History Literature / TheBookofAllHours

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Metatron seriously miscalculated – mixing AI nanotechnology with the Cant, which combines with all the gravings of long-dead Unkin in the wake of Phreedom's [[NiceJobBreakingItHero quick trip to the tattoo parlor]], and using it to try and torture who is essentailly Prometheus? Here comes Evenfall, and the Hinter.

* {{Anachronic Order}}: made of this trope. a good idea for a project would be to cut up both books and try to fit the pages into chronological order. [[DrivenToMadness Have fun.]]
* {{Bury Your Gays}}: Puck, (Thomas Messenger), is murdered early on in the first book, leaving behind his lover Jack... and dies again and again across the multiverse. Puck's treatment is a harsh criticism of this trope from Duncan (as well as upon real-world anti-gay violence, specifically the murder of Matthew Shepard), who is very outspoken about gay rights. [[spoiler: Ultimately, the entire duology is about the love these two men have for each other and the struggle to find the one fold of the Vellum where Thomas lives. And if nobody could find it, they would ''make'' it.]]
* {{Deus Sex Machina}}: especially in the second book, ''Ink''. For some of the folds of reality in the Vellum, tantric sex apparently makes it easier to travel between the various alternate realities, and in these folds there also exists several kinds of technology fueled by using "orgone energy" as a power source (a real life concept that, sadly, doesn't actually exist).
* {{The End of the World as We Know It}}: Metatron seriously miscalculated – mixing AI nanotechnology with the Cant, which combines with all the gravings of long-dead Unkin in the wake of Phreedom's [[NiceJobBreakingItHero quick trip to the tattoo parlor]], and using it to try and torture who is essentailly Prometheus? Here comes Evenfall, and the Hinter.
* {{Fictional Document}}: the Book of All Hours itself. came into existence in many different ways within all the folds of reality that exist in the Vellum

* {{Language of Magic}}: the [[RewritingReality Cant]] itself. The metaphysical language so precise, so intricate, that [[spoiler: "it can [[EquivalentExchange catch an atom in the interference patterns of a sound]], [[EnergyAbsorption snatch the energy thrown off as waste]], and use it as a weapon". Snatching the heat out of the world to reshape reality and the Vellum. At one point in the far distant futurepast, the war between the rival Unkin factions used [[RealityWarper the Cant]] so much that the world was in the midst of a deep ice age.]] An excellent example where words truly can [[WordsCanBreakMyBones cause physical effects]].
* {{Mind Screw}}: ''HOO BOY DOES IT EVER.'' where to begin... a multi-layered universe functioning on dimensional variables with recurring archetypes across millennia acting as the main characters, one of the main characters killing his younger self (at the point when said younger self was supposed to kill the older self) because he was crying (StableTimeLoop seems to apply), and the absolute deconstruction of all levels of reality to a point where even the guy who walked across eternity can't piece it back together. Awesomeness and pan-cultural symbolism aside, you kinda have to read it twice. Because AnachronicOrder MindScrew. Or more than twice... [[DrivenToMadness Have fun.]]
* MultipleChoicePast: At one point, Seamus tells one story about how the unkin began as mortals who, upon discovering that they lived in a godless world, decided to turn themselves into gods. He then immediately tells another story about how the unkin were gods who stepped out of the realm of imagination into reality, but in doing so became partly mortal. Which story is true? ''Both.''
* {{Our Monsters Are Different}}: the Unkin. they have been our [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]], our [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]], [[OurGodsAreDifferent our]] [[GodGuise Gods]] in the mythologies the world over. Due to the fact that they are/were, in origin, humans that touched the Vellum through a moment of [[AscendtoaHigherPlaneofExistence artistic/emotional/intellectual epiphany]], why do you think all those characters in the deepest stories of mankind acted so... human? And its not so much [[AscendtoaHigherPlaneofExistence ascending]] as it is descending and touching the Vellum underneath reality. [[spoiler: also the point of why there is the war between the Covenant and the Sovereigns - people fighting over power, politics, greed, ambition, and in some cases horrified that there is no judeo-christian God: if there's no God, then we'll build our own idea of Heaven, a tiny outpost in the vast harsh wilderness that is the eternity of the Vellum.]]
* RealityWarper: Every unkin has a subtle but profound form of this. They can't just, say, will a tree or person into being - but by their nature they leave indelible marks on reality that may retroactively change the world. At one point, [[spoiler:an incarnation of Jack is killed and reality shakes in response to his death, and suddenly the world is full of "jacks" - there's a new/old face card in playing cards, the stories are suddenly about ''Jack'' the Giant-Killer, and numerous other common idioms and metaphors across the world are changed to involve a Jack somehow]].
* RelationshipUpgrade: In a peculiar variation, [[spoiler: Jack Flash/Carter and Puck/Thomas Messenger really do finally get to be together (without either one being brutally murdered by the other) ... sorta. Considering how by the end of ''Ink'', reality in the Vellum has been re-written so many times that not even Reynard/Guy/Fox could put the thing back together', the fact that they're present in any shape or form is impressive to say the least (particularly after what happened to Seamus).]] In any case, they get things their way eventually, [[spoiler: in whatever variant of reality that still includes them.]]
* ShellShockedVeteran: Depending on which reality variant or which character iteration you're looking at, practically ALL the main characters are this at different points. Particularly Seamus/Prometheus (who is this in EVERY reality ([[BecauseDestinySaysSo unfortunately its a core staple of his archetype]]) and Jack Carter (in the iterations where he plays TheCaptain). [[{{Determinator}} Phreedom]] ''would'' have been this except she chose the ScrewDestiny route and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero went AWOL]].

* {{Timey Wimey Ball}}: doesn't even try to claim to be otherwise. It's such a mishmash of pocket universes, alternate universes, and paradox that causality can't even be seen with a telescope on a good day. Essentially - think of the universe as a huge piece of vellum on which reality has been written. Then crumple it up. Most characters make such a habit of going not just back and forth in time but also sideways, “up”, and down into the buried fossilized remains of previous overwritten realities as well.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Jack Flash.
* {{Universal Adaptor Cast}}: does this extensively. This is an interesting case, because each character is the living embodiment of an archetype superimposed upon the multiple realities. By the second book, where reality has degenerated into isolated wells of time and space in the Vellum, and the characters move from one reality well to another, they have absolutely no qualms about screwing all possible realities to their advantage. This results in them routinely sitting around a table and leafing through the "script" for the next reality, deciding who is going to play what.

* {{Mind Screw}}: [[AC: ''hoo boy does it ever.'']] where to begin... a multi-layered universe functioning on dimensional variables with recurring archetypes across millennia acting as the main characters, one of the main characters killing his younger self (at the point when said younger self was supposed to kill the older self) because he was crying (StableTimeLoop seems to apply), and the absolute deconstruction of all levels of reality to a point where even the guy who walked across eternity can't piece it back together. Awesomeness and pan-cultural symbolism aside, you kinda have to read it twice. Because AnachronicOrder MindScrew. Or more than twice... [[DrivenToMadness Have fun.]]

* {{Bury Your Gays}}: Puck, (Thomas Messenger), is murdered early on in the first book, leaving behind his lover Jack... and dies again and again across the multiverse. Puck's treatment is a harsh criticism of this trope from Duncan (as well as upon real-world anti-gay violence, specifically the murder of Matthew Shepard), who is very outspoken about gay rights – so, in the end, TheyDo. [[spoiler: Ultimately, the entire duology is about the love these two men have for each other and the struggle to find the one fold of the Vellum where Thomas lives. And if nobody could find it, they would ''make'' it.]]

* {{They Do}}: In a peculiar variation, [[spoiler: Jack Flash/Carter and Puck/Thomas Messenger really do finally get to be together (without either one being brutally murdered by the other) ... sorta. Considering how by the end of ''Ink'', reality in the Vellum has been re-written so many times that not even Reynard/Guy/Fox could put the thing back together', the fact that they're present in any shape or form is impressive to say the least (particularly after what happened to Seamus).]] In any case, they get things their way eventually, [[spoiler: in whatever variant of reality that still includes them.]] If you would like directions on the various interpretations of the situation, you'll find MindScrew on your right, and you can follow that straight down until you hit GoMadFromTheRevelation (after which your confusion will no longer be a problem).

* {{Universal Adaptor Cast}}: does this extensively. This is an interesting case, because each character is the living embodiment of an archetype superimposed upon the multiple realities. By the second book, where reality has degenerated into isolated wells of time and space in the Vellum, and the characters move from one reality well to another, they all become DangerouslyGenreSavvy, having absolutely no qualms about screwing all possible realities to their advantage. This results in them routinely sitting around a table and leafing through the "script" for the next reality, deciding who is going to play what.

->''Once, in the depths of prehistory, they were human. But in a moment of brutal transfiguration, they became Unkin - beings who possess the power to alter reality by accessing the Vellum: the realm of eternity underneath the skin of the world, underneath every reality, containing every possibility, every paradox, every heaven and 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 history and myth, dreams and memory, was The Book of All Hours, a legendary tome within which the blueprint for all of 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 archtypical dance of death and rebirth.''
->''Until a hermit named Seamus Finnan found the courage to reforge his broken soul, and a self-proclaimed angel called Metatron unleashed a plague of artificially intelligent bitmites.''

->''Reality will never be the same.''[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vellum1_8697.jpg]]

* {{Our Monsters Are Different}}: the Unkin. they have been our [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]], our [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]], [[OurGodsAreGreater our]] [[GodGuise Gods]] in the mythologies the world over. Due to the fact that they are/were, in origin, humans that touched the Vellum through a moment of [[AscendtoaHigherPlaneofExistence artistic/emotional/intellectual epiphany]], why do you think all those characters in the deepest stories of mankind acted so... human? And its not so much [[AscendtoaHigherPlaneofExistence ascending]] as it is descending and touching the Vellum underneath reality. [[spoiler: also the point of why there is the war between the Covenant and the Sovereigns - people fighting over power, politics, greed, ambition, and in some cases horrified that there is no judeo-christian God: if there's no God, then we'll build our own idea of Heaven, a tiny outpost in the vast harsh wilderness that is the eternity of the Vellum.]]

* Ubermensch: Jack Flash.

''The Book of All Hours'' is a series of speculative fiction books by Hal Duncan, composed of two books so far, ''Vellum'' and ''Ink''.

->''Once, in the depths of prehistory, they were human. But in a moment of brutal transfiguration, they became Unkin - beings who possess the power to alter reality by accessing the Vellum: the realm of eternity underneath the skin of the world, underneath every reality, containing every possibility, every paradox, every heaven and 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 history and myth, dreams and memory, was The Book of All Hours, a legendary tome within which the blueprint for all of 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 archtypical dance of death and rebirth.
->Until a hermit named Seamus Finnan found the courage to reforge his broken soul, and a self-proclaimed angel called Metatron unleashed a plague of artificially intelligent bitmites.

->Reality will never be the same.''[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vellum1_8697.jpg]]

The Book of All Hours is a series of speculative fiction books by Hal Duncan, composed of two books so far, ''Vellum'' and ''Ink''.