Am reading it right now, actually. I started it a few months ago, but it required far more attention than I could give it. It's impressive, so far.
On 6/10/07, Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Interesting review posted by Jeff to another list, of Hal Duncan's _Vellum : The Book of all Hours_ [1]. Anybody else here read it and wants to add their opinion? (and Jeff, your further thoughts on this one would be interesting, too) Udhay [1] http://www.amazon.com/Vellum-Book-Hours-Hal-Duncan/dp/0345487311 >From: Jeff Bone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2007 12:21:18 -0500 >Subject: [FoRK] The Book of All Hours > > >Lengthier review forthcoming, but --- after a misspent youth of too >much fiction of all varieties, I've found myself reading less and >less of it over the last several years. Difficult to find stuff >that's novel (pun intended) and innovative enough to hold my interest >lately. In particular fantasy of any kind just isn't my cup of tea >anymore, hasn't been for a very long time - most of my adult life - >with a few notable exceptions. > >But: just started a book last night that, thus far, seems quite >likely to be one of "those" books, those few, that captures your >imagination and stands out among all the rest as something truly >wonderful. > >Vellum: The Book of All Hours > >It's the book that Gaiman was trying to write with American Gods and >Anansi Boys --- but more, the Borges prototype of those books and all >their variant other instantiations besides. It's got the >multiverse- ranging vision and the shifting heroic templates and >genealogies of >Moorcock, the obsessive attention to weird detail and the fluid sense >of archetypal place and time of Jeff Vandermeer and M. John Harris; >Zelazny's jarring sense of mundane and magical superimposed --- the >subtle darkness and epic cosmology of Pullman, the suffocating sense >of history and the cryptobiblia and love of musty museums and >libraries of Lovecraft, and the twisty, delicious gnostic heresy of >all the latter-day Dantes from Milton through Twain and Lewis to >Steven Brust and more recently Glen Duncan. Blaylock comes to mind; >also Doug Bell, Terry Bisson, Tanith Lee, Saberhagen and Sean Stewart >--- and maybe even a little Robert Anton Wilson; stew with a heaping >helping of chopped Jung, season liberally with Tom Robbins and stir >with a Golden Bough. > >This writer is set to be to contemporary dark fantasy what Gibson was >to science fiction circa the 80s; both pinnacle of a particular form >and signpost to a paradigm shift. The book is at once mythopoesis >and mythic synthesis, parody and paradigm, post-contemporary and >seminal yet exquisitely, painfully respectful of the long and storied >tradition it terminates. > >It's 2017 and The War in Heaven ranges across all space and time, >throughout the plenum underlying all reality --- the Vellum. A >powerful book --- the God of Gods' own Book of Hours (it contains >every possible world; or is it just a map of possible worlds, or is >it the laws of physics reified, or is it the book of all true names, >or the list of final judgments?) has been lost. Or wait, maybe it's >1939, or the Fertile Crescent, 2000 BC. It's the end of time, or the >beginning of everything. Two families --- the Messengers and the >Carters --- whose destinies are inextricably linked seek to avoid >being caught up in the fight between the Convenant of Metatron >(angels - fallen, but orderly) and the Sovereigns (demons, also >fallen angels but independent spirits.) Inanna incarnate --- the >goddess's true name tattooed in magical ink upon her soul --- biker- >babe and newly-minted angel (or "unkin") Phreedom Messenger seeks her >missing brother Thomas, or Puck, among the worlds while on the run >from the forces of Heaven and Hell alike. Assisting in her quest are >her AI sidekick Lady Cypher and her own nascent facility with The >Cant, the language of power, the "machine code" from which reality is >created. Meanwhile, across several generations the Carters seek to >find the hidden book --- or is it their duty to keep it hidden? >Woven throughout these interleaved narratives the occasional narrator >hints at the story of writing the story, shifting back and forth >until you're unsure which is the subject and which the object of this >tale. > >Wow. > >There's a second book by the same author (Ink: The Book of All >Hours) but I'm not there yet, crawling through the first one savoring >every very intentional word. > >If you like this sort of thing, I think you'll enjoy this one... > >jb > -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
