Vellum

by Hal Duncan

Del Ray Books, 463 pp, $14.95

Vellum is the start of The Book of All Hours. The second volume, Ink, is listed as forthcoming.

The year is 2017 and angels and demons walk the earth. Once human, they have been transformed by the ancient machine code that provide the basis for reality itself. The unkin, those who have been transformed, seek the Book of All Hours, the mythical blueprint where all of reality is transcribed. But the mythical tome has been lost in the Vellum, where all of eternity is only a scratch on its surface.

The Vellum - where a fallen angel and a renegade devil are about to settle an age old feud, and where past, present, and future will collide with ancient worlds and myths.

Within the constantly changing reality of a war that has raged throughout space and time, it becomes a lingering nightmare in a temporal schizophrenic’s mind, in a world where nothing stays the same and characters seem to dance between the pixels of transient realities.

Speculative fiction it definitely is - but seemingly creating its own sub-genre like Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen. Well-written with quirky characters - stand back: Vellum may burn. - Pam Allan.