Black Brillion
Luff Imbry has
devoted his life to the enjoyment of wealth. A gourmet, a charmer, and
an ever-so-stylish fop, he has come to the city of Sherit to pursue a
new fortune. Not, mind you, his own, for Luff is also a mountebank,
swindler, and forger of the first water.
Tossed together by
circumstance, they form an uneasy truce when they discover a common
goal: capturing the grandest con-man of them all, Horselan Gebbling.
Gebbling, who made off with Imbry's previous fortune, is posing as
Father Olwyn, Sacerdotal Eminence of the Assembly of Tangible Unity,
and has chosen as his prey the victims of the first new disease in
millennia, the invariably fatal ailment known as the lassitude.
Dangled
in front of the victims is the fabled relic of past glories, the
gemstone called black brillion. About black brillion, learned men agree
on only two things: it can do anything, and it doesn't exist. But
Gebbling boasts of having it, and its effects on the lassitude are
nothing short of magical.
Riding a landship across the unnatural
prairie known as the Swept, Boro and Luff get caught up in an
ever-growing tangle of mysteries. Nonsense chants lead to miracle
cures. Guests end up crushed beneath the ship's giant wheels. The crew
have secrets of their own.
The dangers are not merely physical.
On the ship is a noönaut, an explorer of the Commons, the dream realm
which contains the memories and emotions of hundreds of thousands of
years of human existence. Something in the Commons is calling to Boro
to claim him for its own.
What lurks beneath the Swept? What hides within the Commons, eager to come out? And exactly what game is Gebbing playing?
Filled
with dollops of drollery and an ancient evil, Black Brillion is a
science fantasy caper that grows into a metaphysical exploration of the
human psyche. Matt Hughes has crossed Jack Vance with Carl Jung to come
up with a bold new novel of life on an Earth grown older by millions of
years.
This is the third novel in the Archonate series, following Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice.
“A witty pastiche drawing on Jack Vance’s ‘Dying Earth’, mixes humor, philosophy, and a criminal investigation.” – Locus
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Matthew Hughes
Matthew Hughes also writes under the pseudonym of Hugh Matthews.
Archonate
Archonate consists of four primary books, and includes five additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series Archonate: Tales of Henghis Hapthorn
Related series Archonate: Luff Imbry
