Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The Book of All Hours

 The Book of All Hours
type
TVTItem
 The Book of All Hours
label
The Book of All Hours
 The Book of All Hours
page
TheBookOfAllHours
 The Book of All Hours
comment
The universe is not what it seems. Time does not follow a strict and orderly progression. Imagine reality as a great, infinite sheet of vellum, upon which anything can and has been written. And then crumple that sheet up, mangle it as best you can without tearing it apart. Every crack is a world, every fold a pocket universe in which anything can happen. Even people are just little marks on the vellum, symbols or stories that move about and tell themselves over and over again.And then imagine some of those marks - those symbols and stories - uprooting themselves from their place on the vellum and crossing to another. These are the unkin, people who have awakened to the true reality hiding beneath the surface and in so doing have indelibly marked the Vellum with their presence. When they move, they bring their stories with them and transplant them into other worlds. Every unkin leaves their mark.And now, finally, imagine a great book within which the entirety of the Vellum has been recorded. Everything written, described, put in its place in the language of magic and reality. Imagine the conflicts over this book. Not the book itself, but what the book means. That everything can be recorded, and even must be recorded. Everything in its place. And who manages the Book manages reality.The Book of All Hours is a series of speculative fiction books by Hal Duncan, composed of two books so far, Vellum and Ink. They follow the struggle of a group of unkin rebels across the crumpled, bent, warped substance of the true reality, where time and space are only as meaningful as one wants them to be. The Powers That Be have decided that everyone must take a side in the fight over the Book, and they are willing to let reality itself become a casualty over what they want reality to mean.
 The Book of All Hours
fetched
2023-07-13T10:43:14Z
 The Book of All Hours
parsed
2023-07-13T10:43:14Z
 The Book of All Hours
processingComment
Dropped link to OurMonstersAreDifferent: Not a Feature - IGNORE
 The Book of All Hours
isPartOf
DBTropes
 The Book of All Hours / int_161f1ebf
type
Relationship Upgrade
 The Book of All Hours / int_161f1ebf
comment
Relationship Upgrade: In a peculiar variation, 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, in whatever variant of reality that still includes them.
 The Book of All Hours / int_161f1ebf
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_161f1ebf
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_161f1ebf
 The Book of All Hours / int_1d029135
type
Fictional Document
 The Book of All Hours / int_1d029135
comment
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
 The Book of All Hours / int_1d029135
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_1d029135
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_1d029135
 The Book of All Hours / int_1e6dfea1
type
Ãœbermensch
 The Book of All Hours / int_1e6dfea1
comment
Übermensch: Jack Flash.
 The Book of All Hours / int_1e6dfea1
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_1e6dfea1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_1e6dfea1
 The Book of All Hours / int_2a8a7ea6
type
Bury Your Gays
 The Book of All Hours / int_2a8a7ea6
comment
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. 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.
 The Book of All Hours / int_2a8a7ea6
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_2a8a7ea6
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_2a8a7ea6
 The Book of All Hours / int_3b99a9e0
type
Reality Warper
 The Book of All Hours / int_3b99a9e0
comment
Reality Warper: 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, 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.
 The Book of All Hours / int_3b99a9e0
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_3b99a9e0
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_3b99a9e0
 The Book of All Hours / int_45cec696
type
God Guise
 The Book of All Hours / int_45cec696
comment
God Guise: The Unkin.
 The Book of All Hours / int_45cec696
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_45cec696
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_45cec696
 The Book of All Hours / int_5b965319
type
Language of Magic
 The Book of All Hours / int_5b965319
comment
Language of Magic: the Cant itself. The metaphysical language so precise, so intricate, that "it can catch an atom in the interference patterns of a sound, 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 the Cant so much that the world was in the midst of a deep ice age. An excellent example where words truly can cause physical effects.
 The Book of All Hours / int_5b965319
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_5b965319
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_5b965319
 The Book of All Hours / int_6193ae61
type
Deus Sex Machina
 The Book of All Hours / int_6193ae61
comment
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 Book of All Hours / int_6193ae61
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_6193ae61
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_6193ae61
 The Book of All Hours / int_7a143509
type
Shell-Shocked Veteran
 The Book of All Hours / int_7a143509
comment
Shell-Shocked Veteran: 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 (unfortunately its a core staple of his archetype) and Jack Carter (in the iterations where he plays The Captain). Phreedom would have been this except she chose the Screw Destiny route and went AWOL.
 The Book of All Hours / int_7a143509
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_7a143509
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_7a143509
 The Book of All Hours / int_8b6e8d7
type
Anachronic Order
 The Book of All Hours / int_8b6e8d7
comment
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. Have fun.
 The Book of All Hours / int_8b6e8d7
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_8b6e8d7
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_8b6e8d7
 The Book of All Hours / int_8d23f3a7
type
Timey-Wimey Ball
 The Book of All Hours / int_8d23f3a7
comment
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.
 The Book of All Hours / int_8d23f3a7
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_8d23f3a7
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_8d23f3a7
 The Book of All Hours / int_92762b69
type
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead
 The Book of All Hours / int_92762b69
comment
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Phreedom Messenger, the only female of The Seven.
 The Book of All Hours / int_92762b69
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_92762b69
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_92762b69
 The Book of All Hours / int_a426ae28
type
Multiple-Choice Past
 The Book of All Hours / int_a426ae28
comment
Multiple-Choice Past: 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.
 The Book of All Hours / int_a426ae28
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_a426ae28
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_a426ae28
 The Book of All Hours / int_bef696dd
type
Mind Screw
 The Book of All Hours / int_bef696dd
comment
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 (Stable Time Loop 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 Anachronic Order Mind Screw. Or more than twice... Have fun.
 The Book of All Hours / int_bef696dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_bef696dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_bef696dd
 The Book of All Hours / int_c7a9137e
type
Universal-Adaptor Cast
 The Book of All Hours / int_c7a9137e
comment
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.
 The Book of All Hours / int_c7a9137e
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_c7a9137e
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_c7a9137e
 The Book of All Hours / int_d71d51fd
type
The End of the World as We Know It
 The Book of All Hours / int_d71d51fd
comment
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 quick trip to the tattoo parlor, and using it to try and torture who is essentailly Prometheus? Here comes Evenfall, and the Hinter.
 The Book of All Hours / int_d71d51fd
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_d71d51fd
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_d71d51fd
 The Book of All Hours / int_name
type
ItemName
 The Book of All Hours / int_name
comment
 The Book of All Hours / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 The Book of All Hours / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Book of All Hours / int_name
 The Book of All Hours / int_name
itemName
The Book of All Hours

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 TheBookofAllHours
sameAs
The Book of All Hours
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Bury Your Gays / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Deus Sex Machina / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Differently Powered Individual / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Gay Guy Dies First / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
God Guise / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Great Big Book of Everything / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Grey Goo / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Matrix Raining Code / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Our Gods Are Different / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Queer Romance / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
The Joy of X / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Time Crash / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Universal-Adaptor Cast / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Words Can Break My Bones / int_d1940512
 The Book of All Hours
hasFeature
Fictional Document / int_d1940512