I read this book when it was first published in 1995, and did not care for it AT ALL.  I had just finished a jag of Blaylock's books, including The Paper Grail and The Last Coin, and All the Bells on Earth was a (to me) baffling departure from form.  

I recently unearthed my copy of the paperback, which I remember having bought in 1997 when it was released.  There aren't many things that I still own from 1997, I have gone through many moves since then (including two cross-country moves, there and back) so it is nothing short of miraculous that I still had this book.  

Out of curiosity as much as anything else, I decided to give it a second chance.  Twelve years later I am a much different person, and All the Bells on Earth seems like a much different book.  Put simply, a better book, and one with far more historical staying power than The Last Coin or The Paper Grail will most likely have.  As fun as those books are, they are like Saturday morning cartoons compared to All the Bells on Earth.  That was a slam against All the Bells on Earth when I was 25, but at the ripe old age of 37 it is just the opposite.

All the Bells on Earth seamlessly integrates big things like "evil" and "demons" and "magic" into a mundane, suburban context.  It is Christmas time, and the middle-aged couple Walt and Ivy are struggling to make ends meet.  Ivy is a real estate agent, and Walt operates a mail order business that centers around trinkets and novelties.  

Walt and Ivy's family circle quickly expands.  First their aunt and uncle, Henry and Jinx, arrive for their annual visit in their RV.  Then their niece half abandons her children, Eddie and Nora, into Walt and Ivy's care.  To complicate matters, Walt's nemesis seems to be creeping back into Walt's life.

Walt receives a mis-addressed package which contains a number of odd items, the oddest of which is a dead bluebird inside a glass jar full of gin.  The pickled bluebird has instructions to make a wish, and Walt does.  His wishes remain ambiguous throughout the book, although he acknowledges that this is simply out of fear of confirming that the bluebird is actually working.  (This turns out to be a good move on Walt's part.)

Someone is trying to destroy the church bells in the neighborhood, and someone else is running around destroying Christmas decorations, and spontaneous human combustion makes a few key appearances.  

All the Bells on Earth asks the questions, How far would you go to get ahead in business?  How desperately would you claw at a dollar, if you knew of its true provenance?  How many people would you step on to climb the ladder?  If you were a minister of a struggling church, how far would you go to earn money for the church?  Would you pretend to be a minion of Satan?

Luckily, All the Bells on Earth touches on these weighty issues only tangentially.  The book is a thoughtful, energetic ride through Blaylock's familiar territory (magic and Orange County).  It may lack its predecessors' wide sweep and broad humor, choosing instead to draw the story inwards, where everything is personal.  I'm just glad I finally grew up enough to enjoy it.