Vellum by Hal Duncan
Vellum
Hal Duncan
Published by Del Rey 2006
Vellum, the Book of All Hours starts out with a quite interesting premise. A book is found by a University student in England which, when opened, has maps that are very recognizable but eventually shows an altered geography of Earth which is a small part of the maps as a whole. The book of all hours is the book which God himself wrote giving way to all of His creation which is built on the Vellum. Carter, after finding the book, travels around the various maps, parallel universes and different generations and finds himself in the middle of a supernatural struggle armed by angels, demons and others to mold the Vellum into what they want.
This may be described as one of those “seemed like a good idea at the time” books. After reading about ¾ of the book I was so absolutely confused that I put the thing down and waited a week before picking it back. When I did, I began at the beginning and attempted to draw a map and timeline to keep track of the story lines. Wrong answer. It’s quite possible I am an idiot who lies on the floor drooling on myself, but I am going to say I’m not since my keyboard hasn’t exploded from the drool yet. But I could not follow this storyline. At times I felt like I was traveling the Moorcock’s multi-verse but most of the time I was wandering aimlessly with no clear direction and the thoughts of “What the #$^?”. Now anyone who knows me, knows what it takes to make me curse.
All is not lost, however. Mr. Duncan’s writing is edgy and eloquent in a confusing sort of way. I felt his prose was almost lyrical at times and once in awhile I actually stopped to ponder specific paragraphs; not because I was confused, but because they were so amazingly written. The ideas were unique and although there were some similarities to other stories I have read, this book was one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is honestly my hope that Mr. Duncan writes more books as his stories are unique, but I can only pray that they are a LOT easier to follow.
The only people I recommend this book to are those that like really, really hard puzzles. (and I mean really hard).
FT Rating: 7.8
