Danie Ware is quite well-known to London geek community, firstly through her work at Forbidden Planet, and more recently as an author. Here is someone who is clearly a fan of sci-fi/fantasy and who has put her knowledge of the genre to good use. Her first novel, Ecko Rising, is something of an anomaly. What starts out as a London-set dystopian, cyber-punk, noir thriller suddenly transmogrifies into a fantasy with centaurs, mythological battles and flying pubs.

What initially feels like an author starting with an idea, running out of puff and switching tack, is actually a very clever story device because the whole time we are kept guessing as to whether this fantasy world is, in fact, just that – a fantasy, which is the dilemma our protagonist Ecko is facing. It's a world that seems "real" enough, and has a strong mythology and history of its own, but with just a bit too much magic for pragmatic, pyromaniac Ecko. 

Ware keeps the story moving along at a great pace, with lots of different threads being pulled together, and it works really well as an audiobook, brought to life with fantastic narration and voice characterisations by Peter Noble. It is a long story, at nearly 19 hours, and at times does go into too much detail (something Neal Stephenson and the later Harry Potter books have a tendency to do as well), in particular a couple of sex scenes were way too long, and aren't quite as easy to skip on audiobook as they are with the printed word (or e-books). One does suspect that the editors are as much to blame as the author, as it is their job rein in the writer's excesses, especially new authors. In the case of Rowling, her early books were concise, while the later ones tending towards the rambling with way too much back story (the literary equivalent of flashbacks).

Although, one suspects the publishers may have been wary of wanting to upset their golden goose, knowing that whatever she wrote, her adoring fans would devour voraciously, much like the acres of forests were for the paper to print them. One other niggle, and this may have been more apparent on the audiobook, was the excessive use of the words adrenals/adrenaline. A thesaurus may not give many, if any, alternative words, but a good writer would at least attempt to find other ways to express the idea of becoming energised in a stressful fight-or-flight situation.

Nevertheless, the story of the anti-hero Ecko, is a good listen, and clearly popular enough to get a sequel to further explore these worlds.

Ecko Rising by Danie Ware is available in audiobook from Audible for £22.99, or cheaper through their subscription plans. We have a copy to give away courtesy of audible.co.uk.

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