Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "to-hell-and-back"

Lois Tilton, Locus Magazine's on-line reviewer of short fiction, says some kind words about "Devil or Angel," my novelette in the January/February Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Although she mistakenly takes the story for an episode in my To Hell and Back series of books, she says: "This is fun. Total nonsense, of course, and a certain amount of gorpiness, as there is so much True Love involved, but sufficiently clever not to cloy."

Always the balance I strive for.

Hell to Pay, the third novel in the To Hell and Back series, will be out in a few weeks. It's already available for pre-order on Amazon. And now comes the first review, from the Summer Reading Project blog. Reviewer Annie Smith says, "I love it when an author reveals that there's been a bigger story behind the individual books' plots. Hughes never hid this, but each new book shows new layers and ties them all together."

Hell to Pay, the third novel in the To Hell and Back series, will be published in paperback and eformats on February 26 in North America, and a couple of weeks later in the UK. Chesney's adventures as a demon-assisted costumed crimefighter continue to lead him down ever more tortuous paths.

I've posted the first few thousand words in the Excerpts category of my web page.

David Brzeski has given Hell to Pay, the third novel in the To Hell and Back trilogy, a strong review on the British Fantasy Society site. He says, "The first book in the series was very good, the second was better. The events of those books were leading up to this final volume in the trilogy and it’s the best yet."

There's an insightful review of Hell to Pay, the third novel in the To Hell and Back trilogy, over at the 42 Webs blog. It's nice when people say they enjoyed a book; it's much more satisfying when they really get it.

Costume Not Included, the second novel in the To Hell and Back urban fantasy series, has been shortlisted for the Endeavour Award.

The award is named for the ship captained by the great navigator James Cook when he explored and mapped the Pacific Northwest from Oregon up to Haida Gwai (the Queen Charlotte Islands). It's a juried award, given for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.

It's been established to the satisfaction of the Endeavour's governors that, although I wander the world as a homeless housesitter, I remain an author of the Pacific Northwest.

The winner will be announced at OryCon, the Oregon sf con, in November.

Here's a thoughtful review of Hell to Pay, the concluding volume in the To Hell and Back urban fantasy trilogy. David Marshall says, "Overall, Hell to Pay is a very satisfying conclusion to an immensely pleasing trilogy. I suspect even Christians would enjoy it."

Word from my agent that Amazon Audible will launch the audio versions of my To Hell and Back trilogy -- The Damned Busters, Costume Not Included, and Hell To Pay -- on March 11.

The narrator is Tom Lawrence, who has spoken books for Ian McDonald and China Mieville, among others, so I'm in good company.

Angry Robot has let me know that on Wednesday, July 9, Amazon will put all three of the To Hell and Back ebooks -- The Damned Busters, Costume Not Included, and Hell to Pay -- on sale for 99 cents each as a Kindle Daily Deal. Mark your calendars.

I'm starting a new housesit that will run at least until December in a little hillside village in the Apennines, about midway between Rome and Naples. A very old-fashioned Italian house, more or less dug into the hill, overlooking an intermontane plateau of olive trees and farm fields. It's the birthplace of Thomas Aquinas.

It took us three days to drive down from Brittany, in heat that touched 40 degrees C at times, and with no air-conditioning in the car. And people think authors have a soft life. Well, of course we do, but we can still pretend to hardship.

Back on the internet, I've found blogged reviews of the first two volumes of my urban fantasy series, To Hell and Back from Angry Robot Books. The blogger is Rocky Sunico, who describes himself as a gay Filipino geek who picked up the trilogy months ago and got around to it only lately. Which is fine; I'd sooner be read later than never.

The reviews are positive and comprehensive. If you've been looking at the series on Amazon and wondering if you'd like it, I think Rocky's take on it will tell you whether or not it will delight you. If you ask me, of course, I'll swear that you'll love it, and you ought to get extra copies for your friends and colleagues. I'm told they make excellent Christmas and birthday gifts. Besides, it would be nice to see the trilogy earn out its advance.

Links to the reviews: http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/06/bo...

http://www.geeky-guide.com/2015/07/bo...