Tous les livres de Matthew Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
The superior melding of fantasy, humor and detection seen in Majestrum (2006) is displayed to even better advantage in Hughes's second chronicle of Henghis Hapthorn, a discriminator (or consulting detective) on an alternate Earth. Aided by his intuitive inner self, Osk Rievor, and his faithful grinnet, an AI housed in an ape-cat body, Hapthorn accepts a request from wealthy socialite Effrayne Choweri to find her legendarily devoted and romantic husband, Chup, who vanished after looking into the purchase of a small spaceship. When the sleuth finds that several others who had considered buying the vessel also disappeared, he poses as a prospective buyer, only to be captured by a super-intelligent fungus seeking to expand its experience of reality by leeching the thoughts and knowledge of others. Hapthorn's wry first-person narration recalls Bertie Wooster, and Hughes effortlessly renders fantastic worlds and beings believable. News that a third adventure is in the works will surely please fans of many genres. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Booklist
Resembling a futuristic hybrid of the arch escapades of Bertie Wooster and the thought-provoking cases of Sherlock Holmes, Hughes' Hengis Hapthorn novels delight intellect and imagination. As Old Earth's foremost discriminator (i.e., private detective), Hapthorn combines a logician's savvy and an aptitude for handling unforeseen perils with aplomb. In his latest adventure, his empirical skills face a serious challenge when he is unexpectedly transported centuries forward to a future in which magic has replaced physics as the universal modus operandi. Worse, Hapthorn's intuitive alter ego, Osk Rievor, has unaccountably abandoned him in a bewildering culture whose rival wizards appear bent on using Hapthorn as a hapless pawn in a magical power struggle. Only his wits and the erudition of his fruit-devouring mammalian personal assistant will save him from a fate involving either servitude or death. Hughes' masterfully eloquent style and clever plot twisting provide Hapthorn with an investigative panache rivaling those of the leading sleuths of mainstream detective fiction. Hays, Carl --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Chesney's efforts to Save The Day and Win the Girl make slow progress. Meanwhile, Boss Greeley's deal with the Devil makes him ever-stronger, and untouchable, while the Reverend Hardacre digs deeper and finds that not everything in reality is quite what it seems...
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.
As magic begins to reassert its ancient dominion, Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator, Henghis Hapthorn, and his intuition (now a separate person named Osk Rievor), are living apart, though they remain on good terms. But now there comes between them a woman of alluring mystery. Who is Hespira? Does she truly want either of them? Or has she come to destroy them both?
Amazon.com
Matthew Hughes's impressive first novel, Fools Errant, is set in a future so distant and strange, it may be read with equal enjoyment by both SF and fantasy readers. The book kicks off with a Wildean battle of wits, but the main influences on this ironic, rather picaresque, and altogether delightful entertainment are Jack Vance and Jonathan Swift.
Filidor Vesh is a languid, callow young dandy, "the nephew and sole heir of Dezendah Vesh, ninety-eighth (or possibly ninety-ninth) Archon of those regions of old Earth still inhabited by human beings"; he anticipates a long life of idle pleasure, but a mysterious dwarf spirits him away on a dangerous journey. It quickly becomes apparent that their search for the Archon is an excuse to visit bizarre, fascinating lands. The reader won't mind. The characters are charming and singular, and the journey is packed with pleasures and perils. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
Combining many of the elements of a good fantasy (quest, magic, strange lands and memorable characters), Hughes's rollicking debut details the coming-of-age of young Filidor Vesh, nephew to the Archon of Old Earth. The journey begins when Filidor and his aging mentor, Gaskarth, agree to deliver a package to the Archon. En route, they encounter weird and often humorous lands and people whose lives revolve around a distinct value (such as the Jampions who care only about competition, or the Zeelotes who prize innovation). Readers may be disappointed, however, by the novel's rather episodic structure. Filidor's odyssey swiftly falls into a pattern in which Filidor travels to a new land, faces some mortal peril at the hands of an extremist community, overcomes his peril and then travels to the next land. Hughes thankfully breaks from this cycle toward the end of the book when the true nature of Filidor's quest is revealed. Despite the plot's predictability, Hughes has crafted a worthwhile tale reminiscent of Gulliver's Travels. The individual cultures are well-conceived and enjoyable, and the images that Hughes conjures will stick with the reader long after the plot is forgotten. (Mar.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Amazon.com
Set in an exotic and strange far future, Matthew Hughes's Fool Me Twice is the entertaining sequel to his fine debut novel, Fools Errant. The witty, satirical Fool novels should please most science fiction and fantasy readers, especially fans of Jack Vance, Douglas Adams, or Jonathan Swift.
Fool Me Twice continues the adventures and misadventures of Filidor Vesh, heir to "Dezendah Vesh, ninety-eighth (or possibly ninety-ninth) Archon of those regions of old Earth still inhabited by human beings." When Filidor is knocked off his feet, literally and emotionally, by a beautiful stranger who steals the plaque and sigil of his office, he pursues the woman (and the proof of his inheritance) across the sea. Filidor's search for Emmlyn Podarke takes him into increasingly peculiar and precarious situations, until he finds himself captured, along with his beloved Emmlyn, by a powerful and possibly insane enemy who has excavated an ancient and dangerous artifact. --Cynthia Ward
Book Description
Filidor Vesh is literally bowled over by beautiful Emmlyn Podarke, who knocks him flat, steals his credentials, and dares him to pursue her. Follow her he does, and now in a remote and mostly forgotten corner of Old Earth, 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 kidnapped, and on the Podarke family farm, somebody is digging up a mysterious and possibly dangerous artifact... A FOOLISH COMEUPPANCE When Filidor awoke, something gray and white was standing on his chest. It clacked a sharp yellow bill and cocked its head to eye him with what he was sure was evil intent. He opened his mouth to say "Get off me!" but all that came out of him was the kind of sound a particularly inarticulate beast might make, accompanied by a rolling belch that reeked of stale liquor. The bird took offense and flapped away. Filidor closed his eyes, having discovered that light, even the weak light cast by the fading orange sun in this latter age of Old Earth, was not a friend to his present condition.
(Présentation de l'éditeur)
After accidentally summoning a demon while playing poker, the normally mild-mannered Chesney Anstruther refuses to sell his soul… which leads through various confusions to, well, Hell going on strike. Which means that nothing bad ever happens in the world – and that actually turns out to be a really bad thing.
There’s only one thing for it. Satan offers Chesney the ultimate deal – sign the damned contract, and he can have his heart’s desire. And thus the strangest superhero duo ever seen – in Hell or on Earth – is born!
Book one of the To Hell & Back saga is a riotous fantasy from the acclaimed author of the Henghis Hapthorn stories.
File Under: Fantasy [ Expletives Deleted | Up, Up And Away | Endless Loveliness | Writer of Life ]
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“The Damned Busters is a supernatural adventure that blends a rich and unpredictable story, with a tone and wit that provides plenty of laughs along the way. A great balance of action and comedic situations with some romance thrown in for good measure, albeit an awkward romance, this is a great read. It will forever contain the most intense game of poker I have ever read. 5 *****”
- Celebrity Cafe
“An actuary’s dull life is interrupted when he accidently summons a demon. This story starts out as a tongue-in-cheek humorous parody of the relationship between humans and demons, until a sharp twist turns religion upside down. The premise is bold, thought-provoking, and original.”
- Tangent Online
“Hughes continues to carve out a unique place for himself in the fantasy-mystery realm. A droll narrative voice, dry humor and an alternate universe that’s accessible without explicit exposition make this a winner.”
- Publisher’s Weekly
From Publishers Weekly
This start to a promising new far-future series (after 2005's The Gist Hunter) introduces Henghis Hapthorn, a sleuth who combines the confident brilliance of Sherlock Holmes with the amusing voice of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, in a fantastical mystery reminiscent of Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy novels. Hapthorn is a discriminator—what freelance detectives are called in his baroque world—who's drawn into political intrigue after receiving an apparently simple commission to vet a young man with designs on an aristocrat's daughter. An odd duo aids Hapthorn on his quest: his integrator, an artificial intelligence that has somehow become a furry frugivorous animal that perches on his shoulder, and Hapthorn's alternate personality, which split off during an earlier "transdimensional" voyage and operates according to intuition rather than analysis. Hughes's successful blend of magic, the supernatural and high-tech with Sherlockian deductions (and cryptic observations straight out of Doyle's canon) suggests a long life for Hapthorn. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Booklist
Until now, Hughes' erudite master detective, Hengis Hapthorn, has appeared only in a handful of tales recently collected in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories (2005). Renowned on Old Earth and throughout the Ten Thousand Worlds as the galaxy's foremost discriminator (i.e., private eye), Hapthorn is the far future's answer to Sherlock Holmes. After a thorny case involving demons and magical forces, Hapthorn finds himself saddled with an extra voice, personifying his intuition, inside his head. This alter ego becomes both boon and annoyance during a pair of cases that interconnect when a routine investigation into the true motives of a wealthy debutante's suitor gives way to a manhunt for an evildoer plotting to overthrow the ruling archon of Old Earth. Somehow intertwined with both pursuits is an indecipherable magical book with which the alter ego is obsessed to the point of threatening to relegate Hapthorn to a backseat in his own mind. Hughes artfully blends wit, colorful characterizations, and intriguing plot twists in a compelling yarn that detective-novel readers may like, too. Carl Hays
Mandaté personnellement par l'archonte, un jeune agent du Bureau des investigations scrupuleuses, Baro Harkless, se lance sur la piste du mystérieux et inestimable brillion noir.
Véritable découverte ? Pure escroquerie ? Avec son partenaire, un jovial escroc sybarite, Baro sillonnera la vaste plaine de la Balayade et s'aventurera dans la noosphère, univers de l'inconscient collectif peuplé de l'ensemble des souvenirs, archétypes et rêves de l'humanité. Il y découvrira aussi le secret de sa destinée.
Dans ce roman du cycle de l'Archonat, Matthew Hughes nous a concocté un savoureux cocktail de Vance, Swift et Voltaire, avec un trait de sauce Woodehouse.
