All Clyde ever wanted to do was make comic books. But now he finds himself in the company of his long-time friend Kev—who, incidentally, died not long ago. The ghostly Kev appears to be tethered to Clyde in some way: a fact that interests Hourglass, a secret organization that deals with Post-Life Entities and the living humans who can communicate with them. Both Kev and Clyde are offered positions at Hourglass. While Kev is excited to finally be able to bring some meaning to his afterlife, Clyde cares only about protecting his loved ones and getting back to work on his comics.
But the pair’s time in training opens up a whole world of secrets to them. While the presence of Kev and other ghosts confirms life after death, it’s not paradise. Spirits end up in the Null: a bleak, war-torn purgatory where they will have to continue to fight for survival. And while Hourglass fights to keep tabs on the Null and its various inhabitants, other organizations seek to mine it for their own resources. As Kev and Clyde are being trained up, the Cairnwood Society has found a recruit of its own in the monk Konstantin, a.k.a. “Gulag.” Cairnwood has plans to use the Null to enrich life on this side of the veil. Meanwhile, Konstantin and the many departed souls who live within him have their own goals.
Daniel James’s HOURGLASS is, on the surface, a strangely bleak book. The Null, also known as Erebus, is a grim world filled with horrific demons and dotted with the skeletons of long-departed giants. In fact, much of the book muses on a single question: if there really is life after death, and that life after death is even worse than life here, then what’s the point? A reader searching for that point may not find it. However, the characters find their own meaning. Perhaps Erebus is just the next world in a line of many. Perhaps the legends of an artifact that could turn the tide have some truth to them. Most of all, though, many characters express that they would sooner hit the ground fighting than disappear into nothing. Even if the afterlife isn’t paradise, it has purpose.
Purpose is, above all, the point of HOURGLASS, and James threads that concept through in many ways. Kev craves purpose in a world with which he can no longer fully interact, and he finds it in Hourglass. Clyde resists joining up alongside his best friend, wanting to fulfill his dreams; however, he finds purpose in supporting his friend and potentially improving the next life for his departed father and brother. Even the bleakest, most infinite existence is bearable if there is purpose. And with that in mind, this novel is strangely (and beautifully) full of hope.
In HOURGLASS, Daniel James presents a worldview that is at once dire and hopeful: the afterlife by way of The Expendables. While its apparent pessimism may not click with every reader, fans of paranormal and military fiction will find a lot to love here.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader