Customer Reviews

Hespira: A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn (Tales of Henghis Hapthorn)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best Hapthorn so far, and maybe the best Hughes (along with Template).

I ordered the limited edition over a year ago, only to find out via Hughes' website just last month that the limited was scratched from publication. Fortunately, the trade edition finally came in from Amazon last week, and it was more than worth the wait. Although I have liked everything by Hughes so far, including non-archonate stories, Hespira strikes the perfect balance between originality of voice and genuine respect for its inspiration in Jack Vance's DYING EARTH and Gaean Reach stories.

Hengis Hapthorn himself has evolved into a more introspective, self-aware, and competent character. The plotting was sufficiently complex, the mysteries manifold, and the action pieces gripping. The dialog between Hapthorn and his integrator and a culturally diverse array of human adversaries, friends, and facilitators seeking advantage in the novel's conflict or superiority in social positioning was worthy of Vance at his best.

Hespira is purportedly the conclusion of a loose trilogy, but it would be a shame if there were no more Hapthorn novels and stories at whatever stage of his career. I recommend that you buy this out rapidly, read everything else you can by Hughes, and clamor for more Hapthorn, Imbry, Filidor Vesh and other Archonate stories. Nightshade, please do a better job of on-time publication if you ever have another Hughes book on your plate.

Hespira is the third in a series of the "tales of Henghis Hapthorn." Hapthorn is a freelance discriminator (detective) on Old Earth in the Penultimate Age, the one before Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Since Vance seems to have ceased writing fiction, his fans will welcome Matthew Hughes having stepped into the breach. Hughes is at times a less colorful writer than Vance, but his plotting is tighter and more exciting, his language is often as ironically baroque, and his sense of humor is earthier. Although it is best to start with the first book in the series, Majestrum, Hughes deftly works in reminders of the ongoing plot, and of reappearing characters, for the benefit of somewhat forgetful readers.

In Hespira, Hapthorn is going about his sometimes rather questionable daily business while inwardly struggling with fear of the transition to an age when magic will dominate reason, the latter being his stock in trade. A job as a go-between for an aristocrat and a crime lord having gone wrong, Hapthorn's temporary departure from Old Earth seems highly advisable both to himself and to the Bureau of Scrutiny (the police force). After literally running into a woman who proves to be an amnesiac, Hapthorn--even though he finds her physically unattractive--experiences an unusual sense of chivalry. He volunteers to accept her as a client free of charge, and to take her offworld on his space yacht to search for her origins. She cannot remember her name, but guesses that it might be Hespira.

Hespira and Hapthorn visit two worlds, one of which has a very interesting culture and the other of which resembles rural Scotland. Hespira and Hapthorn prove to be of sinister interest to a number of different parties and there is plenty of action as they dodge kidnappers, assassins, police, etc. Hapthorn's rather irresponsible other half Osk Riever (formerly his intuition, now separately embodied and a magician), plays a part, as do some other characters from the previous book, The Spiral Labyrinth. Hespira finds out who she is--or was--but faces the question: Does she still want to be that person? Hapthorn, for his part, is presented with an unexpected choice for dealing with the tumultuous transition to the age of magic.

The author leaves room for more books in the series--but it's not clear whether they will be written. I fervently hope they will be. Or at least, many more tales of the Penultimate Age--Hughes also has a series with thief Luff Imbry as the central character, and a two-volume work about Filidor, the roistering future Archon of Old Earth.

I loved Hespira, the conclusion of a trilogy begun with Majestrum and The Spiral labirynth. I loved the exchanges between the protagonist and his integrator, and the subtle irony on magic, the character of Osk rievor, the intuitive alter ego, and the exquisite, intriguing portrait of Hespira, a notable woman, very different than the usual "beautiful woman in distress". Nose-in-the-air snobs receive a very subtle and very cruel comeuppance (Johnathan swift would have loved it), and the climax is really suspenseful. I loved it!

In the far distant future, under the dying sun of Earth, discriminator (detective) Henghis Hapthorn tries to do his job while dealing with the loss of his intuitive powers (those powers have now become a separate person), and his knowledge that the future where magic sweeps away the world of rational thought that has been his entire existance. When a job goes wrong, Henghis is urged to leave Earth for a while and decides to take the case of a mysterious woman who suffers from artifically induced amnesia.

Following clues offered by the woman's accent and vocabulary, Henghis finds first the sector, then the planet from which she came. Along the way, he notices that he's being followed--this apparently unimportant woman seems to be at the center of something.

Author Matthew Hughes gives us a mix of science fiction, detective fiction and a bit of fantasy in the form of Henghis's alternate self who is now a mage. Hughes writes in an engaging first-person style, and Henghis, with his occasionally pompous (and sometimes justified) self-certainty, wit and insight, is an intriguing character. This is the third book in this series and I somehow missed the earlier ones--I'll want to circle back and see if I can find them.

It seemed to me that HESPIRA relied a bit too much on coincidence to drive the story forward and to me, Hespira herself (the mysterious amnesiac woman) remained a bit of a non-entity rather than a fully developed character. (Spoiler alert) Finally, the entire quest, which made up the bulk of the book, seemed to me unnecessary. Surely the trap for Henghis could have been engaged the first time he visited his alternate self rather than waiting until the second.

Overall, between Hughes's writing, the nicely drawn character of Henghis Hapthorn, and the far-future world on the cusp of a return to magic, HESPIRA makes for an enjoyable read.

Matthew Hughes books are worth every penny. Buy every one you can, especially if you like Jack Vance style stories.

Hespira is the latest and the best novel of Matthew Hughes' Henghis Hapthorn series. Hapthorn is Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator in the Penultimate Age before Sympathetic Association, i.e. magic, over takes the universe. The story starts with Hapthorn running into an amnesiac, Hespira, during a discrimination that quickly goes bad. The rest of the story finds Hapthorn on the run from his former client and members of the underworld whom Hapthorn has angered while he travels the worlds of the Spray seeking to unravel the mystery of Hespira.

The novel unfolds at a Vancian pace with lots of bizarre cultures and baroque settings in the far future. Fans of Jack Vance will be delighted at Hughes writing and this story is reminiscent of both the Dying Earth and Demon Princes novels.

However, Hughes is no mere imitator of Vance. He adds enough new touches to surprise even long time Vance fans and wraps the whole story up in a compelling mystery that makes this book a real page turner.

If you are new to this series, start with the Spiral Labyrinth and then Majestrum before delving into this novel. For fans of this series, Hespira is the best of the novels and a must read.

Seeing only one review for this is criminal. Hughes deserves to be appreciated more widely in sf/f circles.

Hespira is the third of Hughes' Hapthorn novels, but to really appreciate the story you need to start with the Hapthorn stories in the collection "The Gist Hunter". Changes happen to Hapthorn and his world in nearly every one of his stories, so you miss out if you do not read them chronologically.

If you are familiar with Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator, read on. You know exactly what you are going to receive - witty observances from a distinct voice and travel to fantastic worlds on intellectual adventures. But I do disagree with the other reviewer so far. I don't think this is the best of the Hapthorn saga. The foremost story arch - that of the impending epoch change - is mostly secondary to the detective story. While the detective story was a page turner (I finished in two days), I was just expecting Hespira to be more about the changes in the universe than it was. Osk Rievor was disappointingly in the backstage for this making it seem more like a tangential Hapthorn story than the conclusion of a trilogy. Given that Hughes is doing his actuary series next, who knows when we will see another Hapthorn novel? If it isn't for a while, I'm left without the climax Hughes has been building for a decade.

Excellent novel, very entertaining, but not a fitting stopping point for the tales of the penultimate age.