ECHO CYCLE

RELEASED 10 MARCH 336 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author Patrick Edwards

Publisher Titan Books

Patrick Edwards’s debut Ruin’s Wake was set in a totalitarian future ruled by a sinister global order. His second novel is also dystopian in nature, albeit taking place in a setting that’s much closer to home... Yes, this is a post-Brexit thriller, but one with an unusual timeslip twist as well.

Bullied by his peers on a trip to Rome, young Winston Monk flees into the night – and finds himself transported back to 68 CE. Life there is strange and difficult, and that’s even before he’s taken prisoner by the Emperor Nero.

Thousands of years later, one of Monk’s old school friends is working as an envoy to the European Confederacy, working to rebuild relations with Britain. But when he discovers Monk worse for wear and claiming to be a time traveller, things starts to unravel in a big way.

Edwards’s world-building isn’t subtle, but in the age of Boris Johnson’s premiership, it feels believable. The England described here is small and insular, full of old-boy bluster and delusional self-importance. But it’s the time travel aspect that really brings the novel to life. Monk isn’t always the most likeable of protagonists, but his earthy narration makes the madness of his life in Rome feel tangibly real.

The result is a strange collision of tones and settings that perhaps shouldn’t work, but which add up to a compelling whole. Will Salmon