Echo Cycle
Author: Patrick Edwards
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 10/3/2020
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9781785658815
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
If I remember correctly, Snake Plissken said this first in Escape From New York: "The more things change the more they stay the same," hinting at humans not liking change even if they are in a dystopian future. The more we seem to progress technologically, the faster we plunge into it and we resent the rate we do.
Patrick Edwards shows us two times, a possible past and a possible future. On the one hand, the story concentrates on Lindon Banks, a British envoy who tries to help forge a link back to Europe after Brexit has happened and the UK has been plunged into austerity for over four decades.
The secondary story is of former school chum, Winston Monk who suffers ridicule over his sexuality at public school goes on a trip to Rome where he thinks he has killed a school friend one night and the next finds he has been transported back in time to ancient Rome.
In this era Monk unwittingly kills the emperor Nero and is brought into the politics of old Rome with the thought of what kind of ruler will take his place, hinting at whether history will repeat itself in the future with Brexit. Edwards has carved out a possible dystopian future dependant on your viewpoint.
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