The Day and the Hour and Drone

"Jason [Grae] is an unreliable narrator, only too happy to concede that his visions may be illusory. The hints of an alien power struggle in which humans are being used as pawns adds another dimension to the tale, but regardless of all that its heart lies in the struggle of one lonely, flawed man to do the right thing when plunged into terrible circumstances. In a way [Grae] is emblematic of us all, watching as bad things happen to others, doing nothing to prevent them until finally he can no longer stand it. Add to this Drake's pulse pounding, slightly breathless prose style and what you have is a compelling slice of fiction, one that confronts us with moral dilemmas and challenges the reader as to how he or she would respond. I loved it." -Peter Tennant Black Static Magazine

"Ennis Drake is an anomaly, a writer whose talent matches his considerable ambition. In "The Day and the Hour" he grapples fearlessly with questions of mortality, faith, sacrifice and honor. Through ingenious plotting and characterization Drake rescues such essential questions from irony and confirms their proper place, at the heart of serious fiction." -S. P. Miskowski author of KNOCK KNOCK and DELPHINE DODD

"Drake's phantasmagorical imagination is on full display...with images and scenes reminiscent of Clive Barker's extravagances. 'The Day and the Hour' offers clear and compelling evidence Ennis Drake is a writer to watch." -John Langan, author of THE WIDE CARNIVOROUS SKY AND OTHER MONSTROUS GEOGRAPHIES

"Tumbling, lyrical prose, a vision that reaches back to the Biblical desert and forward to the cutting edge of technology, a bleak fury at the cruelty of the world and a cavalier disregard for genre boundaries: the fiction of Ennis Drake has all of these. Discover him now." -Simon Bestwick, author of THE FACELESS and THE CONDEMNED

The Day And the Hour Jason Grae is a man of unique power; a man whose suffering rivals the Passion of Christ himself. His is not a power you might associate with the modern mythologies of comic books or film, but something as austere as knowledge. Yet Jason's knowledge is the immortal reserve of gods-the absolute knowledge of his own matter-and it renders him invulnerable for all the days of his life preceding March 11th, 2004.

Like most power, it does not come without a price.

DroneI'm moving in darkness. A strange electric current hums through my body. A heat builds in my chest, but I'm not sweating. My breath is coming fast, but isn't ragged; it feels mechanical. I keep waiting for my eyes to adjust to the pitch, but they never do.Thought is transient; fragile. Where am I? (Afghanistan.) The LZ's compromised! I'm being overrun! I need artillery now. Now, damnit, NOW! (Too late.) There's a jolt at the base of my neck, I taste ozone, and I'm moving. Pushed beyond human limit. A vessel. Empty except for the heat in my chest; the buzz of electricity traveling the roads of my nervous system; the shape of old memories-like a trunk under a dusty sheet-in the attic of my mind. My name is Ibrahim Umarzai. I am dead, but I remember...