The Night Clock

by Paul Meloy

Overview

And still the Night Clock ticks...

Phil Trevena's patients are dying and he needs answers. One of the disturbed men in his care tells him that he needs to find Daniel, that Daniel will be able to explain what is happening. But who is Daniel? Daniel was lost once, broken by the same force that has turned its hatred on Trevena. His destiny is greater than he could ever imagine. Drawn together, Trevena and Daniel embark on an extraordinary journey of discovery, encountering The Firmament Surgeons in the Dark Time-the flux above our reality. Whoever controls Dark Time controls the minds of humanity. The Firmament Surgeons, aware of the approach of limitless hostility and darkness, are gathered to bring an end to the war with the Autoscopes, before they tear our reality apart.

Paul Meloy's extraordinarily rich debut novel introduces us to a world just beyond our own, shattering our preconceptions about creativity and mental illness, presenting us with a novel like no other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849979238
Publisher:	Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	11/05/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Paul Meloy was born in 1966 in South London. He is the author of Islington Crocodiles and Dogs with Their Eyes Shut, and the forthcoming collection Electric Breakfast. His work has been published in Black Static, Interzone and a variety of award winning anthologies. He lives in Devon with his family.
Paul Meloy was born in 1966 in South London. He is the author of Islington Crocodiles and Dogs with Their Eyes Shut, and the collection Electric Breakfast. His work has been published in Black Static, Interzone and a variety of award winning anthologies. He lives in Devon with his family.

Editorial Reviews

'How do you entwine humour and tragedy without one detracting from the other? Ask Paul Meloy, because he's done it in The Night Clock.' - Adam Nevill, author of House of Small Shadows and No One Gets Out Alive.;'The Night Clock isn't just a good horror novel, it's a great one. Superbly written, full of bite, originality, and, most importantly, heart and soul.' - S.L. Grey, author of The Mall and Underground;'A novel from Meloy has been a long time coming, and this debut delivers in style. This is writing that not only paints pictures, but builds worlds. And what terrifying, thrilling, beautiful worlds they are.' - Tim Lebbon, author of The Hunt and The Silence.

From the Publisher

A novel from Meloy has been a long time coming, and this debut delivers in style. This is writing that not only paints pictures, but builds worlds. And what terrifying, thrilling, beautiful worlds they are."

Tim Lebbon

How do you entwine humour and tragedy without one detracting from the other? Ask Paul Meloy, because he’s done it in The Night Clock."

Adam Nevill

The Night Clock isn't just a good horror novel, it's a great one. Superbly written, full of bite, originality, and, most importantly, heart and soul.

S.L. Grey

2015-08-18
British psychiatric nurse Phil Trevena's patients are dying, a frightening prelude to the potential loss of all reality—unless he and a time traveler named Daniel can rebuild the clock that commands the Dark Time flux. Known for his fractured-reality short stories (Dogs With Their Eyes Shut, 2013, etc.), Meloy often mixes comedy and terror, as he does in this debut novel, in which the "devil-in-dreams," a malevolent force, corrupts some of the Firmament Surgeons—those charged with keeping "the mechanisms of Creation running against the entropy arising from the fall of man"—into Autoscopes, who wage the paranormal Autosomachy war against hope. Linking both death and unmotivated violence to the theft of dreams (echoing Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane), Meloy builds a complex, confusing puzzle while deploying a muscular, humorous, profane voice, which can sometimes backfire. Take this image of "an elderly lady, kyphotic and bandy…." Kyphotic? Technically accurate, yet it stops a reader cold. Whether he links a mass shooting to a man-turned-crazed fish who rides a Mad Max-inspired armored mobility scooter or shows us how a psychiatric patient, Daniel, is really the time-altering "hypnopomp," Meloy utilizes a daunting array of genre favorites: a zombie; talking animals; murderous, semiorganic machinery; vitreosaurs; a train named the Railgrinder (a nod to Railsea?); and Dune-like Dr. Natus, a living fetus in a bottle, "a dead baby with the mind of a god." This tumultuous romp, which shifts rapidly from one character's viewpoint to another, is anchored by Trevena, whose warmth provides needed emotional continuity in a shocking, roiling, but imitative quest to protect human dreams.

Kirkus Reviews