Customer Reviews

Black Brillion: A Novel of the Archonate (Tor Science Fiction)

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Matt Hughes has been writing stories of the Archonate for Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine for a couple of years now. We were first introduced to "Old Earth" in two now out of print books, "Fool Errant" and "Fool Me Twice".

This book is NOT a sequel, though it is set in the same universe. And what a universe it is. If you are a Jack Vance "Dying Earth" fan, who loves such stories as "Cugel the Clever", you will enjoy "Black Brillion" a lot. Imagine our Earth in the far future, when the sun is dying, and a bizarre combination of magic and techology intermingle. Now, go back from that time a couple of thousand years, when the Earth is old, old, but there isn't the feeling of ending in the atmosphere, as there is in the Dying Earth books. This is the world of the Archonate.

You will see in the other reviews a bit of what the story is about, but that won't give you the taste of this book. Matt Hughes comes as close to channelling Jack Vance as anyone ever has, and for those who love the language, and story-telling of Vance, they will be in for a treat if they read "Black Brillion", or anything else by Mr. Hughes.

I think this book has some flaws but it is still a very worthy read for SF/F fans. I know Matthew Hughes' work mostly from the short stories he has published in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. My favorite stories from that mag involve the noonaut Guth Bandar, a scholar who travels the Commons---the dreamscape of all human achetypes and experiences. (Think Carl Jung's collective unconscious).

I have not read the two novels that precede BLACK BRILLION, but I am familiar with the Old Earth universe via the Guth Bandar short stories. I have to admit that I did not get into this book at all until about 50 pages in or so, when Guth Bandar shows up and throws a monkey wrench in the main character's undercover police operation. When Bandar and the Commons become involved in the story, it gets a lot more interesting. And the last 100 pages are a total page-turner---I stayed up late to finish the book. However, I was somewhat disappointed with the ending---it seemed a little too tacked-on for such a complex narrative.

Still, I am glad I read this book. I think Matt Hughes is a very talented writer we should see a lot more of, and that this book is well worth purchasing in hardcover.

BTW, I am no relation to Matt Hughes. Just a coincidence that we have the same last name.

I've been a big fan of Matthew Hughes since reading his Henghis Hapthorn stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. When I got the chance to review a copy of his new novel, Black Brillion, I jumped at the chance. Black Brillion shows off more of Hughes' characteristic wit and wonderful ideas in a package that, while at times a little off the beaten path, is still well worth reading.

Black Brillion takes place on "Old Earth," which is what our current planet is called in a universe where space travel and colonization has been going on for centuries. Baro Harkless is an Archonate Bureau of Security trainee, on a mission to capture the elusive swindler, Luff Imbrey. Doing so is not the end of the line for Harkless, however. He is quickly elevated out of the training program and given his first mission: to go undercover amongst a group of people sick with "the lassitude," a sickness that eventually leads to catatonia and death. A man who calls himself Father Olwyn claims to have a miracle cure, the mystical "black brillion, but he is in truth the swindler Horselan Gebbling. Unfortunately, Harkless finds out that his partner in this mission is the man he has just incarcerated, Luff Imbrey, former partner of Mr. Gebbling. What results is a journey across a barren wasteland, but also a journey of the mind. One of the persons in group of hopeful patients and loved ones is a historian (Guth Bandar) who is also a noönaut, one who travels to the dream realm known as the Commons. Baro's exploration of the Commons will have a great effect on his investigation. It will have an even greater effect on his life.

Black Brillion begins as a typical police procedural with a little bit of a twist (though it's been done before). The cop is assigned a criminal to be his partner because the criminal is familiar with who they are hunting. With this rather pedestrian premise as a start, Hughes blows everything up. The book becomes more about the noösphere and Baro's journey inside himself than it is about the actual swindle. Of course, all of it is tied together (it would be a very disjointed book if it wasn't), which does mitigate that fact somewhat. Baro's journeys throughout the Commons, with the Bandar as his somewhat reluctant (and sometimes actively hostile) guide, are usually very interesting, though there are occasions where the journey tends to drag on a bit too long. Hughes uses the Commons to explore common archetypes in fantasy and science fiction: the Hero, the Wise Man, and others.

Unfortunately, this has the side effect of sidelining Luff throughout much of the latter half of the book, which is a shame as he was my favourite character. When these two characters are together, their points of view clashing like a debate between Bush and Kerry supporters, their dialogue is crackling and the book shows a lot of humour. In fact, most of the humour is between these two characters, making the rest of the book a little dry. Luff continually points out the short cuts that Bureau agents have to take in order to get things done (arresting somebody they know is guilty and then finding the evidence, for example) and Baro takes offense at each one of these statements. He's an idealist and he believes that the Bureau can do no wrong. It's refreshing in a genre where the "cop" character is usually cynical and the only good person on the force. Luff continually outthinks Baro, which does call into question the seeming ease with which Baro caught him in the first place.

Hughes has created a bunch of other interesting (and somewhat bizarre) characters as possible suspects and/or dupes of Gebbling. All of them have their brief moments in the sun, and the conversations between them make for some nice comedy as well. A couple of them are determined to believe "Father Olwyn's" treatment of chanting different mantras and increasing their "chuffs" will cure them of their lassitude. They contribute to some of the philosophical discussions that Hughes gives us, provide some lighter moments, and then disappear as what's really going on begins to manifest itself.

What really makes this novel interesting, though, are the ideas behind it. Hughes turns philosophical a bit, but his most interesting creation is the Commons, a sort of group-mind where people who have the talent can go and access a lot of history. This is where we first learn of the Dree, the aliens who invaded Old Earth many years ago. This is also where Baro explores what has been and finds a way to interact with others who are sleeping and accessing it. This is also where the story drags in places, as some of Baro's journeys aren't as interesting as others and they go on a bit too long. There were times I was wishing that Baro would wake up so we could see Luff again. Overall, though, Hughes' exploration of his ideas is fascinating stuff. Baro keeps finding himself taking on "The Hero" persona, which continually drives him to do things that Bandar insists are too dangerous. The Wise Man works through Baro's mind as well, and many other fictional archetypes are represented as well. Bandar's fear of and reluctance to help Baro as his journeys get more and more dangerous is amusing at times, especially when Bandar insists on sleeping at different times than Baro so that they will not interact in the Commons and Baro will not be able to hijack his dreams.

Black Brillion is a short book that's packed with good stuff. The cover blurbs liken it to Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe. Having not read any of their stories that this book reflects, I can't say whether that's accurate. I do know that it was an enjoyable read in a universe that I would like to visit again.

David Roy

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BLACK BRILLION is the third novel set in Hughes' Archonate/Old Earth universe, but is definitely a standalone, and quite a good one, though not without flaws.

The story opens strongly, with probationary policeman Baro Harkless hot on the trail of the notorious con-man Luff Imbry. Harkless gets his man, and a promotion too, but with a surprising twist: Harkless finds himself teamed with Imbry to track yet another con-man, the even-more notorious Horslan Gebbling. Gebbling, masquerading as Father Olwyn, Sacredotal Eminence, is organizing a landship cruise across the great plain of the Swept, presumably to fleece the passengers....

Here the action bogs down a bit, with the introduction of a noosphere subplot, some sort of collective race-memory, featuring Jungian archetype dream-sequence setpieces, a sure-fire recipe for eyeglaze, at least for me. And Harkless is just too naive and innocent to become a believable character. Really, none of the characters are developed much beyond sketches. And the "Black Brillion" maguffin turns out to be a red herring (but I love the name).

After more eyeglaze Jungstuff, the book gets back on track with dramatic revelations of greed, murder, treason and the resurrection of one of humanity's ancient enemies, and the novel comes to a rousing and satisfactory ending, with all biters well-bit.

The cover art for BLACK BRILLION, by Tom Kidd, is appropriate, atmospheric and, really, quite lovely -- as you can see.

I'm very fond of Hughes' short stories, especially his current
"Hengis Hapthorn" humorous shorts, which are set in a similar universe and appear regularly in F&SF magazine. A number of these are collected in _The Gist Hunter and other stories_, which is on my to-read list.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

I'm a sucker for exactly this type of drollery, with its imperturbable characters and witty dialogue, which is leavened with a highly imaginative setting and an interesting mystery to boot. And not only do we have a Hero's Progress, we also get a bit of a mismatched partners / buddy cop plot as well.

In Old Earth's penultimate age, young Baro Harkless is a neophyte investigator with a global police agency. Managing to apprehend the fraudster Luff Imbry, he finds his success rewarded by being partnered with the apprehended felon, now dragooned into police service, to take on the pursuit of Imbry's former partner, who appears to be working some kind of scam in the guise of a religious cult leader who is promising a cure to a deadly paralytic disease. What scheme is being played out here? Can Baro solve the case despite his dislike of his unorthodox partner? And what role will his newfound ability to enter the Commons, the metaphysical incarnation of humanity's collective unconsciousness (vaguely reminiscent of Robert Holdstock's underrated "Mythago Wood"), play in the resolution?

This is not a hefty novel in terms of page count, and the effortless prose makes it fly by despite the various twists and turns of a fairly complicated plot. The Vanceian setting is ably depicted and the characters are quite likable. Altogether this is a highly enjoyable lark that has some nicely deployed dark undertones. I would strongly recommend, though, that one first read "The Gist Hunter" first, as that has several short stories dealing with the important supporting character Guth Bandar, and it explains a great deal about the Commons, particularly one Location that turns out to be key in the end.

Looking forward to reading more of the Archonate novels!

This book reminds me of a Phip Dick's novel written à la Vance. Or contrarywise. Imagine a hierarchy mobbed cop (or Scroot as Matthew Hughes has it) who is forced to team up with the criminal he has just apprehended (and who's been forcedly enrolled as a scroot)to catch another criminal, a deceiver intent on defrauding hapless victims. All very Vancean, werre it not for the fact that the main character meets with a Noonaut, an explorer of the Collective Unconscious, called The Commons,The protagonist seem irresistibly drawn by this archetypal realm,and risk losing himself in the mires of the Collective Psyche. Something there awaits for him...
And the investigatin? Read and see, I never came across so bizarre a blend of fantasy and science fiction, and the protagonist has the lucidity of vancean characters an the eerie loopyness of Philip K. Dick anti-heroes. This makes for a very curious bllend of rational and irrational.
Highly recommended for those in search of something original and profound,

This is average Matt Hughes, but average Matt Hughes is still good and better than much of what is published.

The problem with this work is that too much is included without enough focus. Perhaps making it longer would have helped, or tightening it up. In actuality, Hughes' The Commons contains the same story as Black Brillion and more, told from the viewpoint of Guth Bandar and is tighter and better.

What we have here is the same beautifully realized and developed penultimate age of earth as in Hughes' other works as a backdrop to both a police procedural of sorts and an exploration of the human consciousness.

We start off with the pairing of Luff Imbry, a con man who has recently been apprehended by the Bureau of Scrutiny, aka the police, being paired with a by the book rookie to investigate Luff's former partner. Luff is a likeable and interesting enough character who may see another book but doesn't get much development here. While investigating the alleged cure for a disease they run across Guth Bandar whom some may know from Hughes' short fiction.

At this point Guth Bandar introduces the collective unconscious, the realm of all human dreams and archetypes, both archetypical characters such as Hero, Fool, Despot and events such as Invasion, First Love, Voyage are to be found here in varying iterations that repeat. Our young officer paired with Luff finds he has a prodigious talent for exploring this realm.

The exploration of the noosphere, which is the name for the realm of the collective unconscious merges with the police procedural and overshadows it for most of the book as it also combines with a threat from eons past. They do not combine poorly, but they don't combine well either. Those not familiar with Guth Bandar from his short stories may well be confused.

Still though, this is well worth reading for the prose, and for the exposition of the world that the characters live in as well as for a plot that offers something other than the same old same old of most published work. Know also that Hughes gets better in following novels.

This here's an odd little book. It's a rather mannered SciFi mystery told in old fashioned prose that's laced with a good bit of wit. As I was reading it, I kept thinking it would make a great movie if it was adapted by Tim Lebbon and directed by David Lynch. I understand it's supposed to be Jack Vance-like, but I've never read him, so I took this book on it's own merits, and I came away thinking it's ok, but I didn't love it, but I'd might consider reading more of Luff Imbry. He's an very memorable and entertaining charlatan.

Archonate Bureau of Security Agent Baro Harkless is a rookie whose father was considered one of the best "Scroots" ever. Baro believes he must prove to his superiors, his peers and more so to himself that he earned the job on his own merit and not his sire's reputation. He sees his opportunity when notorious con artist Luff Imbry arrives in Sherit.

Baro arrests Luff the but the rookie agent is shocked when his boss Arboghast liberates the felon and assigns him as a partner to Baro in an effort to find evidence to bust master criminal Horselan Gebbling, the Old Earth's greatest conman. The new partners think they may have a chance to obtain proof to send Gebbling away for years. The grifter insists he has the elixir to cure the wealthy of Lassitude, a new disease. However, to obtain the cure, one must buy passage on a cruise sponsored by Gebbling. On the vessel, the agent and his partner believe the rare BLACK BRILLION is at the core of the scam, but the proof remains to be found perhaps via the Commons, a collective through the ages of mental activity.

This exhilarating futuristic tale insures that the reader will accept that the investigation takes place many millenniums from today due to the clever use of a scholar providing explanations of brillion, the Commons, and their ties to the past. The story line is fast-paced, but the key cats members seem genuine as the audience understands the motivations of Baro and Luff (Gebbling recently conned him) to find the evidence of a scam. Though Baro becomes a Commons "practitioner" seemingly to easily, fans will appreciate this outstanding Jungian science fiction police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

I know this is rather cruel but I will say it anyway. Matthew Hughes is no Jack Vance. Maybe 60% but still a fair way to go.