Matthew Hughes's Blog: barbarians of the beyond - Posts Tagged "space-opera"
Asimov's offers a freebie
Asimov's is running the first half of my space opera novelette, "And Then Some," as a free sample.
Henghis Hapthorn ebooks
The three Henghis Hapthorn novels -- Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, and Hespira -- are now available as ebooks in Kindle and Epub formats on my web page. The price is $2.99 each.
A pdf format file will follow soon. They'll also be for sale on Amazon and Kobo in the near future.
A pdf format file will follow soon. They'll also be for sale on Amazon and Kobo in the near future.
Template ebook
My standalone space-opera, Template: A Novel of the Archonate, is now available on Amazon. By tomorrow it will be up on Kobo and my own webstore for $2.99.
In a day or so, I'll follow with The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories, a collection of nine short stories and novellas featuring my corpulent master criminal of Old Earth in its penultimate age.
In a day or so, I'll follow with The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories, a collection of nine short stories and novellas featuring my corpulent master criminal of Old Earth in its penultimate age.
Another space opera ebook
My space opera short story collection, The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories, is now available at the Archonate Bookstore, priced at US$2.99 (£2.02)
It's also working its way through the publishing process at Amazon and Kobo.
Here's the blurb:
In Old Earth’s penultimate age, the corpulent master criminal Luff Imbry moves through the halfworld like a full-fleshed shark. Thief, forger, confidence man, and sometimes go-between, he maps out his illicit operations with exquisite care then carries them out with courage and panache. But, often, things don’t go as Luff planned, and he must call upon a talent for improvisation and a ruthless will to survive.
This collection brings together seven short stories and novelettes previously published in Postscripts, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the anthology Forbidden Planets, plus two novellas formerly only available in limited editions. It offers Luff Imbry in all his moods and guises.
It's also working its way through the publishing process at Amazon and Kobo.
Here's the blurb:
In Old Earth’s penultimate age, the corpulent master criminal Luff Imbry moves through the halfworld like a full-fleshed shark. Thief, forger, confidence man, and sometimes go-between, he maps out his illicit operations with exquisite care then carries them out with courage and panache. But, often, things don’t go as Luff planned, and he must call upon a talent for improvisation and a ruthless will to survive.
This collection brings together seven short stories and novelettes previously published in Postscripts, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the anthology Forbidden Planets, plus two novellas formerly only available in limited editions. It offers Luff Imbry in all his moods and guises.
Template in POD paperback
Recently, Paizo Press reverted to me the paperback rights to Template: A Novel of the Archonate, a stand-alone space opera that is the book I most often recommend to new readers who want an introduction to my work. It also represents the only time I've consciously tried to write a "Jack Vance novel," although the themes and concerns embodied in the story are my own.
With the paperback rights returned to me, I've run the work through CreateSpace's print-on-demand system, so it's now available via my webpage bookstore for $12.99. It should start showing up on the various Amazons in the next few days. Down the road, it will even be orderable from brick-and-mortar bookstores all over the place.
With the paperback rights returned to me, I've run the work through CreateSpace's print-on-demand system, so it's now available via my webpage bookstore for $12.99. It should start showing up on the various Amazons in the next few days. Down the road, it will even be orderable from brick-and-mortar bookstores all over the place.
Free copy of Template
I'm trying something new in the realm of building a readership: InstaFreebie, a web service that lets me give away ebook copies of my work in exchange for the recipients signing up for a newsletter I'll be starting to produce next month. I'm told that a newsletter is a better way to reach readers than blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.
So I'm giving away up to a thousand copies of Template, my standalone, space-opera Archonate novel that's been previously published by PS Publishing and Paizo. It's an Oliver Twist tale and probably the most deliberately Vancean of my novels.
It's available in pdf, mobi, and epub formats. Here's the link to claim a free copy:
So I'm giving away up to a thousand copies of Template, my standalone, space-opera Archonate novel that's been previously published by PS Publishing and Paizo. It's an Oliver Twist tale and probably the most deliberately Vancean of my novels.
It's available in pdf, mobi, and epub formats. Here's the link to claim a free copy:
Barbarians of the Beyond out as ebook
Barbarians of the Beyond, the authorized companion novel to Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series, is now available as an ebook, for the reasonable price of US$5.99.
Here’s the back-cover blurb:
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…
Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to “Jack Vance Space” and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction Grandmaster’s footsteps.
“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
“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
“Deeply enjoyable and entirely delivers on its promise.” Andrew Wheeler, Science Fiction Book Club
Here are links to Amazon and Kobo. Apple Books takes a little longer.
Here’s the back-cover blurb:
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…
Barbarians of the Beyond is a return to “Jack Vance Space” and space-opera derring-do that follows in the science fiction Grandmaster’s footsteps.
“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
“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
“Deeply enjoyable and entirely delivers on its promise.” Andrew Wheeler, Science Fiction Book Club
Here are links to Amazon and Kobo. Apple Books takes a little longer.
