Matthew Hughes

Chesney Arnstruther: by day, mild mannered insurance man; by night, fearless superhero crime fighter. By his side, his wisecracking demonic sidekick, in a somewhat ill-fitting costume. Watch out all you freaks, weirdos, werewolves and assorted furry monsters, the Damned Busters are on your trail

The Damned Busters

Sherlock Holmes meets Jack Vance’s Dying Earth in Majestrum, the explosive new novel from Matthew Hughes, acclaimed author of Black Brillion, Fools Errant, and The Gist Hunter and Other Stories. The scientific method and a well-calibrated mind have long served freelance discriminator Henghis Hapthorn, allowing him to investigate and solve the problems of the wealthy and powerful aristocracy of Old Earth, and securing him a reputation for brilliance across The Spray and throughout the Ten Thousand Worlds. But the universe is shifting, cycling away from logic and reason and ushering in a new age of sympathetic association, better known as magic. This change is evidenced by the unexplained transformation of Henghis Hapthorn’s personal electronic integrator into a small fruit-eating creature. Odder still, Hapthorn’s personality has been cleaved into two distinct beings sharing one body: himself, familiar and appropriate to the rational old order; and the other, strange, intuitive, and obsessed with an arcane and untranslated tome, appropriate to the new. When Hapthorn is hired by Lord Afre to investigate the motives of his daughter’s new companion, a young man of indeterminate circumstances, he takes the job expecting it to allow him the opportunity to explore and understand his changing universe. Little does Henghis Hapthorn realize, but the path of discovery will lead to deeper questions, a mysterious assignment from the Archon himself, and the ancient and powerful secret name... Majestrum!

Tales of Henghis Hapthorn, Book One

Majestrum

Boro Harkless has devoted his life to the service of the Archonite Bureau of Security, the force tasked with keeping the peace among and within the city-states of Old Earth. He comes to the city of Sherit seeking the criminal, Luff Imbry. Luff Imbry has devoted his young life to the enjoyment of wealth. A gourmet, a charmer, and an ever-so-stylish fop, he has come to Sherit to pursue a new fortune. Not, mind you, his own, for Luff is also a mountebank, swindler, and forger of the first water. Yoked together by circumstance, they form an uneasy truce and discover a common goal: capturing the grandest con-man of them all, Horselan Gebbling. Gebbling, who made off with Imbry's previous fortune, is posing as Father Olwyn, Sacredotal Eminence of the Assembly of Tangible Unity, and now claims to cure the invariably fatal ailment known as the lassitude with Black Brillion. But the gemstone is a myth, as our heroes know. Filled with dollops of drollery and an ancient evil, Black Brillion is a science fantasy caper that grows into a metaphysical exploration of the human psyche. Matt Hughes has crossed Jack Vance with Carl Jung to come up with a bold new novel of life on an Earth grown older by millions of years.

A Novel of the Archonate

Black Brillion

Fools Errant

Chris Mann

De geschiedenis van het Derde Rijk

Meet Luff Imbry, an insidiously clever confidence man . . . He likes good wine, good food, and good stolen goods, and he always maintains the upper hand. When a business rival gets the drop on him, he finds himself abandoned on Fulda--a far-off, isolated world with a history of its own. Unable to blend in and furious for revenge, Imbry has to rely on his infamous criminal wit to survive Fulda's crusade to extinguish The Other. Hailed as the heir apparent to Jack Vance, Matthew Hughes brings us this speculative, richly imagined exploration of society on the far edges of extreme. A central character in Black Brillion, Luff Imbry is at last front and center in Hughes's latest rollercoaster adventure through a far-future universe.

The Other

Fantascienza - romanzo (215 pagine) - Un romanzo ambientato nell’universo dei Principi Demoni di Jack Vance “Matthew Hughes riscrive Jack Vance meglio di chiunque altro” George R. R. Martin Sono passati ventiquattro anni da quando cinque grandi criminali, chiamati Principi Demoni, hanno fatto irruzione a Mount Pleasant per schiavizzare migliaia di abitanti e portarli nel Dilà dove non esiste alcuna legge. Ora Morwen Sabine, figlia di schiavi prigionieri, è fuggita dal suo crudele padrone e torna a Mount Pleasant per recuperare un tesoro nascosto che spera possa comprare la libertà dei suoi genitori. Ma Mount Pleasant è cambiato. Morwen deve far fronte a cultisti mistici, a trafficanti di droga assassini, a “donnole” sotto copertura della Compagnia di Coordinamento della Polizia Interplanetaria e agli scagnozzi del feroce signore dei pirati che possiede i suoi genitori e vuole riprendersi Morwen. Così può ucciderla lentamente... Barbari del Dilà è un ritorno al “Jack Vance Space” e alle audaci opere spaziali che seguono le orme del Gran Maestro della fantascienza. “Barbari del Dilà mi è piaciuto molto. Matthew Hughes riscrive Jack Vance meglio di chiunque altro, tranne ovviamente lo stesso Jack.” — George R. R. Martin Matthew Hughes è nato nel 1949 a Liverpool, ma è cresciuto nella British Columbia, Canada. Dopo gli studi universitari prima ha fatto il giornalista, poi ha scritto discorsi per il ministro della giustizia canadese e per altri politici. Contemporaneamente coltivava la passione per la narrativa, pubblicando opere mystery con lo pseudonimo di Matt Hughes e fantascienza come Matthew Hughes. Ha vinto l’Arthur Ellis Award per la narrativa mystery e diversi suoi racconti sono stati finalisti dei premi Aurora, Nebula e Derringer. Inoltre le sue storie vengono sempre inserite nella annuale Reading List della rivista Locus. Tra le opere pubblicate, ricordiamo: Black Brillion, 2004; Majestrum, 2006; The Commons, 2007 (edito in Italia da Delos Books come Guth Bandar esploratore della noosfera); The Spiral Labyrinth, 2007; Template, 2008; Hespira, 2008. Col romanzo What the Wind Brings ha vinto il Premio Endeavou nel 2020. La sua opera viene spesso accostata a quella di Jack Vance, del quale molti lo considerano l’erede: oltre a I barbari del Dilà ambientato nel mondo dei Principi Demoni ha pubblicato diversi racconti e un romanzo ambientati nella Terra Morente.

Ciclo: I Principi Demoni

Barbari del Dilà

The Actionary: To Be or Not To Be? The epic conclusion to the brilliant To Hell and Back series – a trilogy that does for autism what Flowers for Algernon did for intellectual disability Being a crime-fighting superhero with a demon sidekick is not as much fun as Chesney Arnstruther thought it would be. Nor is having his autism “healed” by the historical Jesus. To make things worse, he’s zeroing in on the metaphysical truths behind the notion that reality is a book constantly being rewritten by a deity exploring the nature of good and evil. Satan and the Messiah are holed up in Eden writing fresh chapters, and Chesney’s quest takes him to ancient Babylon and Rome, and into a deep-past encounter with a tribe of God-worshipping dinosaurs. It all leads Chesney toward a choice that no superhero should have to make… FILE UNDER: Fantasy [ The Better Book | Talk the Dinosaur | Scam Busters | Bring Me Barabbas! ]

To Hell and Back, Book III

Hell to Pay

Copyright Paperback Collection (Library of Congress)

Gullible's Travels

From the award-winning author of Majestrum, Template, and The Other, this collection of short stories ranges from the thoughtful to the whimsical. Most of them appeared first in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov's. Others were written for the bespoke anthologies: Songs of the Dying Earth, Old Mars, and Welcome to the Greenhouse; one is published here for the first time. Praise for Matthew Hughes: "Criminally underrated" - George R.R. Martin "Heir apparent to Jack Vance" - Booklist "Hughes's boldness is admirable"- New York Review of Science Fiction "Hughes effortlessly renders fantastic worlds and beings believable"- Publishers Weekly "A towering talent"- Robert J. Sawyer

Devil or Angel and Other Stories

This book is a thought-provoking study of the Palestine campaign fought by the British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) from 1917 to the withdrawal from Syria in 1919.

Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917-1919

Twenty years ago, five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided Mount Pleasant to enslave thousands of inhabitants in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, a daughter of captives, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure she hopes will buy her parents' freedom. But Mount Pleasant has changed. Morwen must cope with mystic cultists, murderous drug-smugglers, undercover "weasels" of the Interplanetary Police Coordinating Company, and the henchmen of the vicious pirate lord who owns her parents and wants Morwen returned. So he can kill her slowly... Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to "Jack Vance Space" and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction Grandmaster's footsteps. "I really enjoyed Barbarians of the Beyond. Matthew Hughes does Jack Vance better than anyone except Jack himself." - George R. R. Martin "Lock the door, turn off the phone, get into a comfy chair, and deep-dive into a marvelous continuation of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series. Matthew Hughes is a treasure and Barbarians of the Beyond is a terrific adventure." - David Gerrold "Matthew Hughes follows nimbly in Jack Vance's footprints, then breaks some fresh trail. First-class space opera." - Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids "Engaging and enchanting...a fine companion adventure to Jack Vance's The Demon Princes series, told with Matthew Hughes's excellent sense of charm, ethical complexity and exotic worldbuilding. Let's hope this is just the beginning!" - Kurt Busiek "Barbarians of the Beyond is just plain old-fashioned space opera fun with a relatable heroine who is sometimes fallible, rather than some Shaolin Temple kung fu megamaster. I enjoyed it a lot." - Glen Cook "...a tale that captures that special 'golden age' feel in which mankind has travelled far into the stars yet still behaves as though it's the Wild West." - David White, RNR Magazine "Deeply enjoyable and entirely delivers on its promise." - Andrew Wheeler, Editor, Science Fiction Book Club On the Paladins of Vance label, Spatterlight publishes original works by authors who have given their own imagination free rein in the many wonderful worlds of the Grandmaster of fantasy & sci-fi.

Barbarians of the Beyond

THE TALES OF HENGHIS HAPTHORN Henghis Hapthorn is the foremost penetrator of mysteries and uncoverer of secrets in a decadent, far-future Old Earth, one age before Jack Vance's Dying Earth. A superb rationalist, he has long disdained the notion that the universe has an alternative organizing principle: magic. But now a new age is dawning, overturning the very foundations of Hapthorn's existence, and he must struggle to survive in a world where all the rules are changing. In MAJESTRUM, Hapthorn is on the trail of an unknown killer who collects body parts from his victims. The search leads him off-planet, into the Ten Thousand Worlds of The Spray, then turns in an unexpected direction as the freelance discriminator learns that an ancient and evil power is plotting to reassert its dominion over Old Earth. Praise for Matthew Hughes: "Criminally underrated" - George R.R. Martin "Heir apparent to Jack Vance" - Booklist "Hughes's boldness is admirable"- New York Review of Science Fiction "Hughes effortlessly renders fantastic worlds and beings believable"- Publishers Weekly "A towering talent"- Robert J. Sawyer

It was bad enough when Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth's foremost discriminator and die-hard empiricist, had to accept that the cosmos was shortly to rewrite its basic operating system, replacing rational cause-and-effect with detestable magic. Now he finds himself cast forward several centuries, stranded in a primitive world of contending wizards and hungry dragons, and without his magic-savvy alter ego. Worse, some entity with a will powerful enough to bend space and time is searching for him through the Nine Planes, bellowing "Bring me Apthorn!" in a voice loud enough to frighten demons.

The Spiral Labyrinth

The Distraction Attraction

Marie Brennan

Nancy Kress

Garth Nix

Candas Jane Dorsey

Jeremy Szal

Barbara Hambly

James Alan Gardner

Jeffrey A. Carver

Tim Pratt

Carrie Vaughn

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Kelley Armstrong

David D. Levine

Helen Dale

Lisa Kessler

Susan Forest

Edward Savio

Adria Laycraft

S.M. Stirling

Ira Nayman

Heli Kennedy

Lisa Foiles

Explore twenty-four imaginative tales crafted by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its second year, and including several international bestsellers and winners of every major award in the field, as well as newer authors just beginning what promise to be stellar careers. A woman seeking the power to see the evil hiding within others regrets receiving it. Letters written by a wizard in the past threaten a queen’s reign in the present. Competing for Earth, a human wrestler faces an alien shapeshifter in an interstellar tournament. A guide in Tibet must weigh the good of his people when asked to lead a westerner to the fabled realm of Shangri. An activist imprisoned for illegal genetic modification works with the materials at hand and the threads of the multiverse to make the world—a world, at least—a better place. A demonic agent sent to help a human turns the tables on his summoner. Like the “cabinets of curiosities” created by collectors of the sixteenth century, Shapers of Worlds Volume II displays a varied array of thought-provoking delights: tales of humour and sorrow, darkness and light, and hope and despair that are full of adventure, full of life, and sometimes full of regret. There are stories set in alternate histories, in possible futures, near and far, and in the here-and-now, taking place on Earth, on distant planets, or in fantastic realms. All arise from the innate need of human beings to create, to imagine . . . to shape worlds. Praise for Shapers of Worlds Volume I: “One of the most wide-ranging volumes I’ve encountered in terms of sub-genre. It’s rather like a speculative fiction buffet, offering steampunk, fantasy, military fiction, magic, space opera, post-apocalyptic, hard science fiction, and others . . . Inventive and varied, the collection has a lot to offer for those seeking an interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.” – Lisa Timpf, The Future Fire

Science fiction & fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers

Shapers of Worlds Volume II

Jm Landels

Mel Anastasiou

Tais Teng's Queen of Swords guards the gates to a new Erm Kaslo story from Matthew Hughes, mysteries deepen for Frankie Ray in Mel Anastasiou's The Extra, and JM Landels's Toinette arrives in Paris. Short fiction from Christi Nogle and Melisa Gregorio, and poetry from Patti Pangborn and Sarah Summerson, plus a short comic from Rina Piccolo.

Issue 26

Pulp Literature Spring 2020

In an age of wizards and walled cities, Raffalon is a journeyman member of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Purloiners and Purveyors. In other words, a thief. His skills allow him to scale walls, tickle locks, defeat magical wards. He lifts treasures and trinkets, and spends the proceeds on ale and sausages in taverns where a wise thief sits with his back to the wall. But somehow things often go the way they shouldn't and then Raffalon has to rely upon his wits and a well calibrated sense of daring. Here are nine tales that take our enterprising thief into the Underworld and Overworld, and pit him against prideful thaumaturges, grasping magnates, crooked guild masters, ghosts, spies, ogres, and a talented amateur assassin. Includes "Inn of the Seven Blessings," from the bestselling anthology, ROGUES, and "Sternutative Sortilege," which appears only in this collection. Praise for Matthew Hughes: "Criminally underrated" - George R.R. Martin "Heir apparent to Jack Vance" - Booklist "Hughes's boldness is admirable"- New York Review of Science Fiction "Hughes effortlessly renders fantastic worlds and beings believable"- Publishers Weekly "A towering talent"- Robert J. Sawyer

9 Tales of Raffalon

In another sparkling and slightly askew adventure in the mode of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jack Vance, Fools Errant's Filidor Vesh sashays once more through the penultimate age, finding that love is a many splintered thing. The dandified Archon's apprentice is literally bowled over by beautiful Emmlyn Podarke -- she knocks him flat and steals his credentials, daring him to pursue her to a remote and mostly forgotten corner of Old Earth. Now Filidor must cope with philosophical pirates, prophet-seeking aliens, light-fingered mummers, and a tiny, bothersome voice in his left ear. Meanwhile, the Archon may or may not have been kidnaped, and somebody's digging up a mysterious ancient artefact buried on the Podarke family farm. Praise for Matthew Hughes: "Criminally underrated" - George R.R. Martin "Heir apparent to Jack Vance" - Booklist "Hughes's boldness is admirable"- New York Review of Science Fiction "Hughes effortlessly renders fantastic worlds and beings believable"- Publishers Weekly "A towering talent"- Robert J. Sawyer

Fool Me Twice

Matthew Seligmann

The First World War was a conflict in which personality and character mattered. Its course and outcome were decided by determined individuals who had to make momentous decisions in very trying circumstances. As battles raged on land, sea and air across Europe, Africa and Asia, the Generals and politicians tried to steer a course to victory. It was never easy and they often disagreed on the best strategy. Yet, men's lives depended on the outcome. This collection of authorative essay examines these disagreements, portraying the decision-making process on both sides in the Great War. The personalities involved are now household names: Haig, Foch, Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson and the German Kaiser, William II.

Matthew Hughes

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