First, I have to say I like this book. I need to say because it may not be obvious. Paul Meloy’s imagination packs a punch. Unfortunately, the story is superior to its execution. Grammatically there are so many instances of ‘it, was, and were’ sentences to bog the story down and make it drag. I took way too long to finish this. The book suffers too much tell instead of show (too many instances of the type such as ‘he was standing’ required the simple improvement of ‘stood’), and I’m unsure if the writer has any real concept of tenses or tried to be artistic in the use. I can see a few people complaining over the ‘purple prose’, though that doesn’t always bother me if used well. There’s a greater book here and some fantastic ideas that do not gel in this length of a novel. I wanted to know more of the characters and to care about them. The various threads read more like perplexing even unnecessary tangents though draw together, but left me feeling the narrative strove to be clever rather than engaging. Instead, the promised level of threat never quite manifests and I didn’t much care whether anyone survived by the conclusion. A pity, as this visionary setting promised much and had me enthralled. I love the overlapping story threads and blending of genres. It’s an interesting read. I’d consider reading more by the author. ( )

The Night Clock by Paul Meloy is a so-so horror/fantasy set in London.

Phil Trevena is a mental health worker whose patients are killing themselves. This trend actually signals the start of the end of all reality unless he and a time traveling hypnopomp named Daniel can help the Firmament Surgeons stop the Autoscopes and keep the Night clock running.

The Night Clock is a dream/nightmare world that switches between characters points of view, settings, realities, and time. It took intense concentration to follow who was what and where and why as more and more characters and elements were added to the story. Opening in a world where Mars is the moon and then switching to a scene with a zombie attacking a farmhouse, I thought I had misunderstood the description and this was a collection of short stories, but after the two jarring opening scenes, the actual novel starts.

Meloy is a descriptive writer and packs a lot of information into his sentences and chapters. He also has a whole host of characters and incidents taking place. This may be the indicator of the underlying problem I had with The Night Clock. It was, simple put, difficult to engage with any of the characters and hard to follow the plot. This resulted in the feeling that Meloy needed a larger canvas for this story, perhaps a series set in this world rather than cramming everything into this one book.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Rebellion Publishing for review purposes. ( )

Full review to come! ( )