Most Popular Books by Hal Duncan

An extraordinary, incendiary debut from a rare new talent, Vellum showcases a complex and sophisticated level of writing coupled with a fecund imagination that defies description. It’s 2017 and angels and demons walk the earth. Once they were human; now they are unkin, transformed by the ancient machine-code language of reality itself. They seek The Book of All Hours, the mythical tome within which the blueprint for all reality is transcribed, which has been lost somewhere in the Vellum—the vast realm of eternity upon which our world is a mere scratch. The Vellum, where the unkin are gathering for war. The Vellum, where a fallen angel and a renegade devil are about to settle an age-old feud. The Vellum, where the past, present, and future will collide with ancient worlds and myths. And the Vellum will burn. . . .

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.

Acclaimed author and critic Hal Duncan turns his analytic eye towards the development and current state of speculative fiction in American and English writing in the pages of Rhapsody. Duncan's trademark wry humor and suffer-no-fools approach to critiquing the genre will make this book more than a resource for students of the field--anyone who enjoys reading tales of the fantastical and strange can find Duncan's insight worthwhile to read again and again.

A primal collection of verse from the master of language, Hal Duncan, Songs for the Devil and Death touches the very heart of what it is to be human in this most inhuman world. With love and rage combined, Duncan uses words like knives to strip the flesh from the gods themselves. This poetry should not be spoken; it must be shouted, chanted, and sung in every graveyard, in every pulpit, in every home.

Are you prepared to enter acclaimed author Hal Duncan's world of scruffians and scamps and sodomites? Beware, for it is filled with the gay pirate gods of Love and Death, immortal scoundrels, and young men who find themselves forced to become villains. But who amongst us does not adore a gamin antihero? These fantastical tales from the fringes of an imaginative realm of supernatural fairies and human fey will captivate the reader. Light a smoke, raise a cup of whiskey, and seek a careful spot to cruise the Scruffians!

Sexy, secretive, yet clear-eyed, Duncan brings pop, high, and low cultures together in one handy sometimes amusing sometimes harsh A-to-Z which every bibliophile and armchair adventurer will find to be a necessary guidebook through the temerarious pages of international literature.

Thirteen short stories of terror, mayhem, and destruction which offer something highly unique in a genre that demands certain characters be only heroes or victims… gay villains! Prose collection with an introduction by Lambda Literary Award winning editor Tom Cardamone. Released by Northwest Press, which has been publishing quality LGBT-inclusive comics and graphic novels since 2010.

A hitman, a hooker, a homosexual kid, and a hobo suicide make the ultimate prison break...escape from Hell itself! But when news of their attempted escape gets out, the souls of the damned are transformed into a rioting mob, and all Hell truly does break loose. It's Escape from New York meets Jacob's Ladder, by one of fantasy's rising stars.

Meet the Scruffians, workhouse tykes and street arabs scrobbled by the Waiftaker General, dragged to the Institute and put to the Stamp that writes your very soul into your skin. Meet the waifs of Ripper Vicky's Empire, Fixed forever as they are, never ageing, never starving, ever bouncing back to exactly how they were Fixed... the perfect child labour. Now escaped from their chimney sweep and mill owner masters, hiding out in their rookery cribs, surviving as thieves and beggars... and fighting back. Meet Flashjack the hellion and Puckerscruff the urchin; Squirlet Nicely and Vermintrude Toerag; Yapper, the Scruffian who learned to speak Dog; Whelp, the dog Fixed as a Scruffian; and Rake Jake Scallion, not a Scruffian, but the finest friend any scruff ever had. Meet Gobfabbler, the fabbler of this here crib, with his fabbles of Christmas spirit, canine spifflication, and why, only the most important fabble of em all... the fabble of how the Scruffians took the Stamp!

What you have been taught, lover of the sublime, is a lie that made you live a lie... In the 21st century, a scalpel slices bible pages, passages spliced to restore lost truth. In the days of King Herod, the messias rises, calling to black sheep: walk with me. Now, here, between two aeons and across AEternity, a beloved student rebuilds his Gospel for the era of Anonymous: anarchist, socialist, atheist, revolutionary. Forget the tale you were spun and open your ears to the teacher who said, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. From the Hebridean fishing village of Capernaum, to a Jerusalem under Il Duce Pontius Pilate. The Empire ends today."

"From blackest humour to bleakest horror, with twisted relish, Hal Duncan's eighteen tales dig into death--and the life that goes with it."--Back cover.

What you have been taught, lover of the sublime, is a lie that made you live a lie... In the 21st century, a scalpel slices bible pages, passages spliced to restore lost truth. In the days of King Herod, the messias rises, calling to black sheep: walk with me. Now, here, between two aeons and across AEternity, a beloved student rebuilds his Gospel for the era of Anonymous: anarchist, socialist, atheist, revolutionary. Forget the tale you were spun and open your ears to the teacher who said, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. From the Hebridean fishing village of Capernaum, to a Jerusalem under Il Duce Pontius Pilate. The Empire ends today."

This novella-length collection of Erehwynan Idylls offers readers an indulgent and weird agglomeration of randy boys and revelations, as the embodiment of a small breeze--actually the gene-spliced child of the gods Zephyros and Ares--flirts and seduces fleshlings on a terraformed future Mars. Hal Duncan's acclaimed style is both alethic and erudite and offers a fresh telling of philosophical musings and classic Greek mythology for 21st century readers.

Collecting twelve new works from the author of Vellum, Ink, Testament, & Songs for the Devil and Death, this chapbook takes the razing of Sodom as origin myth for all queers, gathers its toolkits from all corners of verse & song, old & new, to forge a passionate call to arms, a manifesto for art in the face of loss & surl.

Urchins scrobbled down the centuries from yer poor and persecuted. Foundlings Fixed in imperishable waifhood by the Stamp & sold to rich groanhuffs as child labour. Hellions with spirits as resilient as their flesh, less like to cower from a kick than nick yer boot, hamstring yer and fuckin leg it. That's what it is to be a Scruffian, mate, and there ain't a rhyme sung or tale told in a Scruffian squat that ain't, at the end of the day, out to learn yer how to survive. So cosy in, scamps, quit yer fidgeting, and hark to the fabbler of this here crib... Aimed at readers old and new, as latest instalment or stand-alone introduction, A Scruffian Survival Guide collects five new works of dark queer fantasy in the ""Scruffian"" series. "The post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal Duncan's The Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world - a feral dream. The language is mad genius." -- Jeffrey Ford

Presents a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories originally published on the Internet in 2008.

The Scruffians: street waifs Fixed by the Stamp to provide immortal slave labour. But now they've nicked the Stamp and burned down the Institute that housed it, preventing any more of their number being exploited. Hounded by occultish Nazi spies and demons, they leave the Blitz behind in search of somewhere safe to stow it...

Fantastique Unfettered #4 Ralewing marks the one year anniversary of this new, genre-bending magazine, an issue filled to the brim with unique prose, poetry, and non-fiction. Herein, there are fears to face, and things unknown, things unthought. Herein, there is Death unmasked. We dare you to turn these pages and read... Featuring new fiction and poetry by Hal Duncan, Mike Allen, Jacqueline West, Alma Alexander and more. Table of contents: Fiction: Azif by Lynne Jamneck The Bachorum Principle by Brenda Stokes Barron The Butterfly Collection of Miss Letitia Willoughby Forbes by Alma Alexander Mr. White Umbrella by Georgina Bruce Sons of the Law by Hal Duncan Stolen Souls by Mike Allen (Reprint) Three Tales of the Devil's Wife by Carmen Lau Verite by D. Harlan Wilson Poetry: Mike Allen (special feature) Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky Binary Sisyphus Crawls Self-portrait by Shweta Narayan 'cubus by Dan Campbell At the Crossroads of the West by J. C. Runolfson Life Decisions by Kaolin Fire Black Sheep by Jacqueline West Clones evaporate faster by Kristine Ong Muslim Nonfiction: Alexa Chats with... Hal Duncan & Brent Weeks The Night Circus Reviewed by Alexandra Seidel Life is Suffering: The Writer's Point of View, Being a Discussion with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen, Conducted by Alexandra Seidel This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Editorial by Brandon H. Bell "The stories are fantastical in the best sense of the word: strange and marvelous, full of the inexplicable... This magazine is worth seeking out." --Terry Weyna, Fantasy Literature "By and large the sensibility is 'literary, ' and the quality is high (the two, of course, not always the same thing), virtually all the stories assembled here working, though to different degrees and in different ways.... That combination of quality and variety means that Fantastique Unfettered #1 offers something for many different tastes... " --Nader Elhefnawy, The Future Fire "There is a poignance in these poems: an ache and a loss, a love and a surrender, a luscious melange of sorrow and love." --Dan Campbell, Poetry Editor of Bull Spec (in his review of the poetry and interview)

Fixed imperishable by the Stamp, sold as slaves, escaped to run wild, fight dirty and plot revenge, Scruffians might look no more'n filthy guttersnipes, but it's a daft groanhuff who crosses em. From the Children's Crusades to the chimney sweeps of Ripper Vicky's London, from Jack Scallywag to the Beast of Buskerville, Scruffians have learnt the hard way to carry a shiv and mind yer mate's back. We'll learn you too, scamp, with these fabbles of Liberatings and Come-Uppances, carnival carnage and Christmas feasts. So cosy in and grab some grub. It's stew tonight, and if yer finds a finger... that's good luck! Praise for A Scruffian Survival Guide: OThe post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal DuncanOs A Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world a feral dream. The language is mad genius.O N Jeffrey Ford

Meet the Scruffians, workhouse tykes and street arabs scrobbled by the Waiftaker General, dragged to the Institute and put to the Stamp, Fixed ageless, imperishable... the perfect child labour. Meet the scruffs escaped to live free & fight back: Flashjack and Puckerscruff; Squirlet Nicely and Vermintrude Toerag; Yapper, the Scruffian what speaks Dog; Whelp, the dog Fixed as a scruff; and Rake Jake Scallion, not a scruff, but the finest friend a scruff ever had. Park yer arse, stray, and we'll learn yer the ABCs of being a scruff. We'll learn yer how us Scruffians STAMP. Praise for A Scruffian Survival Guide: OThe post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal DuncanOs A Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world a feral dream. The language is mad genius.O -- Jeffrey Ford ""Hal Duncan's cheeky and charming Scruffian stories hide a steely shiv of inspection..."" -- Neil Williamson

Where can you find a television that sees five minutes into the future? Where can you find dragons trapped in a jar and an illness which turns people into glass? Where might you find families who sell their brainpower to corporations for penny wages, or dead relatives that sit down for family meals? Why, in the pages of Sybil's Garage No. 7, of course. In this seventh issue of the highly acclaimed series, you will find twenty-seven original works of fiction and poetry from today's top talent, with suggested musical accompaniment, our trademark design aesthetic, and much more. But be sure to leave a trail of breadcrumbs on your way into Sybil's Garage, or you may not find your way out. Published by Senses Five Press, the World Fantasy Award-winning publisher of Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy. Contributors include Kathryn E. Baker, Cheryl Barkauskas, Kelly Barnhill, Tom Crosshill, Hal Duncan, Lindsey Duncan, Amal El-Mohtar, Lyn C. A. Gardner, Juliet Gillies, M.K. Hobson, Swapna Kishore, Avi Kotzer, Terence Kuch, Megan Kurashige, Sam Ferree, Richard Larson, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Anil Menon, E.C. Myers, Adrienne J. Odasso, Eric Schaller, Alexandra Seidel, Amelia Shackelford, Amy Sisson, Sonya Taaffe, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Jacqueline West, & A.C. Wise

Collecting for the first time, and revising for this edition, all four stories in the ERRATA sequence-"The City of Rotted Names," "The Prince of End Times," "The Whenever at the City's Heart," & "The Tower of Morning's Bones"-this chapbook is a cubist collage of wordplay and worldblazing, a mosaic narrative of the battle for the city of the soul. Here, fans of VELLUM & INK can delve deeper into the mythos of The Book of All Hours, while new readers will find a stand-alone story, a wild ride into the world of a work described as "the Guernica of genre fiction."

Eli est un clochard, brisé, au bout du rouleau, Belle une prostituée qui cherche à fuir son mac. Matthew est un jeune homosexuel, Seven un tueur à gages sans pitié. Ils ne se connaissent pas mais se retrouvent ensemble sur le même bateau... en partance pour l'Enfer. Un Enfer un peu particulier, qui pourrait être New York mais n'en est qu'une copie... franchement décalée. Tous quatre, armés de leurs seuls soucis et accompagnés par un étrange personnage, n'ont plus alors qu'une idée en tête : trouver un moyen de s'évader. Après le monumental Livre de toutes les heures (Vélum et Encre, parus dans la collection Lunes d'encre aux Editions Denoël), Hal Duncan offre avec Evadés de l'Enfer ! un court roman explosif qui confirme tout son talent.

Depuis des temps immémoriaux, le trône de Dieu est vacant. Ses anges et tous ceux dont le sang se charge d'une parcelle de divin, les Amortels, se sont divisés en deux clans : les Souverains et l'Alliance. Le conflit qui les oppose s'étend à tout le Vélum, ce tissu de mondes en comparaison duquel notre Terre n'est qu'une trace de crasse sous l'ongle d'un pouce. Pour Phreedom Messenger, qui recherche son frère, Thomas, et refuse de choisir un camp, le temps est compté car la guerre des Cieux sera bientôt totale. Vélum est le premier volume d'un diptyque, Le Livre de Toutes les Heures. Souvent comparée à L'échiquier du mal de Dan Simmons, cette fresque apocalyptique, d'une ambition rare, s'adresse tout autant aux lecteurs de H. P. Lovecraft et de Michael Moorcock qu'à ceux de James Joyce et de Jorge Luis Borges.