I’m a big fan of Matthew Hughes’s faux-Jack Vance stories. Devil Or Angel & Other Stories contains some of those fun Dying Earth tales, but Hughes shows he can write a wide range of stories. The title story, “Devil Or Angel,” is a wild romp about the Afterlife. Many of the stories explore comic themes. “The Devil You Don’t” shows that evil is more complicated than you would think. But my favorite stories in this collection all have a Jack Vance flavor: “Grolion of Almery,” and “From the Discourses and Edifications of Liw Osfeo.” If you’re looking for an entertaining and provocative short story collection, I’d recommend Matthew Hughes’s Devil Or Angel & Other Stories. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Devil or Angel
Petri Parousia
The Devil You Don’t
Not a Problem
Grolion of Almery
Timmy, Come Home
Go Tell the Phoenicians
The Hat Thing
Hell of a Fix
Huckster
The Ugly Duckling
Shadow Man
Widow’s Mite
From the Discourses and Edifications of Liw Osfeo
So Loved
Ant Lion
I love this (from Wikipedia):
Matthew Hughes (born 1949) is a British-born Canadian author who now lives wherever his secondary career as a housesitter takes him, while continuing to write science fiction under the name Matthew Hughes, crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews.
I’m always looking for new short story writers.
Jeff, Matthew Hughes has a great sense of humor that’s reflected in his short stories.
I should add that I’ve read one of his collections, 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn.
Jeff, I enjoyed 9 TALES OF HEGHIS HAPTHORN. A blend of Jack Vance and Sherlock Holmes!
I’ll have to look up matt hughes on stop you’re killing me. He sounds like a fun guy
I just looked him up and his website has a story up that he couldn’t sell due to long lead time for the magazine. I read part of it and it’s really good, but scary. It’s about the election, and the winner and his goon squad of “apprentices” I’ll finish the story later today
Maggie, I like that part about “apprentices.” I wonder if Hughes is hinting at something…
I know you adore Jack Vance, and I do like his Dragon Masters, but thr Dying Earth fantasy was too strange for me, so I assume this would be too.
Rick, you might prefer Jack Vance’s PLANET OF ADVENTURE series. THE DYING EARTH is very different.
George, I still think that the Star Kings/Demon Princes were Vance’s best!
But I’m more of a hard SF type – while my wife also loves fantasy …
A bit OT:
Now she’s waiting for George Martin’s latest, book and tv series to be available in Hungarian and she forbade me (with horrendous torture promised if I misbehaved …) to give her any spoilers (they are all over the net), so I have to be very careful …
Wolf, I love the Demon Princes series, too! I might reread them this Summer.
As you know, I adore the work of Matt Hughes, so here’s another to add to my list of to be ordered soon.
Scott, I’ve read all of Matthew Hughes’s books and enjoyed them all. The more they resemble Jack Vance’s work, the more I like them!