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Code
Sometimes the end is where the story starts.
September 1986
Martin Clarke is a young man pursuing his dream of becoming a police constable. He has the world at his feet, already earning a reputation for his brutally high standards. Wanting to make his city a better place is the one and only calling he has ever set his sights on.
Freddy McArther is Martin's polar opposite. He prefers spending his time on gadgets and computers rather than with people. Always the square peg in a round hole, never able to fit in with social gatherings. Always seen as an outsider by those around him.
After a chance meeting, destiny brings these two men together. They quickly become friends. Then their lives are thrown into chaos with the arrival of a mysterious girl who will change everything for them. A girl who will become known as Alice.
Can the unlikely bond between these three strangers be enough to change not only the future, but also Alice’s past?
September 1986
Martin Clarke is a young man pursuing his dream of becoming a police constable. He has the world at his feet, already earning a reputation for his brutally high standards. Wanting to make his city a better place is the one and only calling he has ever set his sights on.
Freddy McArther is Martin's polar opposite. He prefers spending his time on gadgets and computers rather than with people. Always the square peg in a round hole, never able to fit in with social gatherings. Always seen as an outsider by those around him.
After a chance meeting, destiny brings these two men together. They quickly become friends. Then their lives are thrown into chaos with the arrival of a mysterious girl who will change everything for them. A girl who will become known as Alice.
Can the unlikely bond between these three strangers be enough to change not only the future, but also Alice’s past?
286 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 24, 2020
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
R.C. Glenn
5 books6 followersCurrently living in Leeds. Work full time in transport industry. I write in my spare time. I like a variety of genres and try to bring them all to my own work. I class the Echo series as a paranormal thriller with a sci-fi twist.
I live with my family and have no pets.
I live with my family and have no pets.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 19, 2020
Richard Glenn created a phenomenal storyline. Unique in every detail, it held my rapt attention. With the aid of a strong cast of supporting characters, Chloe, the main protagonist was well drawn. The eerie tale gained momentum with every passing scene. Buckle up your seat belt for a stunning ending.
The narrative took me on an epic journey, one sure to leave a lasting impression. Life was about to become shattered with the introduction of a psychic roller-coaster ride. A supernatural awakening is destined to visit the city, Leeds, England. If you live there, heed this warning.
Sixteen-year old, Chloe, was the driving force behind the suspenseful plot. Transported decades back in time, she found no escape from within a city that held her prisoner. A mysterious invisible force prevented her escape. In plain sight and to no one's awareness, she wandered the streets. Alone. That was soon to change.
With this second in a series, the author laid down compelling groundwork for upcoming installments. I look forward to finding where the mysterious tale will take me. This book comes recommended.
The narrative took me on an epic journey, one sure to leave a lasting impression. Life was about to become shattered with the introduction of a psychic roller-coaster ride. A supernatural awakening is destined to visit the city, Leeds, England. If you live there, heed this warning.
Sixteen-year old, Chloe, was the driving force behind the suspenseful plot. Transported decades back in time, she found no escape from within a city that held her prisoner. A mysterious invisible force prevented her escape. In plain sight and to no one's awareness, she wandered the streets. Alone. That was soon to change.
With this second in a series, the author laid down compelling groundwork for upcoming installments. I look forward to finding where the mysterious tale will take me. This book comes recommended.
September 16, 2020
This book series is absolutely amazing. The writing is excellent, it has paranormal and sci-fi elements, it has timetravel, the hero-to-villain trope, and something pretty important to me personally, great autism representation. Also, did I mention that Chloe is a ghost?
Code is the second book in the Echo quartet written by indie author R.C. Glenn, also known as Richard Glenn. This book takes place in 1986, compared to the first book taking place in 2018, but is a direct sequel both in the series and storywise, but it’s also a prequel in way, as it shows the protagonist’s future, aswell as the antagonist’s past. It may sound super confusing, because timetravel always is, but it all makes easy sense when reading this series.*
Content warnings: Ableism, assault/violence, (attempted) murder, kidnapping of a child, stalking, suicidal thoughts. General warning as it’s horror/thriller.
The plot of this book was amazingly good. Time-travel stories with continuity, especially ones going back to the past, are extremely hard to write and Richard Glenn pulled it off.
The pacing of this sequel was very different than the first book, but that wasn’t bothersome. In fact, it fit the narrative. The main character gets transported over three decades in the past and this books takes it’s time to explore the new surroundings and the new people, but also where the main character is fitting within all that, so it makes sense to be a bit slower than where book one left off.
Like I mentioned above, there are a lot of new people in this book as it takes place 32 years in the past. Aside from Chloe, the main protagonist from book one, the main characters of Code are Martin and Freddy. They are the 21 and 18 year old versions of the side characters you meet in book one. I really like how in this sequel you get to know more about these two characters and what their connection and role into the events of book one exactly were. It’s a great way of story telling and prevents things from becoming monotonous.
It’s hard to explain without sounding a bit… I don’t know, flat, but I really loved how each character in this series really has their own personality, their own morale, their own sets of dreams and fears. And though there are plenty of similarities, they are their own people. So, when going in this book, I was still very used to the cast of the first book, but Martin and Freddy quickly grew on me, because of this.
I am really impressed by how well R.C. Glenn can write and how it just keeps you hooked onto the story. I read the first book in the middle of a horrible reading slump and I binge read it in just two or three days time. This same spark flew over into Code and the writing was even better. Everytime I opened the book, I just wanted to keep reading. I was really busy during the days I read this book and it wasn’t fun that I had to put it down everytime.
There are a lot of great authors out there that can write amazingly, but R.C. Glenn is definitely among my favourites writing wise. The way he does his worldbuilding, creates his characters and just the flow of the story, it just feels right. It isn’t overly complicated, or trying to be poetic or anything more than it needs to be. It hits the right spot reading wise, which is the best I can describe that as, so you just need to trust me on that.
Last but not least, let’s get into a part of this book that’s important, both to me personally and in general: the autism representation. There are sadly not a lot of books with autistic characters, and often those books don’t properly represent autism, or they’re books about autism or the struggles autism creates (for the people around the autistic character). So, when I read this book with a plot unrelated to autism with an amazingly written autistic character, I couldn’t contain my happiness. I go a little more in depth about this in my reading vlog (link at the end of this review), but I wanted to address that Freddy is an amazing character and though this book shows his struggles in the neurotypical world, years before autism was even a widely known thing, it also shows that the only issues around autism and autistic people are usually ones created by others. Freddy’s friends and family adapted to how he behaved, and even though they didn’t always understand him or found him a bit strange, it was okay as it was just part of who he was and they loved him anyway. Freddy’s character also shows the strengths of autism, the different ways of seeing the world and how autistic people are just different and not less. Even though it was not written by an autistic person, I consider Freddy McArther amazing autism representation and just for that this book is already worth reading.
I highly recommend this series to everyone. It’s eerie, it’s thrilling, it keeps you on your toes with all the mystery and time travel, it has great autism representation, and top of that, it has the best hero-to-villain arc I have read so far, even though it just started to kick off properly towards the last third of the second book. But there are two more books left and I really can’t wait for book three, Glitch, of which the release date will soon be announced!
*Note from me: I promise you that the timetravel-aspects of this series are a lot less complicated than I make it seem like in this review. Everything is explained in the books properly and it happens in a way that’s easy to keep up with. Trying to summarise the relation of Code to the first book in a sentence or two without major spoilers just proved to be more difficult than expected. Same goes for explaining about the main cast.
Read more reviews on my blog:
https://servillasspeaks.wordpress.com
Code is the second book in the Echo quartet written by indie author R.C. Glenn, also known as Richard Glenn. This book takes place in 1986, compared to the first book taking place in 2018, but is a direct sequel both in the series and storywise, but it’s also a prequel in way, as it shows the protagonist’s future, aswell as the antagonist’s past. It may sound super confusing, because timetravel always is, but it all makes easy sense when reading this series.*
Content warnings: Ableism, assault/violence, (attempted) murder, kidnapping of a child, stalking, suicidal thoughts. General warning as it’s horror/thriller.
The plot of this book was amazingly good. Time-travel stories with continuity, especially ones going back to the past, are extremely hard to write and Richard Glenn pulled it off.
The pacing of this sequel was very different than the first book, but that wasn’t bothersome. In fact, it fit the narrative. The main character gets transported over three decades in the past and this books takes it’s time to explore the new surroundings and the new people, but also where the main character is fitting within all that, so it makes sense to be a bit slower than where book one left off.
Like I mentioned above, there are a lot of new people in this book as it takes place 32 years in the past. Aside from Chloe, the main protagonist from book one, the main characters of Code are Martin and Freddy. They are the 21 and 18 year old versions of the side characters you meet in book one. I really like how in this sequel you get to know more about these two characters and what their connection and role into the events of book one exactly were. It’s a great way of story telling and prevents things from becoming monotonous.
It’s hard to explain without sounding a bit… I don’t know, flat, but I really loved how each character in this series really has their own personality, their own morale, their own sets of dreams and fears. And though there are plenty of similarities, they are their own people. So, when going in this book, I was still very used to the cast of the first book, but Martin and Freddy quickly grew on me, because of this.
I am really impressed by how well R.C. Glenn can write and how it just keeps you hooked onto the story. I read the first book in the middle of a horrible reading slump and I binge read it in just two or three days time. This same spark flew over into Code and the writing was even better. Everytime I opened the book, I just wanted to keep reading. I was really busy during the days I read this book and it wasn’t fun that I had to put it down everytime.
There are a lot of great authors out there that can write amazingly, but R.C. Glenn is definitely among my favourites writing wise. The way he does his worldbuilding, creates his characters and just the flow of the story, it just feels right. It isn’t overly complicated, or trying to be poetic or anything more than it needs to be. It hits the right spot reading wise, which is the best I can describe that as, so you just need to trust me on that.
Last but not least, let’s get into a part of this book that’s important, both to me personally and in general: the autism representation. There are sadly not a lot of books with autistic characters, and often those books don’t properly represent autism, or they’re books about autism or the struggles autism creates (for the people around the autistic character). So, when I read this book with a plot unrelated to autism with an amazingly written autistic character, I couldn’t contain my happiness. I go a little more in depth about this in my reading vlog (link at the end of this review), but I wanted to address that Freddy is an amazing character and though this book shows his struggles in the neurotypical world, years before autism was even a widely known thing, it also shows that the only issues around autism and autistic people are usually ones created by others. Freddy’s friends and family adapted to how he behaved, and even though they didn’t always understand him or found him a bit strange, it was okay as it was just part of who he was and they loved him anyway. Freddy’s character also shows the strengths of autism, the different ways of seeing the world and how autistic people are just different and not less. Even though it was not written by an autistic person, I consider Freddy McArther amazing autism representation and just for that this book is already worth reading.
I highly recommend this series to everyone. It’s eerie, it’s thrilling, it keeps you on your toes with all the mystery and time travel, it has great autism representation, and top of that, it has the best hero-to-villain arc I have read so far, even though it just started to kick off properly towards the last third of the second book. But there are two more books left and I really can’t wait for book three, Glitch, of which the release date will soon be announced!
*Note from me: I promise you that the timetravel-aspects of this series are a lot less complicated than I make it seem like in this review. Everything is explained in the books properly and it happens in a way that’s easy to keep up with. Trying to summarise the relation of Code to the first book in a sentence or two without major spoilers just proved to be more difficult than expected. Same goes for explaining about the main cast.
Read more reviews on my blog:
https://servillasspeaks.wordpress.com
April 7, 2020
Wow! I never knew which way to turn reading this book. Just when I thought I had figured out what was happening BOOM another twist was thrown into the mix. A pure rollercoaster ride and very cleverly written. Would highly recommend this author.
March 20, 2020
A great read. A continuation of the first book Echo but the story is set 30 years before the original. You get to know more about some of the characters who appear towards the end of Echo and learn a bit more about Alice and George's Café.
August 1, 2020
Richard Glenn has combined science fiction with horror. Ghosts and computer codes are intriguing and I found this book very interesting and difficult to put down. The story line was brilliant. It can be read as a standalone.
August 26, 2020
This was a fantastic paranormal fantasy read I very much enjoyed. 16 year Chloe, is the main character and i simply fell inlove with her. Although I must save that Alice is my favorite!! You need to read echo book 1 before reading code echo book two because this second part of the series really ties in to the first one nicely and smoothly. The ending of this is quite unexpected and it will have anyone guessing "where did that come from"?! Which leaves the author with plenty of wiggle room for the 3rd book! If you enjoy anything paranormal, supernatural or suspense fantasy than this is a great series for you.
December 17, 2020
I enjoyed this book better than the first in the series kept me gripped throughout and read in around 3 sittings. Plenty of twist in the book and a good bit of nostalgia as well, set in a time before social media. The story line was brilliant and comes highly recommended. I am excited to read the 3rd book in the series.
November 3, 2020
A good follow up to the first book. Learn more about characters from the first book while picking up and continuing where the first book left off. Some good twists too
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews