Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days

by Drew Melbourne

The year is 20018. The famed magician Illuminari is dead, and his greatest illusion has died with him. Dark forces now seek the Engine of Armageddon, the ancient, sentient doomsday weapon that Illuminari hid amongst the stars.

Enter Percival Gynt, accountant and part-time hero, whose quest to find the Engine before it falls into the wrong hands may be our universe’s last best hope for survival. It is a quest that will take him from the highest reaches of power to the lowest pits of despair and through every manner of horror and absurdity between.

But beware. This accountant has a secret.

A secret that may damn us all.

Genres: Science Fiction

356 pages, Nook

First published May 24, 2018

About the author

Drew Melbourne is the neurodiverse geek author of the postmodern comedic mystery novel A DARK HOLE DARKLY, the Percival Gynt book series, and the graphic novel ARCHENEMIES. He lives in the Philly suburbs with his wife Laura, best kiddo Sam, and some cats.

He likes good things and famously dislikes things that are awful (unless they are secretly kind and tragically misunderstood). If you let him, he will speak to you with great enthusiasm about the relationship between odd numbers and square numbers.

Please don't?

Reviews

[Athena (OneReadingNurse) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like a mashup of Austin Powers and Douglas Adams. AKA it’s hilarious, over the top, entertaining, and sometimes I’m not quite sure what’s going on but it’s still funny. And dark. The book has a few surprisingly dark undertones that contrasted well with the general lighthearted tone.

Percival Gynt was a fast read for me. The pacing is constantly quick, the plot moves forward, and the characters are about as well developed as the average Austin Powers movie (that’s my analogy and I’m sticking to it) but I like them.

Percival is funny and has the best gadgets. Um is along for the ride but takes a lot of death (poor guy!) and stays positive. Esme cracks me up. Some people aren’t even who you expect them to be! It was a good crew.

Another thing I really liked was the realistic looking “top news articles” at the beginning of each section. I might have tried to click one hahah

I did dock one point out of ten for some slightly confusing time jumping within two of the sections. The other point I docked was for the plot getting a little confusing/convoluted about the time Percival tries to be a hero and the purity thing rejects him? I don’t think I fully grasped what happened towards the end there but it didn’t change how I felt about the overall reading experience. (Good, I felt good)

Otherwise, I 100% recommend this book for those looking for a fun, snarky, brand infested space adventure of epic proportions.

[Isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one of my team mates said, I can see why this is a finalist book but it’s definitely a subgenre that isn’t quite my type. Nonetheless, there are also some things that I really enjoyed about this book.

It’s the over the top silliness that I struggle with. Despite being set very far into the future, there are still things around that we are familiar with, such as Apple Watches (with a fun bonus though), YouTube, McDonalds, and Starbucks. This made for some giggles but combined with the craziness of many events, it just didn’t make for a setting and world-building that I entirely enjoyed. I do have to say though that I liked that this book had a clear story with lots of silliness mixed in rather than almost only craziness with a side helping of story. While the charms felt like another weird thing that wouldn’t be my type at first, I did find those oddly charming by the end.

The story felt very smoothly written and moved along at a steady pace. While I’m not generally a fan of omniscient writing, it did feel like a good fit for this type of book because that enabled the author to add more funny bits to fit the story. There were some really tragic moments in this book that were done in a very light tone, which seems contradictory but somehow worked well here.

There was a good variety of characters that really felt like their own people with feelings and histories that led to interesting reveals throughout the book. What seemed to be a very straight forward storyline at first actually ended up having more twists and turns than I expected. I liked that there was a mystery buried deeper that I could try to work out myself and which led to an unexpected ending that was much deeper than I anticipated.

Despite this not being my type of book, I can see why it’s a favorite for some people. I felt a bit conflicted throughout but liked that it still had some unexpected surprises that took me off guard. It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into this book and I’m curious to see what else the author will come up with.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The universe is ending, and it's his job to save it

I don't think I fully understood this book, but I sure did enjoy reading it. This was amusing, adventurous, unique, and Um, highly entertaining.

[Andrew Hindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself halfway through this book with no notes whatsoever to make into a review. I was just reading the story and enjoying the crazy ride. This book is solid Hitchhiker's Guide-level space fantasy, with added insane tech wizardry and world building, and a sprinkling of Space Nazis (although they don't like to be called that). All in all, this story was a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself immensely.

Our tale opens on the titular Percival Gynt, accountant with a haunted past, and his non-titular but extremely cool umbrella, which almost certainly also has a haunted past. Percival meets a mysterious woman who steals (among other things) his hat and heart, and that's where the trouble starts.

The year is 20018, a nicely exotic period in the future that still enables us to say "oh right, the 19980s were the '80s, the 19940s were the '40s, and so on." The book is set, in fact, exactly eighteen thousand years after the year it was written. There's still basically all the things we have today, just made a bit future-y. This kind of bugged me on some level, but I do get why the narrative device exists. We can't go around making up entire new future histories, cultures, pop culture and restaurants. The reader wouldn't stand for it anyway. So the result is a necessary dance between amusingly-and-comfortingly-familiar-shorthand and this-isn't-even-a-thing-in-2023-anymore-why-is-it-a-thing-in-20018 - a dance that Melbourne performs with aplomb and very little tripping.

Things get a bit weird when Percival, and his new companions Tarot and Um, go to a giant cube in space made by a magician, but all I can advise for the slowly-panicking reader is - well, to borrow a phrase from the giants on whose shoulders we're standing - don't. Without revealing too much of the plot, which is a layered dessert of secrets and twists, back-stories and excellent science-fantasy concepts, I will do my best to explain what is going on and what I liked about it. 

At the centre of our also-titular Conspiracy of Days is the concept that a machine, called the Engine, is destroying the universe. This has actually been going on for some time, but nobody really notices because part of destroying the universe is destroying it retroactively as well, so nobody actually knows or remembers what has gone missing - except the conspiracists with their backup data. A very cool concept for a sci-fi villain. It has some funky effects on time, memories, and character interactions and backstories, too. When the malevolent Driver is removed from the Engine and hidden away in a safe ... let's say 'place' ... the immediate threat is defused - but for how long?

It's up to Percival, his friends and family, and his many, many issues, to find the Driver and the Engine and stop the universe from continuing to always-having-been destroyed.

I greatly enjoyed the Adamsesque infodumps at the start of some of the chapters, and would happily have read a whole book (or at least a large appendix or wiki) of just those amusing and interesting asides about technology, history, and daily life in the ... shit, what, the Two Hundredth Century? Maybe an addition to drewmelbourne.com, what do you think?

My only minor gripe, and it is very minor, was that I was half-expecting the Mandela Effect to come into play as a plot point once the widespread rewritten history phenomenon came into the story and people wound up living in versions of the universe that they hadn't lived in before, their memories no longer dependable and individual experiences varying depending on where they were at the time. It was tantalisingly close but didn't quite manage to slip in. Could have linked this storyline to the real-world present in a fun "you may just have a gremlin in your house" kind of way. But ah well. The plot thread with the Devil was excellent, and more than made up for any minor disappointment for this greedy reader. And the pipeline between conspiracy kooks and fascism was never so hilariously illustrated.

Sex-o-meter

Just as Melbourne walked the line between amusingly-and-comfortingly-familiar-shorthand and this-isn't-even-a-thing-in-2023-anymore-why-is-it-a-thing-in-20018, so too did he navigate the line between horny and genteel. The result was innocent funny stuff, not particularly raunchy but most certainly horny in a charming kind of way. I give it an Arthur Dent and Trillian in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy out of a possible Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian in the porno version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that I will leave you to Google on your own time and computer. Warning: there's even more head than you'd expect.

Gore-o-meter

Surprisingly plentiful! Just when you fall into the trap of thinking Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days actually is a Douglas Adams story, it reveals that it has a shocking capacity for quite harrowing violence. I award it three and a half quivering bloody flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.

WTF-o-meter

There's a whole lot of the good stuff here too, as you would expect from a story with such a wonderful setting and premise. The advanced-tech-appears-as-magic trope is all well and good, but there seems like there's solid magic in this one as well. As a known genre bender myself I am in full support of this literary conceit, and it's the year 20K so there should be shit we don't understand (as well as Starbucks). The WTF-o-meter was a bit discombobulated by the whole thing and has grabbed hold of the last thing I said, and so awarded it a Starbuck and Starbuck drinking Starbucks in a Starbucks out of a possible ... I don't know, is that a crude hand-drawn sketch of Rupert Grint and Percival by  Gustav Klimt performing Peer Gynt in a Geared Pint? That's fucking odd is what that is.

My Final Verdict

The whole story really seemed to begin losing coherence at the end, which may have been a combination of an intentional storytelling device and my own slowly-unravelling sanity and concentration due to weirdness and sleep-deprivation, but - well, if it was intentional, it didn't land quite right. And if it was unintentional, it was maybe a little off-putting and unfortunate. But damn it all, I still liked it. I was well and truly won back by Wotan and Mecha-Thor in the final moments, and all was well in the world. Four stars!

[Catherine Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny, quirky, intelligent science fiction adventure.

Young accountant Percival Gynt is accosted by a beautiful mystery woman who’s fleeing the police, and before you know it, he’s off to save the galaxy from space nazis and a doomsday weapon so terrifying nobody knows about it.

The setting is a far future where magic mixes familiarly with technology, throwing in spaceships and zombies, wizards and Walmart to gleefully daft effect. On top of that there’s distinctive, memorable characters, sharp dialogue, and inventive props. Writing is great and well edited throughout, with very few errors.

Obviously, I liked it a lot. Sense of humour being a funny thing, there may be people who don’t: but if you enjoy Douglas Adams, I’d say it’s well worth a go. And if you don’t, it’s still worth a go because it’s that good. The humour does turn dark in places and there’s a fair bit of death and gore along the way.

[Helen Whistberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book a delight from start to finish. A little Hitchhiker's Guide, a little Blade Runner, a little Fifth Element and a whole lot of fun. Found myself slowing down to read as I didn't want to miss any of the amazing word play. This kind of snarky/clever humor can be hard to pull off, and I can imagine it won't be for everyone, but it hit the mark for me. I went back and re-read whole scenes just to enjoy the writing. It also rather surprisingly has an underlying serious message and packs much more of an emotional punch than I was expecting. All of the characters are clearly drawn, and I became very invested in finding out their ultimate fates. It is a complex plot, and I almost feel like I would have to read the book again to make sure I understood perfectly how all the threads came together but since it is so much fun to read that wouldn't be a hardship. Highly recommended for fans of humorous, smart sci-fi with a heart.

[Sibil]

If I have to summarize this book with only one word it would be fun. This was a ton of fun, from start to end, and for a lot of different reasons. It has banters, it has amazing humor, and such delicious irony, in the plot, with the characters, with everything. It is delicious.
And I loved every second I spent between these pages. I loved that our main character is an accountant, and I loved that he is sent on a very special and very important mission, with an agent named Um. And I loved everything that happened to our characters during their adventure to save the world.
If you love Douglas Adams’ books, this would be an amazing addition to your collection. If you love strange books like John Dies At The End, this would be right up your alley! (But this book is way easier to follow around than Wong’s one, and in my book, sorry for the pun, this is an amazing thing, too!).

And I don’t really know what to say here, even if, as I said before, it is quite strange, because even if it took me a long time to read this one I really enjoyed it. I had a blast and I was constantly smiling or laughing while reading! So if you are in for a weird and fun book, that would keep you entertained and would take you around an interesting universe full of different forms of life, and full of action and happenings, well… wait no more! This book is right there for you!

Also, I know it’s not much, since i have read only 4 out of the 10 books in the butch, but so far this is my favorite!

[Joshua Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

/* Note: I read this as a finalist for SPSFC2. This review reflects only my personal opinion, not the opinion of the entire team. */

My Score: 8 / 10

Drew Melbourne's Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is an engaging ride through a future that is always absurd, often hilarious, and in its best moments extremely poignant. While initially I expected this to be a purely humorous affair in the vein of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the novel quickly evolves, delving into a deeper, darker narrative with high-stakes drama and gripping emotional moments.

Humor is always subjective, so I never expect all the jokes to land (even so, there were certainly more hits than misses for me in this book). Where I think the novel truly shines, however, is when the jokes are left aside for a (usually brief) moment to dig deep into the trauma driving this heavily character-focused story. There are some seriously brutal moments in this book, but it balances whimsy and solemnity quite well, rarely giving me whiplash in the shift of tone.

One way it does this is by exploring a zany universe 18,000 years in a future where Old Navy and YouTube and Apple Watches still exist (the Apple Watch has been, shall we say, considerably upgraded). It's an odd world that stretched my belief at times and never really got an in-universe explanation—but it fits the tone of the book, so fair enough. We explore many of these oddities in the form of narrative interludes that break from—but weave back into—the main plot. At first, I found these unwelcome interruptions, but by the end I was enjoying these vignettes as something like their own little flash fiction stories.

Despite the insanity of the world Melbourne created, the characters feel quite authentic. They're delightfully realized, flaws and all, and the main characters have a lot of depth. I found myself sympathizing with all of them, even if their actions occasionally frustrated me or left me confused (especially early on).

The book concludes with a satisfying, albeit slightly unclear resolution. The emotional beats landed for me, but some of the concrete details about what was happening could have been communicated more clearly. I wish we lingered just a bit longer in the climactic scene to help clarify events before jumping into the denouement, but that didn't significantly impact my enjoyment of the novel.

This book is certainly one-of-a-kind—a surprising, intricate blend of humor, heart, and darkness. Its quirks may not appeal to everyone, but those who find themselves drawn in will discover an engaging story lurking beneath the absurdity and zaniness.

[Jamedi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally published on JamReads

Disclaimer: This review and score only represent my personal opinion of this book. Team scores might vary.

Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is a science-fantasy novel, written by Drew Melbourne, and one of the SPSFC2 finalists. The death of the famous magician Illuminari has ended his greatest illusion, and now the Engine of Armageddon, a doomsday weapon might fall into the hands of dark forces, provocating an apocalypse unless somebody manages to stop this.

Here is where our hero, Percival Gynt, accountant enters the scene. Part-time hero, he's the saviour our universe needs; soon we get thrown into a crazy adventure that will take us on a trip across the universe in order to retrieve the Engine of Armageddon.

Melbourne has created a really quirky adventure, with a total antihero as the main character, in a style that could remember as Austin Powers. Crazy situations will happen, some of them really absurd, which felt rather confusing in my opinion; while I understand what was the idea behind this kind of plot, I would have enjoyed it more if it was less quirky and more "logical", we could say.

Pacing is extremely fast, trying to emulate the style of an adventure film; something that shines in action scenes, but makes the plot even more confusing, because it is extremely complicated at some points.

Don't get me wrong, I think this book can be highly enjoyable if you are in the mood for a crazy and funny adventure, and I can see why other people pushed this book into the finals. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I would like to see a second adventure of Percival Gynt.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always looking for just the right blend of humor, intergalactic aliens, and apocalyptic circumstances and this book has it all. Percival Gynt is a seemingly ordinary accountant going about his seemingly ordinary day when a girl on a train kisses him, steals his hat and makes him a police target. Thus begins his trek across the galaxy in which he meets a quirky set of characters and attempts to save the world. From the great cover to the clues on the back of the book, this book made me laugh, smile, chuckle, and gasp as the story took its twists and turns. We need more fun sci-fi in the world and Drew Melbourne has given us this in his debut novel. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams or Jasper Fforde, you should definitely pick this up.

[Benjamin Scribner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Grabs you from the start. I had trouble putting it down do take care of my own writing. The authors sense of humor shines through on every page. Looking forward to grabbing the next one when it comes out. I can't recommend this book enough. unless you're dead, you can't help but enjoy it. It earned a place on the book shelf in my living room, a place I reserve for my most loved books.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the back blurb: this is no funny, shallow quick read. Funny, yes, and fast-paced, but this novel delves into some very serious subject matter and some of it is quite disturbing. A twisty, intriguing thriller set in a world that seamlessly marries fantasy and SF. Highly recommended!

[Dawn Ireland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this back in 2018, and went down the road again.

Hang on because you're in for a very wild ride with Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days. This read so much like Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide. While the tale has quite a large cast of miscreants, bunglers, lovable's and crazies, it definitely is a book that is hard to put down. You will find yourself hanging onto the very last word because you can't even begin to guess what will happen next. A very enjoyable read!

[Donnie Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you'll love this witty, suspenseful noir-meets-humor tale of a crime-solving accountant on a mission to save the universe. Drew Melbourne's Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is a breath of fresh air into the science fiction genre, incorporating high science, expertly placed pop culture references, and a plot that keeps the reader hanging on from cover to cover.

Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is the story of, well, Percival Gynt, accountant and sole survivor of a planetary massacre. Gynt gets more than he bargained for when he's approached on the train platform by a young woman one fine Monday morning. The ensuing police chase and trans-galactic journey lead Percival and his companions from planet to planet (and the occasional asteroid) on the search for the doomsday device threatening the end of the universe. Gynt and Tarot, the young woman from the platform, pick up a hodgepodge of characters along the way, all the while oscillating between infatuation and mistrust for one another. The story wraps up with an emotional cliffhanger, heralding the next chapter in the story (whenever the author gets around to it).

Melbourne crafts his characters with a refreshing sense of humor and humanity, painting them with both good intentions and a sinister side. The relationships between the unlikely troop of heroes is visceral and turbulent, keeping the reader constantly intrigued as to who can be trusted and who the real villain is. Evil characters let their goodness shine and the heroes put their darkness on display in the most intense moments, making for some dynamic character arcs.

The universe of the novel is entertaining and well-structured. With plenty of references to our 21st century reality, the author gives a sense of home to this world set 20,000 years in our future. That's not to say that there is any lack of the new and imaginative in the life and times of Percival Gynt -- Melbourne introduces concepts of transportation, communication, and even magic that remind the reader that they are most definitely no longer in Kansas. The story leads us through a series of locations that differ from each other in ways that highlight just how diverse and foreign humanity's reach across the stars could become, if given enough time. From the subtle to the ridiculous, the world presented in Percival Gynt is thoughtful enough to satisfy even the pickiest of classic science fiction fans.

The narrative and the plot hit an excellent balance between crowding and leaping, giving the reader detail where detail is appropriate, and moving the story along with finesse when it needs to. Transitions between chapters, as well as the various settings and locations, are smooth and tasteful, presenting each new piece of the story without letting the important details go forgotten or missed by the reader. That is, until the end of the book.

The characters spend most -- if not all -- of the novel attempting to craft a solution to their problem, and this builds so much tension that when the actual implementation of this solution gets skimmed over with little to no insight, explanation, or exposure in the narrative, the reader feels a little cheated. Yes, it was fun to read about the journey to get to beating the bad guys, but we want to read about the big boss fight at the end, too. As for the denouement, there was barely any, except to set the stage for the next installment of the adventures of Percival Gynt. It was fairly obvious that the author had a case of please-just-let-this-be-done, which is by all means understandable. However, to carry a story and a narrative so far, so well, and then to just drop the ball at the end of it, is a cheap shot. (Gee, this really hits home for some reason, and I guarantee that it has nothing to do with Season 8 of Game of Thrones.)

Despite the fizzled-out ending, the book was a great read. The next of Percival's adventures is eagerly awaited, and this book is highly recommended for both hard sci-fi and humor fans alike. 

[G.M. Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before we start with the review proper, let's just get this out of the way first:

Yes, I'm going to fall into that cliche trap of comparing 'Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days' to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', and it makes me roll my eyes because every review of any sci-fi/comedy novel (including my own) immediately jumps to this comparison. Mostly because there's not much else in the space (pun intended) to compare to. Okay, Terry Pratchett... which is another cliche.

But in the case of Percival Gynt, the comparison is wholly deserved, as it channels a lot of Hitchhiker's dry, but absurd humor, zany world-building, and - perhaps most importantly - pointed, sarcastic social commentary. So if Melbourne was aiming for the Adams comparison, he really did nail it. The commentary is sharp, the worlds are enjoyable, and the concepts are out of this world (pun intended). There is also great attention to detail here, where Melbourne drops in minor, seemingly innocuous, details that have bigger implications and pay-offs down the line. Frankly, I should have read this in paperback, as it would have been easier to refer back to previous chapters to refresh my memory on some of the finer points.

That being said, the book tends to meander a lot with some of its concepts and subplots, and it jumps back and forth in time during a few instances that I don't believe were fully warranted. It made for a bit of confusing reading and, frankly, some disappointment, when compared to the detail-oriented plot and narrative callbacks that I enjoyed.

While those instances were a bit annoying, the place where I feel the book falters most is in its characters. Supporting characters and their subplots sometimes feel tacked on with no real substance, nor do I get a good sense of some of their personalities. Some characters seem to be introduced and subsequently dropped, once their usefulness to introduce a bit of social commentary ends.

The biggest offender in the character department, I think, is Percival Gynt himself, whom I never could get a full bead on. He is at times hyper-competent, and sometimes a bit incompetent, and his motivations (including a bit of all-too-quick falling in love) are hard to pin down. It certainly does not help that he's hiding a vague secret that informs his character which isn't fully revealed until towards the end of the book. Ultimately, it's unfortunate that he seems a bit more like a Deus Ex Machina than a character.

This is a bit disheartening because there are great characters in this book and Melbourne makes them work. Um and Vargoth Gor are fantastic supporting characters that pack a lot of personality and heart into them, which I loved.

But ultimately, these are relatively minor quibbles, because the book is entertaining as all hell. While it starts off a bit slow and confusing with the extremely out-there worldbuilding, after a few chapters everything finds its footing and the entire quest is thoroughly enjoyable and escalates to a page-turner by its last few, darker and more sinister, chapters.

Overall, a very fun read packed with interesting concepts and amazingly detailed callbacks and pointed social commentary. Yes, if you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then this is certain to scratch your decades-old itch.

[Melissa Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the far distant future, one man gets caught up in a terrible machination of ancient making: the whole, vast universe is at stake not of just ending, but of never having existed at all.

I picture Eric André as Percival Gynt, the dapper, curly haired protagonist of The Conspiracy of Days. Just a random piece of my imagination. When this is made into a movie , I hope he gets the role!

An accountant on his way to work finds himself on the lamb after a mysterious young woman steals his hat.

As he and Officer Um find themselves further and further entrenched in this mystery, Percival's own sketchy past is reaching out. Will it catch up to him? He's extremely clever and has nifty technajawoosits to help him along.

Percival isn't the only one with a secret. Lies are built into every aspect of the known galaxy- from the Celestial Governor to the High Cleric of the Intergalactic Church of The All-Mother. The worst betrayals are often the ones we never see coming.

Percival Gynt also isn't the only one with a past that he'd rather be forgotten- as erased as Shan Morton, the girl with no mother. That's the thing about our pasts though - they're bloody difficult to erase, and even if we wipe our slates as clean and black as an abyss, the memories are still there. In The Umbrella Academy Vanya comments that most of us try and spend our whole lives dealing with our pasts.

Brilliant settings abound - from a palace that shifts in upon itself and folds space in more dimensions than we are aware of, to a cathedral on a planet made of mostly gas (with a boycotted amusement park), to a massive space station covered in booby traps and arcane runes.

Quirky writing with absurdist comedy makes this a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was written with a lot of careful attention detail and vivid imagination.

This book passes the Bechdel Test. With an ensemble cast of well developed characters, it's delightful to see the life breathed into even tertiary characters.
I look forward to future stories. He has several short stories about Percival Gynt and I really look forward to reading them.

I have no complaints about this book. The grammar was impeccable. The formatting of the book was easy to read. Small details like waitressaurasses floored me. I don't know how he came up with it all. I suspect he has far more creativity in him than I do in me.

The world of publishing has steep, tall steps to climb. Mr. Melbourne has chosen the route of self-publishing under his own imprint Ruesday Books. This takes an inordinate amount of work. I'm not sure I could manage all this on my own!

For the sake of transparency, I must admit that the author personally mailed me this copy. I regret that it's taken me so long to finish this book. It's definitely worth your time.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Content warning: themes of genocide, Nazis

Percival Gynt's everyday life as an accountant is disturbed by a woman at the train station, and he finds himself sucked into the re-run of a conspiracy that threatens to unwrite the entire universe.

The book starts light, but builds an undertone of dread and terror towards the end that had me racing through the last fifty pages. The humorous style frequently forced me to put the book down to keel over laughing. The characters are vivid and lovable, and the plot is full of surprises. Though the style is similar to Douglas Adams or Lemony Snickett, I found it pleasingly less absurd and more relevant to the current day than those authors. A truly incredible book that reinvigorated my desire to read science-fiction with its new ideas mixed with genre staples. I'm looking forward to a sequel.

I can offer only a few (minor) criticisms. Firstly, the plot blossomed over the first 3/4 of the book and then broke down slightly by comparison towards the end. The conclusion felt ever-so-slightly like a deus ex machina. A little more foreshadowing would have helped. Secondly, the sheer size of the cast caused issues. One specific character felt like they didn't receive enough attention or build-up given their role. A second side character had a faulty timeline that doesn't add up. There were perhaps a few too many minor characters and eliminating a few would have cleaned up inconsistencies and allowed time for more important characters to get the spotlight they needed. All in all, still a story I will keep going back to, and not enough for me to take a star off.

[Jay Brantner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of a judging team for the second annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC2), where it is a finalist.

This is a book that surprised me. In a good way. It’s a zany space opera, with absurdist jokes very much in the mold of Douglas Adams. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same problem as all the other zany, absurdist space operas: the author is not Douglas Adams. Which isn’t to say that the humor here is bad, it just had me smiling instead of rolling on the floor. So much is to be expected—not many people are Douglas Adams. (Though I will say that I got a kick out of the running joke about how the Space Nazis “don’t call themselves that”).

But this book did something that most Adams pastiches don’t do—and indeed that Adams himself didn’t do—it had a relatively cohesive plot that took full advantage of the form. There were plenty of time skips and cuts back and forth and people dying but somehow not being dead. So much is to be expected. But plenty of the hints dropped early ended up coming back later in the book, and the bouncing around in time created a sort of disorientation that effectively allowed a twisty plot to keep its suspense to a conclusion that felt like a real sci-fi plot and not just an excuse for more jokes. Usually, when the jokes don’t land, there’s not much else. Here there really was. I don’t know that it always made sense, but the form allowed for a little bit of nonsense while still keeping a relatively cohesive and interesting plot.

First impression: 15/20. Full review and official SPSFC score to come at www.tarvolon.com

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book to review for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).

Once again I find myself reading and reviewing a book in a science fiction competition that has no science. In fact, this FANTASY book is the exact opposite of science with; magic, sorcery, and faster than light space travel. What it does have is an author with a fantastic imagination, great writing skills, and a weird, yet contagious, sense of humor. From the dedication to his father who has invented a perpetual motion machine to an Apple Watch with an App that can stop time, you can almost see Drew Melbourne winking at you from the pages.

Our anti-hero, Percival Gynt, is an accountant in the year 20018 who is barely making it from day to day when he is suddenly approached and kissed by a beautiful girl in a subway station. This one act pulls Percival into a galaxy spanning adventure of trying to save the universe. Along the way he meets an assortment of characters, faces death numerous times, deals with a variety of villains, and witnesses billions of people wiped from existence. Oh, did I mention this is a humorous story?

While this book is not my cup of tea, I can highly recommend it to any reader looking for a fantasy book that is full of tension, adventure, and humor. At the end Melbourne promises more adventures to come but, much like Percival, this promise might be taken with a grain of salt.

[E.J. Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was something about this story that ambled along in an informative and light manner, that by the time you realised how critical all the information was you'd just received, you'd be just in time to either laugh, or fling the book against the wall. Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days was a strange, sad, and wonderful foray into a relatable future through the eyes of Percival, and occasionally someone else's, about stopping an ultimate evil from destroying the universe. From a chance encounter with a beautiful woman on a train, it follows Percival as he unwraps a mystery, hog tied into a conspiracy. The rich characterizations, places, technology and overall sense of the writing can only have come from someone who was deeply creative or more than slightly unhinged. My only complaint is that the book is exceptionally long, and though I'm a voracious reader and don't mind long books, I felt some of the divulging of information could be cut back for a more fluid enjoyment. Having said that, if it were possible to give this book six stars I would. Witty, clever, funny, you never see exactly what's coming until Melbourne's pulled the rug from under you and you're free falling through space. A really great book.

[L. A. Guettler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth my wait

Took me a long time to get to this one in my tbr pile, and I'm angry at myself for waiting so long. It's funny, clever, ironic, self- effacing, and overall delightful. Very Douglas Adams, like if Zaphod Beeblebrox and Dirk Gently raised a baby in an Arby's bathroom. I mean that in the best possible way. I was a bit lost at times with the plot intricacies but it never detracted from my enjoyment. Lots of fun little sidetracks into backstory and world building, too. Recommend if you like your scifi a bit silly but with the highest possible stakes.

[Shannon Rohrer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Satire isn't something I read very often, so when I do, it's nice to find a book that's well worth the time. It was witty, whimsical, had intriguing characters, and a rather engaging plot with just the right amount of seriousness to add gravity to the situation.

The world-building was spectacularly done and the writing itself was masterful. I would definitely recommend this to lovers of sci-fi, satire, and subversive tropes.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd highly recommend this to all fans of Douglas Adams. It does veer into darker, gruesome territory at times, but maintains a fairly light, humorous tone anyway. That said, this is definitely a book you need to pay close attention to. Don't make the mistake that I did and try to read it when you're very tired, distracted, or on a bus packed with boisterous private school kids, because you will get confused and have to re-read large chunks. This is a book to give undivided attention to.

[Mary Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not for the faint of heart

Or is that feint? A matter of space-time continuom complexities that no one else understands (or wants to.) His just enough cultural references mix with the highly improbable to give them plausibility. Good versus evil here is a simple premise, but not quite as simple as it seems. Likeable characters. Oh, and I really like the one-way glass. I'm going to work on that one; back to the lab...

[Eileen Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a Douglas Adams fan, you are going to love this book.

What a fun read! The person who starts out as a mild mannered accountant ends up being so much more. Love interests, twists, turns, time travel, time stoppage, pageantry, this book has it all. If you’re like me, you’ll be wanting to know where Percival bought his umbrella and the Apple Watch. I need those!

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book! Super funny, with characters that stand out. There are a few plot twists that were kind-of genious, and I can't wait to read more about Percival Gynt and this crazy world Drew has created. This is a fast paced sci-fi fantasy comedy adventre with romance, secret agents, super heroes and everything in between.

[Bill Schindler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Percival Gynt

What a wild novel about the distant future. Accountant Percival Gynt and friends (and enemies) take the reader on at first a mild ride then an ever increasingly wild ride. Nothing is what it seems, everything is explained after a fashion. If you like crazy, serious take your mind off the virus novels this one will do it. Great read

[Joan Wendland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Percival Gynt and the Conspiracy of Days is a clever story with an interesting blend of edge of your seat dread and hysterical dialog and details. I've never read a novel before that had me both laughing AND biting my nails. I can't wait to read the sequel!

[Alice Lunsford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love it!

I couldn't put it down! Right into the action and it keeps on going. Drew Melbourne has written a witty, funny, imaginative book that will NOT dissapoint!

[Chris Towndrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inventive and witty

Echoes of the great Douglas Adams. Intricate, surprising, and hardly about accountancy at all, which is always a good thing.