Yalum
A new Dying Earth Fantasy by critically acclaimed novelist, Matthew Hughes
The book is now available in print format in North America
Yalum Erkatchian is captain and part owner of the space yacht Peregrinator when a distant relative lures him into returning to the planet he fled twenty-five years ago to escape a matriarchal cult. But it’s a trap and Yalum is forced into a quest to recover a sacred relic that pitches him into a desperate struggle for survival.
And then it gets worse, because he discovers that the entire universe is about to be upended by a sudden switch of its operating system from cause-and-effect rationalism to will-powered magic. Yalum and his friends try to prepare to survive, but a new threat emerges: someone has long been planning to ride the new reality into a tyranny of spellslinging, aided by a bored demon from the Seventh Plane.
Yalum : Hughes, Matthew: Amazon.ca: Books
Praise for Matthew Hughes:
“I really enjoyed Barbarians of the Beyond. Matthew Hughes does Jack Vance better than anyone except Jack himself.” — George R. R. Martin
“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
“…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
George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois included Hughes’s stories in several of their anthologies, including the renowned Jack Vance tribute antho Songs of the Dying Earth. On two occasions, Gardner relied on him to supply stories on short notice when invited authors failed to deliver.
More from Matthew Hughes:
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, The Commons, Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, Hespira, Template, Passengers & Perils, The Other, The One, The Damned Busters, Costume Not Included, Hell to Pay, A Wizard’s Henchman, A God in Chains, A God in Hiding, Henchmen, Baldemar, Cascor, Margolyam, and Yalum.
As Hugh Matthews, he has also written two media tie-ins: Song of the Serpent,and Wolverine: Lifeblood,
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.
He has won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, the Endeavour Award, and the Global Book Award in the dark fantasy category. His works have been short-listed for the Aurora, Locus, Nebula, Philip K Dick, A.E. Van Vogt, Neffy, Alberta Book Publishing, High Plains, 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.
From 2007 to 2026, he has traveled the world as a housesitter, living in thirteen countries.
His Wikipedia page has more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Hughes_(writer)
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