Vellum: The Book of All Hours
by Hal Duncan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hal DuncanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2006-04-25
ISBN: 0345487311
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Vellum: The Book of All Hours
Book Review: A War of Words and Worlds
Summary: 5 Stars
In a word, Hal Duncan's "Vellum" is extraordinary. It is alternately haunting, sublime, and horrifying, the prose richly-textured and baroque. Contained within the pages of the Vellum are some of the most beautiful and visceral tableaux that I have ever encountered. Duncan is an author who take risks, from his scathing political criticisms and elegant fusions of Sumerian and Christian mythos, to his parallel, multilayered plot. The center of the tale is the Vellum itself, not a tome containing the secrets of reality, but a road map to reality in all its permutations. More than that, the Vellum is reality--to change its text is to change the very fabric of history, past present and future--all of which are defined by the book.
A war is being fought within its pages, across generations and from our world into parallel worlds transcribed from lucid dreams and nightmares. The war is fought by angels and men, and men who become angels and demons. The Covenant, led by Metatron, wants to control the Vellum and reshape creation. Borrowing from Cabalism, he who unlocks the sacred text (the words of creation spoken by God) has power over the universe and its undoing.
The Covenant are fallen angels in one reality, rebellious Sumerian Gods in another, and their chief enemies are not the Sovereign angels allied with God, but the rogue angels who have grown too fond of their human incarnations. In the battle to control the Vellum, those who refuse to take a side are the ones who will tip the balance. An apt slogan for Metatron would be "Join us or die." The weapons in this war range from guns and demon thralls to sentient swarms of bitmites (Duncan's term for nanomachines). Spells are written in digital code and inked on human skin. Virtual reality avatars play a game of cloak and dagger, bringing secret messages from beyond the grave.
Chief among the noble rogues are Seamus Finn and Phreedom Messenger. Seamus is alternately incarnated as Prometheus, Christ, Matthew Shepherd (the gay youth who was crucified in Wyoming), a drunk old man in an Irish pub, and a soldier tortured on World War II battlefield. The characters are not reincarnations in the strictest sense, but permutations of the same being. Every character is a cut diamond, and each incarnation is a facet of the whole. Alter one facet and the entire diamond is affected-the light and darkness it refracts irrevocably altered.
Fans of China Mieville and William Gibson will love this book, as will admirers of Clive Barker's "Imagica" and "Weaveworld." Hal Duncan is an iconoclast, and an artist to be reckoned with.
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