First published in 2006, Clifford Rutley’s “The Cycle” has returned in 2025 in a fully updated and revised edition, marking the beginning of a planned trilogy. This re-release is more than just a refreshed version of the book—it reintroduces a narrative that feels uncannily relevant to today’s world. Merging speculative fiction with philosophy, Rutley takes readers deep into questions of fate, free will, and the cycles that define our existence.
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In This Article:
Hue Franks: A Man Trapped in Loops
The story follows Hue Franks, a man weary of his existence, who wins the lottery after a seemingly chance encounter with a mysterious woman. From this deceptively ordinary starting point, the novel spirals into something far larger and stranger. Hue discovers he is a “vital”, someone whose decisions ripple through the universe, drawing him into conflict with two enigmatic figures: a mysterious East Asian woman who identifies as a Corrector, and a man named Jones, the Neutraliser. Both insist they know what Hue must do—but their motives remain as ambiguous as the looping reality that entraps him.
Hue’s voice, often raw and cynical, dominates the novel. Through his interior monologues, readers are pulled into the mind of a man at once desperate for meaning and exhausted by despair. His is not the heroic voice of a chosen one, but the fractured voice of someone questioning whether any choice truly matters.
A Tunnel That Leads Back to Ourselves
One of the novel’s most striking concepts is its reimagining of the “tunnel of light” so often described in near-death experiences. Where traditional accounts suggest a heavenly reward at the end of the tunnel, Clifford Rutley offers something far more haunting. At the tunnel’s end, Hue finds not paradise, but himself—forced to live his life all over again.
This cyclical vision reframes existence as a relentless return, an endless repetition rather than a journey toward peace. It is both a chilling and thought-provoking reworking of an archetypal image, setting “The Cycle” apart from other works of afterlife fiction.
Dark Themes, Difficult Questions
Suicide forms one of the novel’s recurring motifs, woven throughout as both literal attempts at escape and symbolic rejections of the endless loop. These moments can be difficult, but they are not gratuitous. Instead, they serve to underline Hue’s despair and Clifford Rutley’s determination to face life’s darkest questions without flinching.
Here, the novel presses into weighty dilemmas: If existence simply repeats, is change even possible? Does free will exist, or are we doomed to repeat patterns endlessly? And if escape is impossible, what does that mean for hope?
The Power of Repetition
Clifford Rutley builds these themes into the very structure of the novel. Events recur with subtle variations, dialogue loops back with altered meaning, and Hue’s narration mirrors the rhythm of circular thought. At times, this repetition can be frustrating, but it is also intentional. Readers are not just told about Hue’s entrapment; they are made to experience it.
This cyclical rhythm gives “The Cycle” a hypnotic quality, making it less a conventional narrative and more a philosophical immersion. It is a risk, but one that pays off for readers willing to surrender to the structure.
A Mirror of Contemporary Struggles
Although first written in 2006, the re-release in 2025 feels startlingly timely. Hue’s dissatisfaction with work, his mistrust of societal structures, and his exhaustion with modern life resonate powerfully in an age where conversations about mental health, burnout, and existential anxiety dominate public discourse.
This resonance places Clifford Rutley’s novel in conversation with classics of speculative and philosophical fiction. Like George Orwell’s “1984”, it interrogates unseen systems of control. Like Philip K. Dick’s novels, it blurs the line between reality and illusion. And like “Groundhog Day”—albeit stripped of humour and romance—it explores the horror of repetition without resolution. Yet perhaps the most intriguing comparison comes with Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”. Where Coelho’s novel comforts with promises of destiny and self-discovery, Rutley subverts the journey, offering confrontation rather than consolation, uncertainty rather than clarity.
A Trilogy in the Making
“The Cycle” is not a self-contained story. It closes with a sense of unfinished business, reflecting the very repetition it describes. Nothing is neatly resolved, and the questions it raises are deliberately left open. This sense of incompleteness is no accident—Clifford Rutley has made clear that the book is the first part of a planned trilogy.
Where the next instalments will take Hue remains to be seen, but if this opening volume is any indication, readers can expect a continuation that is as unsettling as it is thought-provoking.
From Oxford to Northumberland: The Journey of Clifford Rutley
Behind “The Cycle” is Clifford Rutley, a writer who calls his work “death or afterlife fiction”, blending elements of philosophy, horror, and science fiction. Born in Oxford in 1972, he now lives in Northumberland near the market town of Morpeth, where he continues to explore life’s biggest mysteries through both writing and visual storytelling on YouTube.
Rutley rejects the notion that our understanding of life after death should remain tied to ancient myths or religious dogma, arguing instead that the possibilities are “into the billions”. This openness to possibility shapes his fiction. Where some authors use the afterlife as a metaphor or comfort, Rutley uses it as a canvas for questioning—a way to pull apart the assumptions we carry about death, meaning, and existence itself.
Loops, Lives, and the Unknown
Clifford Rutley’s “The Cycle” is not designed for easy reading. Its repetition, density, and dark subject matter ask a lot of the reader. But those willing to meet it on its own terms will find a novel that is both daring and unforgettable.
By reframing existence as an endless return, Rutley challenges us to confront questions most fiction sidesteps: Are we trapped by fate, or can cycles be broken? What lies at the end of life’s tunnel—release, renewal, or ourselves again?
With its return in 2025, “The Cycle” has not just been reborn—it has been recontextualised. In an age where life often feels like an endless loop, Rutley’s unflinching vision resonates more powerfully than ever.
“The Cycle”, the second edition of Clifford Rutley’s original 2006 novel, is available to purchase as an e-book on Amazon Kindle, a paperback on Amazon, and an audiobook on Amazon and Apple Books.
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