Eschewed Obfuscation

Vellum: The Book of All Hours
by Hal Duncan
466 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Wow. Just, wow. I don't even know where to begin.

This is such a weird book. The POV jumps all over the place--past/present tense, first/third/second person. Sure, it works and flows pretty well, but it's also insane. There are multiple main characters that show up in multiple reincarnations; there's even different (or so I presume) characters with the exact same name (Jack Carter). The style is grand and epic; the plot drifts all over the place; the prose is extremely dense and detailed. Simply put, Duncan is a talented, maybe even brilliant writer, but he also tends toward the incoherent. I'd love to read a literary analysis of his work sometime.

Because even while breaking nearly every rule of fiction, Vellum manages to hold its structure together--and everything does make marginally more sense at the end. In a way, this book is speculative historical fiction--historical sci-fi, versus historical fantasy like Guy Gavriel Kay's books. Which is ironic; GGK is my favorite author, while Duncan is my dear friend Sharon's. She's the one who recommended it to me, and she's the reason why I finished reading this, because the middle of the book is long. The beginning is intriguing and the ending is amazing, but the middle is a great big lump of insanity. For instance, the whole section with OBSERVATION, BIOFORM STATUS, ANALYSIS, OPERATION, etc.--what the heck was that? My best guess is the bitmites rewriting Seamus's soul, but then they end up being "against" the Covenant, so I'm just confused.

Also, Seamus Finnan's Irish/Scottish accent is mildly annoying but grows on you. At least, it grew on me. I liked Phreedom/Inanna/Anna (her Geshtinanna incarnation not so much) more than Jack or Guy or whoever the first person narrator(s) is/are. And that sentence alone should tell you just how complicated Vellum is.

On another note, Vellum is definitely a book to be read in one or two sittings, very quickly. I took a two-week break from it and was supremely confused for a long while. Only issue is that the middle sections don't have quite enough suspense to keep the average reader turning pages, but if you persevere, the ending is worth it.

And another-other note: I adore the epilogue. And! Sharon's notes actually make sense now, after I finished the whole book.

Okay, I'll stop blathering now. Really, for a book I didn't love--liked, but not loved--this is a long review.