Customer Reviews

The Spiral Labyrinth: A Tale Of Henghis Hapthorn

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I rarely write reviews as I find that most people who have commented before me have covered the gamut, but this entry has been barren and I just finished the book so I figured I'd give it a go.

I first read Matthew Hughes in F/SF magazine about a year ago with his short story "The Sweet Trap" and I was hooked ever since. The one problem with picking up Hughes' work at that point is that it really helps to have read all previous Hapthorn stories to understand the setups and the relationships between the characters. So I went back and read The Gist Hunter and Other Stories and then picked up Majestrum. The Spiral Labyrinth then continues the saga and hints at a continuation.

For anyone who has read "The Sweet Trap" previously, the first couple chapters will be familiar as they are an adaptation of the aforementioned story. The pace picks up from there as Hapthorn is separated from his internal second-personality Osk Rievor and deposited in a land very much antagonistic to a rational freelance discriminator.

If you have read a Hapthorn story before, this continues the saga brilliantly. Without posting any spoilers, I love how each entry in the series (with the exception of some of the earlier stories) really changes the world and doesn't come full circle allowing for interesting setups for the next installments.

If you are new to Hengis Hapthorn stories, I can't recommend this yet. Read The Gist Hunter and Other Stories and the Majestrum. Then you will be greatly pleased when you reach this book.

I cannot wait for more.

This book continues the trilogy telling the story of Henghis Hapthorn, which started in "Majestrum." Unlike many second parts of trilogies, this is a strong (though not stand-alone) novel that develops several major characters, introduces new characters, and expands the narrative universe beyond Old Earth and into interstellar space. It's great!

I'm eagerly awaiting the third Henghis Hapthorn novel, "Hespira," and was happy to see it available for Amazon.com pre-order.

Matthew Hughes is a real artist, with an old-fashioned devotion to the craft of writing. This is not science fiction, nor is it "realistic" in the way that people seem to expect of all fiction nowadays. The sentences are crafted, not just thrown on the page like a transcription of an overheard conversation at Starbuck's. It's like Trollope or Smollett...full of wit and clever language. But it's also exciting and thoroughly enjoyable. The only comparable living writer of "speculative fiction" I can think of is Jack Vance, and he's quit writing at age 93. So we are fortunate indeed to have Matthew Hughes, whose unique voice is a thoroughgoing delight. Highly recommended.

(This review was posted for another Hengis Hapthorn book, Majestrum, but it applies equally to this one).

Based on the number of reviews, this seems to be a an undiscovered book. This is a shame, as it is a very entertaining short novel which left me wishing it had a rather greater number of pages (my highest compliment - it was TOO SHORT!)


The spoiler-free version is that this sequel to Majestrum continues following our discriminator (did I get that right?) Mr. Hapthorn and his alter ego and organic integrator as they become drawn into an affair dealing with magic.

SPOILER WARNING

You are warned!!

The author manages to integrate both the sci-fi setting of the previous novel and the 'dying earth' magical setting and rules Vance created (and Gary Gygax borrowed/used for the D&D magical system). Much of the novel takes place in a magical environment, and the related patterns/rules on spell memorization/casting/naming apply here as well.

We are treated to a great deal of sarcastic, dry wit, a game of chance, a parade of rather nasty antagonistic sorcerors, with their varied whims and characteristics, and some personal sorrow and loss to boot (something rarely in any vance novel - this book has a sad ending :(

it is possible some readers will feel I am emphasizing the Vance-style issue excessively, but I would offer that the author has explicitly stated that "... I write the kind of story I like to read, and what I like to read is a Jack Vance story." He has also stated that the hapthorn stories are set in the penultimate age of earth, one eon before the time of the Dying Earth of Vance.

Matthew Hughes is an under-appreciated writer. For years he has been toiling in a mainly Jack Vancean sort of vein, turning out stories and novels set in a world where science is just about to turn over to magic, but not quite yet. Old Earth, with a baroque and dizzying array of ancient cultures, is a rich field for Hughes to explore. On an even larger scale, Old Earth is itself but one planet in "The Spray", Hughes's answer to Jack Vance's Oikumene. A dizzying array of planets of even more diversity than Earth itself, Hughes' fiction allows the reader to experience a full and inexhaustible range of cultures, environments and characters. His prose brings these environments and characters to life, transporting the reader to areas both familiar and absolutely alien for all of their humanity.

In the Spiral Labyrinth, we continue the adventures of Henghis Hapthorn, previously seen in a couple of short stories as well as Majestrum. As a freelance discriminator (private investigator) he is a late-age-of-Earth Sherlock Holmes, with a number of twists. Thanks to the results of previous adventures, his integrator, a semi-sentient computer, has been transformed from a device to a fruit-craving unique creature. Also, his sense of intuition, an invaluable compliment to his finely honed sense of reason and logic, is in fact now a full fledged sub personality within his brain that he can converse with, named Osk Rievor. Even with these handicaps (although he would insist they are advantages), Henghis is the foremost discriminator on Old Earth.

In the Spiral Labyrinth Henghis once again gets plunged into situations far beyond his ken, surviving by applications of luck, verve, reason and intuition. Hughes likes to put his characters through the wringer. The keystone event of Spiral Labyrinth, for example, has Henghis, thanks to the titular device, accidentally transported several centuries into the future--and past the point where the rules of the universe finally change from science and magic. Worse, he has been transported here without Osk Rievor (who knows a little theory of magic), and so he must survive on reason alone, in a land without reason.How does Henghis survive in a world of dragons and spells, and how he manages to get home are the meat and potatoes of the book.

And, like previous novels and stories, Spiral Labyrinth stands alone, but continues to build the life, career and nature of its main character. You certainly can start here, Hughes does a good job enfolding previous events into the narrative in an organic way. However, this does not mean the stories are episodic. I have no doubt that the adventures of this book, and their impact on Hapthorn, will continue to resonate through the next

If you are a Jack Vance fan, or simply enjoy picaresque adventures in a baroque series of settings with an engaging main character, the Henghis Hapthorn stories of Matthew Hughes, including the Spiral Labyrinth, are definitely for you.

If you like SF and adventure, Sherlock Holmes, Jack Vance, or just plain fun stories, this is for you. Matt Hughes is one hell of a writer. The story goes along at a good pace, the dialog and prose are crackling, the humor sophisticated (except when it isn't, but it is always well-done) and the characters true to who they are. For those of you who have been led to believe that Matt Hughes is just a Vance-wannabe, let me tell you otherwise. Hughes has a voice and a style all his own. While influenced by Vance, his own voice shines through and anyone who has read as much Vance as I have can tell you that Matt's characters are deeper and more inclined toward self-examination. Anyway. Get a copy. Don't take my word for it. You will be back here searching for the rest of Matt's work.