually Jury, and they have plans to kill him there. Atriya, who is now seriously hurt, accepts the mission in Cityscape 4. Atriya is weak after his narrow escape from a certain death in Cityscape 87.

The Last Edge of Darkness#4

I couldn’t really find anything for volume 4 but you can read a sample Here