BARBARIANS OF THE BEYOND
Released by Spatterlight
The book is available worldwide in all formats
“I really enjoyed Barbarians of the Beyond. Matthew Hughes does Jack Vance better than anyone except Jack himself.” — George R. R. Martin
Twenty years ago, five master criminals known as the Demon Princes raided Mount Pleasant to enslave thousands of inhabitants in the lawless Beyond. Now Morwen Sabine, a daughter of captives, has escaped her cruel master and returns to Mount Pleasant to recover the hidden treasure she hopes will buy her parents’ freedom.
But Mount
Pleasant has changed. Morwen must cope with mystic cultists, murderous
drug-smugglers, undercover “weasels” of the Interplanetary Police Coordinating
Company, and the henchmen of the vicious pirate lord who owns her parents and
wants Morwen returned. So he can kill her slowly…
Amazon.com:
Barbarians of the Beyond: Hughes, Matthew: 9781619474055:
Amazon.com: Books
Amazon.ca: Barbarians of the Beyond eBook : Hughes, Matthew: Amazon.ca:
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“Lock
the door, turn off the phone, get into a comfy chair, and deep-dive into a
marvelous continuation of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series. Matthew Hughes is
a treasure and Barbarians of the Beyond is a terrific adventure.” — David Gerrold
“Matthew
Hughes follows nimbly in Jack Vance's footprints, then breaks some fresh trail.
First-class space opera.”— Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo
Award-winning author of Hominids
“Engaging
and enchanting…a fine companion adventure to Jack Vance’s The Demon Princes
series, told with Matthew Hughes’s excellent sense of charm, ethical complexity
and exotic worldbuilding. Let’s hope this is just the beginning!” — Kurt
Busiek
“Barbarians
of the Beyond is just plain old-fashioned space opera fun with a relatable
heroine who is sometimes fallible, rather than some Shaolin Temple kung fu
megamaster. I enjoyed it a lot.” — Glen Cook
“…a tale that captures that special ‘golden age’ feel in which mankind has travelled far into the stars yet still behaves as though it’s the Wild West.” — David White, RNR Magazine
More from Matthew Hughes:
Winner of the international Endeavour Award
In the mid-1500s shipwrecked African slaves melded with the
indigenous peoples of coastal Ecuador and together they fought the Spanish
colonial power to a standstill, to remain independent for centuries. The story
of the people of Esmeraldas is told through the eyes of three characters:
Alonso, an escaped slave; Expectation, an a-gender shaman; and Alejandro, a
priest on the run from the Inquisition. With its slipstream elements this novel
carries a flavour of South American magical realism tradition into a grand
historical epic. Both sweeping and intimate, it is a delight to read from
beginning to end.
Amazon.com:
What the Wind Brings: Hughes, Matthew: 9781988865157:
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Amazon.ca: What the Wind Brings: Hughes, Matthew, Hughes, Matthew:
9781988865164: Books - Amazon.ca
About Matthew:
Matthew
Hughes is a Canadian author of science fiction and fantasy.
His speculative fiction novels are: Fools Errant, Fool Me Twice, Black Brillion, Majestrum, The Commons, The Spiral Labyrinth, Template, Hespira, The Other, The Damned Busters, Costume Not Included, Hell to Pay, Song of the Serpent and Wolverine:Lifeblood (both as Hugh Matthews), A Wizard’s Henchman, A God in Chains, Baldemar, and Passengers & Perils.
His
magnum opus is What the Wind Brings,
a historical novel with magical realism elements. It was the first Canadian work to win the
international Endeavour Award. He waited
more than forty years to write the novel, and spent a year composing several
drafts, made possible by a $25,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
His
major influence as a writer of speculative fiction is the Grandmaster Jack
Vance. Booklist has called Hughes
Vance’s “heir apparent.”
In
2021, Vance’s estate (Spatterlight Press), published Hughes’s Barbarians of the Beyond, an authorized
companion novel to Vance’s iconic revenge series, The Demon Princes. The book
prompted George R.R. Martin to say, “Hughes does Jack Vance better than anyone
except Jack himself.”
His
short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s,
Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Pulp Literature, Postscripts,
Storyteller, Interzone, Amazing,
Unfit, and several anthologies edited by Gardner Dozois and George R.R.
Martin, including the bestseller, Rogues.
His
works have been short-listed for the Aurora, Locus, Nebula, Philip K Dick, A.E.
Van Vogt, Neffy, Alberta Book Publishing, and Endeavour Awards.
In
2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy
Association’s Hall of Fame.
Before
turning to writing fiction, he spent three decades as the top-ranked
speechwriter in British Columbia, writing for leaders of all three provincial
political parties and CEOs of the province’s largest corporations.
Since
2007, he has traveled the world as a housesitter, living in twelve countries.
His web page is at https://www.matthewhughes.org
To request additional review copies or an interview with Matthew Hughes, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925. We look forward to the coverage!
