Vellum (The Book of All Hours, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

May 05, 2016 Tani rated it really liked it

Shelves: male-author, sff-2016, sff-explorer-2016, sff-award-2016, 2016-novels, urban-fantasy

The premise of this book shapes it tremendously, so let me start by laying that out. Basically, as far as I can tell, there are certain people who can become more than people. These are called unkin. They have an ability to step outside the bounds of reality and time, to see things and remember things that normal people can't. Throughout history, they've been kings, emperors, gods. They've been good, bad, and everything in between.

However, eventually some of them get tired of the way things are The premise of this book shapes it tremendously, so let me start by laying that out. Basically, as far as I can tell, there are certain people who can become more than people. These are called unkin. They have an ability to step outside the bounds of reality and time, to see things and remember things that normal people can't. Throughout history, they've been kings, emperors, gods. They've been good, bad, and everything in between.

However, eventually some of them get tired of the way things are. They want to force a better world, and so they form a Covenant. These are the angels, and they fight the demons. And it's war, a war that no unkin can be allowed to abstain from. Those who try? They will regret it.

This book follows a number of unkin that refuse to take part in the war, and what happens to them, based on their refusal and as a result of their attempts to escape. Basically, time comes undone, and they find themselves (or lose themselves) inside the fabric of the world, reliving the same basic stories throughout a multitude of lifetimes.

It's a fascinating concept, but not an easy one. As others have said, this book is hard to follow. Like, seriously. I just recently finished a read of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, a series that is famed for its 'sink-or-swim' philosophy of story-telling, and I had trouble following this book. Part of that is because it's written in the first person, and yet has a multitude of narrators. Sometimes, you get pages into a section before you're able to figure out which character you're reading about. That, I will admit, was frustrating. Part of that is just the nature of the story. Unkin are not immune to death and destruction, and when one of them does die or get severely wounded, it rips time. Things change. History is made new. So, yes, just when you think you're getting a grip on things, they can easily be ripped entirely into a new vein.

Duncan also uses a number of archetypal stories to shape this book, and if you're like me and only mildly familiar with some of those stories, it can get hard to follow. Prometheus, I at least know the basic outlines of, but Inanna? Never heard of her before this book. That complicated things for me, but not so much that I couldn't get a basic understanding of what was going on.

Despite the difficulties, the times that I was able to piece things together were really great. I have to admire the way that Duncan shaped this story out of such disparate pieces. Still, I'll admit that I was torn on whether to rate this a 3 or 4 stars. Ideally, I'd say it's right at 3.5 stars. Forced into a choice, my headache said 3 stars and my admiration said 4. I let admiration win, as I feel that the average Goodreads rating could use a little boost. I've read much worse books with much higher ratings, after all.

Anyway, I've heard that the sequel, Ink, really brings the story together wonderfully, so I'm definitely looking forward to that! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2011 Cindywho rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-sf, unfinished

I was just not in the mood for this one - twisted reality and a gaggle of boys and one girl/goddess on a motorcycle. It just kept going around in circles and I got bored.

Like · see review