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9 Tales of Raffalon

by Matthew Hughes

A Thief in the Dying Earth

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.

“Hughes has made a name for himself as heir apparent to Jack Vance”

“A tremendous amount of fun”

 
“If you like vivid adventure science fiction and fantasy, of the sort written by Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, and Roger Zelazny, you’ll like Matthew Hughes too.”

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Devil or Angel and Other Stories

by Matthew Hughes

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 bespoke anthologies, including Songs of the Dying Earth, Old Mars, and Welcome to the Greenhouse; one is published here for the first time.

“Matthew Hughes writes contemporary science fiction and fantasy with a classic sensibility–driven by adventure and thrills, and chock full of sense of wonder.”

— John Joseph Adams, Series Editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy

“If you like vivid adventure science fiction and fantasy, of the sort written by Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, and Roger Zelazny, you’ll like Matthew Hughes too.”

— Gardner Dozois

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Hespira: A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn

by Matthew Hughes

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 Hespira, Hapthorn decides to leave Old Earth, seeking to solve the mystery of Hespira, an ungainly off-world woman who has lost her memory.

The investigation takes him down The Spray to the rank-obsessed world of Ikkibal and the rustic Shannery, where he unravels Hespira’s role in a deadly feud between aristocrats. But behind the scenes an unseen antagonist is plotting the discriminator’s destruction.

You can read an excerpt from Hespira here.

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Template

A Novel of the Archonate

by Matthew Hughes

When professional duelist Conn Labro escapes indentured servitude as the star player of Horder’s Emporium, he abandons the gaming world of Thrais and sets out on an interstellar journey filled with murder, deceit, and self-discovery. His only friend on Thrais, discovered dead and tortured, left him enough money to buy himself out of his contract and a curious encrypted "bearer deed" to a mysterious property on the distant edge of the galactic Spray. With the seductive, secretive showgirl Jenore Mordene at his side and a villainous pleasure cult dogging his every move, Labro sets out to learn the truth behind his bearer deed and more about his own past than he had ever dared bargain for.

You can read an excerpt from Template here.

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The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories

by Matthew Hughes

In Old Earth’s penultimate age, the corpulent master criminal Luff Imbry moves through the halfworld like a full-fleshed shark. Thief, forger, confidence man, and sometimes go-between, he maps out his illicit operations with exquisite care then carries them out with courage and panache. But, often, things don’t go as Luff planned, and he must call upon a talent for improvisation and a ruthless will to survive.

This collection brings together seven short stories and novelettes previously published in Postscripts, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the anthology Forbidden Planets, plus two novellas formerly only available in limited editions. It offers Luff Imbry in all his moods and guises.

"Hughes has made a name for himself as heir apparent to Jack Vance" Booklist

"A tremendous amount of fun." George R. R. Martin

"Hughes has been the best-kept secret in science fiction for too long: he’s a towering talent" Robert J. Sawyer

"Superlative. A droll narrative voice, dry humor, and an alternative universe that’s accessible without excessive exposition" Publishers Weekly

“Matthew Hughes is one of those writers whose witty, wry writing style is as enjoyable as the story he’s writing about. His Archonate universe is a wonderfully compelling far future that mixes fantasy and science fiction.” Kirkus Reviews

You can read excerpts from The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories here and here.

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9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn

by Matthew Hughes

Here are nine tales of Henghis Hapthorn, foremost freelance discriminator of Old Earth in the planet’s penultimate age. Included are the six stories that ran in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (and were previously collected in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories), leading up to the events that began the first Hapthorn novel, Majestrum, plus three more.

"Hughes has made a name for himself as heir apparent to Jack Vance." Booklist

"A tremendous amount of fun." George R. R. Martin

"Hughes has been the best-kept secret in science fiction for too long: he’s a towering talent" Robert J. Sawyer

"Superlative. A droll narrative voice, dry humor, and an alternative universe that’s accessible without excessive exposition" Publishers Weekly

“Matthew Hughes is one of those writers whose witty, wry writing style is as enjoyable as the story he’s writing about. His Archonate universe is a wonderfully compelling far future that mixes fantasy and science fiction.” Kirkus Reviews

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Fools Errant

by Matthew Hughes

Wise, witty and just a little weird, FOOLS ERRANT wryly strolls the satirical path laid down by Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Jack Vance, heralding the brilliant debut of a gifted new voice.

Foppish young Filidor Vesh wants only to dally among his shallow pastimes. But a simple errand for his uncle, the vaguely all-powerful Archon of those parts of Old Earth still populated by human beings, becomes a frenetic odyssey across a planet speckled with eccentric nations pursuing odd aims with intense determination.

Harried at every step by the irascible dwarf, Gaskarth, and frequently at the peril of wild beasts, enraged mobs and a particularly nasty thaumaturge, Filidor makes a relucant progress toward a final encounter with an ancient and possibly world-ending evil.

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Fool Me Twice

by Matthew Hughes

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 artifact buried on the Podarke family farm.

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Downshift

by Matt Hughes

Sid Rafferty is between writing jobs, a rock and a hard place, and the poles of his luck. At this point, he’s willing to take on just about any writing gig. But when a return to his political spin doctor days collides with what should be a simple promo piece about a new ski resort in British Columbia’s playground, Sid finds himself out of his depth, over his head, in love and at risk of his life.

You can read an excerpt from Downshift here.

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Old Growth

by Matt Hughes

Freelance speechwriter Sid Rafferty signs on to help a neophyte candidate run for election as an alderman in Cumberland, once a booming coal-mining town on Vancouver Island that’s now shrunk down to an out-of-the-way little village. But first another writing job makes Sid a witness to a violent death the Mounties are calling murder, then a pair of marijuana-growing brothers want to know what he’s doing poking around near their grow-op.

An old colleague from his newspaper offers Sid a job spying on environmental activists, but he finds working undercover is no picnic. And he’s about to find out that in Cumby, old currents run as dark and deep as the abandoned mine shafts. Dig down too far and the past can reach up with a deadly grip.

You can read an excerpt from Old Growth here.

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Paroxysm

by Matt Hughes

Mad as Hell – and Loving It!

Ruthless mercenaries, hired by an ex-Pentagon chemical-weapons designer turned rogue, take over a small town in Oregon. The plan: use the citizenry as guinea pigs in a test-run of a bootlegged bio-agent for an Islamist terror organization.

But something goes wrong and the mercs and their clients find themselves surrounded by townsfolk who have turned into hyper-coordinated killing machines.

PAROXYSM is an action-packed tale about the seductive power of righteous violence, about how ordinary people can explode when fate gives them the power to hit back.

And once they’ve gone down that road, there’s no turning back.

You can read an excerpt from Paroxysm here.