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The One
Luff Imbry returns from the weird planet Fulda, to which he was shanghaied by a mysterious enemy, only to find that an impostor has stolen from the strongroom at his private club the collection of magical paraphernalia he acquired from a would-be thaumaturge.
That’s impossible, but Imbry has to deal with reality. He sets off on a quest to solve the mystery and recover his goods, bringing him into conflict with shadowy forces that are preparing for the great change, when the universe once again gives up on rationalism and embraces an age of magic.
The odds are against him, but Imbry is a great improvisor.
That’s impossible, but Imbry has to deal with reality. He sets off on a quest to solve the mystery and recover his goods, bringing him into conflict with shadowy forces that are preparing for the great change, when the universe once again gives up on rationalism and embraces an age of magic.
The odds are against him, but Imbry is a great improvisor.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2024
About the author
Matthew Hughes
200 books286 followersBorn in Liverpool, his family moved to Canada when he was five years old. Married since late 1960s, he has three grown sons. He is currently relocated to Britain. He is a former director of the Federation of British Columbia Writers.
A university drop-out from a working poor background, he worked in a factory that made school desks, drove a grocery delivery truck, was night janitor in a GM dealership, and did a short stint as an orderly in a private mental hospital. As a teenager, he served a year as a volunteer with the Company of Young Canadians.
He has made his living as a writer all of his adult life, first as a journalist in newspapers, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and, since 1979, as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia.
His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Interzone, and a number of "Year’s Best" anthologies. Night Shade Books published his short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, in 2005.
He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, The Endeavour Award for his historical novel What the Wind Brings, and the Global Book Award in the dark fantasy category for The Ghost-Wrangler.
A university drop-out from a working poor background, he worked in a factory that made school desks, drove a grocery delivery truck, was night janitor in a GM dealership, and did a short stint as an orderly in a private mental hospital. As a teenager, he served a year as a volunteer with the Company of Young Canadians.
He has made his living as a writer all of his adult life, first as a journalist in newspapers, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and, since 1979, as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia.
His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Interzone, and a number of "Year’s Best" anthologies. Night Shade Books published his short story collection, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, in 2005.
He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, The Endeavour Award for his historical novel What the Wind Brings, and the Global Book Award in the dark fantasy category for The Ghost-Wrangler.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 15, 2024
A very good sequel to The Other, in which Luff Imbry copes with being kidnapped and dumped, without any resources, on a planet. In this book, there is not only the unfolding story of Luff's life on his return home, but also its interaction with the impending change from rationality to magic. We get more information about how this works as Luff, and others, deal with a magician from the previous era of magic trying to return to this one. Very readable, the only negative being Hughes's characteristic lack of emotional affect
May 24, 2024
I really enjoyed this one, A Lot, and I'm hoping that we get treated to more of Luff Imbry and his adventures in the age of Sympathetic Association.
I really enjoyed the Hengis Hapthorne stories with Grinnets and such back in the day and think these types stories are really fun.
Well done Mr. Hughes.
I really enjoyed the Hengis Hapthorne stories with Grinnets and such back in the day and think these types stories are really fun.
Well done Mr. Hughes.
June 5, 2024
another enjoyable police procedural romp with overtones of Jack Vance
Excellent : )
Excellent : )
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews