Hal Duncan shattered the boundaries between genres with his stunning
debut novel, Vellum, which shocked with the boldness of its ideas,
seduced with the sensual beauty of its prose, and astonished with its
imaginative sweep. Now Duncan returns with another epic tour de force
that surpasses all expectations.
Once, in the depths of prehistory, they were human. But in a moment of
brutal transfiguration, they became unkin, beings who possessed the
power to alter reality by accessing the Vellum: a realm of eternity
containing every possibility, every paradox, every heaven . . . and
every hell. The Vellum became a battleground where forces of order and
chaos fought across time and space. The ultimate weapon in that bloody
war spanning through history and myth, dreams and memory, was The Book
of All Hours, a legendary tome within which the blueprint for all
reality is inscribed, a volume long lost amid the infinite folds of the
Vellum.
Until, in 2017, it was found by Reynard Carter, a young man with the
blood of unkin in his veins.
Until Phreedom Messenger and her brother, Thomas, were swept up in an
archetypal dance of death and rebirth.
Until a hermit named Seamus Finnan found the courage to re-forge his
broken soul, and a self-proclaimed angel called Metatron unleashed a
plague of AI bitmites.
Now, in the aftermath of the apocalypse, several survivors search
desperately for the remnants of themselves scattered across the Vellum
like torn pages, determined to use the blood of the unkin to rewrite The
Book of All Hours, and to forge a new destiny for themselves and all
humanity. Reality will never be the same.
