Encoded

by T.W. Talent

Memories are everything. 

Alex needs the knowledge in his head to avoid getting caught committing various cyber crimes and to keep on the move, or else he will suffer at the mercy of the Security Office that holds sway over the city. 

Getting his memories swapped with security guard Tristan's after an accident with an outdated memory scanner is the absolute worst thing that could happen. Horrified, furious, and moments away from getting caught and arrested, Alex makes the snap decision to take Tristan with him to search for a solution. Together, they escape the scene of Alex's crime, their swapped memories swirling together as they go. 

Keeping Tristan at arm's length is hard enough as their memories mix. Being around a stranger who instantly knows you--and many of your faults--better than most of your friends do is unsettling. Alex hates it. He hates Tristan. But the more time they spend together, working toward fixing their memories and learning more about each other while they do, the more Alex finds himself growing attached. 

By the time Alex and Tristan put their memories back where they belong, they may have so many shared ones that leaving each other behind is impossible.

But a hacker and an officer of the security forces?

Together?

That's impossible.

Isn't it? 

A cyberpunk M/M romance.

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 30, 2019

About the author

T.W. Talent has been writing since the time he was old enough to read his own work, and has continued through the decades and fandoms that have followed. He wrote his first fanfiction at the age of 12, after voraciously consuming several novels about a certain boy wizard; his original fiction goes back even earlier to serial melodramatic romance written by hand on reams of scratch paper. His latest stint of writing resumed in 2012 with a piece of well-timed writing advice and his discovery of anime and thus far shows no signs of stopping. When he's not wearing the letters off every keyboard he touches, he's cuddling with his cats, debating the finer points of media analysis with his partner, and doing his best to replace all the water in his body with Earl Grey tea.

Reviews

[Ashley D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex is working under cover against the Security, when he has his memory scanned by a faulty memory scanner held by Tristan. Tristan has always been an upstanding citizen, but when his some of his memories get switched with Alex's memories, he learns about a different side of the world they live in.

Alex was mean at the beginning and towards the middle of the book, but you could slowly start to see that he was using his meanness as a shield to hide his attraction to Tristan. Tristan is really naïve throughout the book, but you can see him trying to understand Alex's point of view, even if he doesn't really understand. It took a bit more me to get into the book, the first 25% was hard to get through but once it got past that 25% mark, the pace picks up and all the pieces start to slot in place. Overall, it was an interesting story and the author had a great way of using prose to describe things.