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Archonate Universe
Black Brillion
Young security officer Baro Harkless, an idealist driven by the memory of his heroic father, and jaded Luff Imbry, a mountebank, swindler, and forger of the first water, form an uneasy truce when they discover a common goal: capturing the greatest conman of them all, Horselan Gebbling.
Gebbling has chosen as his prey the victims of the first new disease in millennia, the invariably fatal ailment known as the lassitude. He dangles in front of his victims the fabled 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.
Baro and Luff get caught up in an ever-growing tangle of mysteries. And the dangers are not merely physical. On the ship is a noönaut, and explorer of the Commons, the dream realm which contains the memories and emotions of hundreds of thousands of years of human existence. And something in the Commons is calling to Baro to claim him for its own.
Gebbling has chosen as his prey the victims of the first new disease in millennia, the invariably fatal ailment known as the lassitude. He dangles in front of his victims the fabled 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.
Baro and Luff get caught up in an ever-growing tangle of mysteries. And the dangers are not merely physical. On the ship is a noönaut, and explorer of the Commons, the dream realm which contains the memories and emotions of hundreds of thousands of years of human existence. And something in the Commons is calling to Baro to claim him for its own.
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
15 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Hughes
201 books284 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 15, 2013
Jack Vance didn't invent the "dying earth" setting (Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique" cycle predates by decades), but in terms of influence Vance cast an indelible stamp on the subgenre. Others have expanded and duplicated, but I think it takes a special vision to see Vance's Dying Earth and rewind the chronology to a slightly earlier epoch, the Penultimate Age.
The people of the Archonate are losing interest in their immeasurable history, as they have lost interest in the conflicts and strivings that drove earlier ages. But if it is past the height of its civilization and has started to drift into decadence and gentle decay, then it is still bound by rational science and still contains organizations and law, albeit a law enforced by people more interested in personal advancement than in duty or moral obligations. It is still technological, even if techniques of mentalism blur the lines between science and sorcery and many explanations of effects read as magical.
Seriously. The 'brillion' of the title is a term referring to the detritus and toxic waste products of earlier ages that were deposited into storage to get them out of the way, and by sedimentary and geophysical actions are transformed into valuable substances. Brilliant!
I was completely and totally sold on this concept. Sold on a language that shares a strand or two of DNA with Vance, with the same sort of verbal play and interpersonal scheming. Sold on a surprisingly likable pair of protagonists who apparently stepped fully-formed from the vault of Vance characters. Sold on a story that poses a series of intriguing mysteries and proceeds on a straight path to the answers.
Not so sold on the noosphere, "the Commons", as a sort of psychic landscape containing the tropes and spiritual / mental forms and tropes or memes or essences or what you call them of humanity's existence on Earth. It's an intriguing concept and one presented as being more technical than Vance ever liked. But once introduced it shoulders the other material out of the way and becomes more important than the rest of it.
I'm seriously and deeply intrigued by what else this setting has to offer.
The people of the Archonate are losing interest in their immeasurable history, as they have lost interest in the conflicts and strivings that drove earlier ages. But if it is past the height of its civilization and has started to drift into decadence and gentle decay, then it is still bound by rational science and still contains organizations and law, albeit a law enforced by people more interested in personal advancement than in duty or moral obligations. It is still technological, even if techniques of mentalism blur the lines between science and sorcery and many explanations of effects read as magical.
Seriously. The 'brillion' of the title is a term referring to the detritus and toxic waste products of earlier ages that were deposited into storage to get them out of the way, and by sedimentary and geophysical actions are transformed into valuable substances. Brilliant!
I was completely and totally sold on this concept. Sold on a language that shares a strand or two of DNA with Vance, with the same sort of verbal play and interpersonal scheming. Sold on a surprisingly likable pair of protagonists who apparently stepped fully-formed from the vault of Vance characters. Sold on a story that poses a series of intriguing mysteries and proceeds on a straight path to the answers.
Not so sold on the noosphere, "the Commons", as a sort of psychic landscape containing the tropes and spiritual / mental forms and tropes or memes or essences or what you call them of humanity's existence on Earth. It's an intriguing concept and one presented as being more technical than Vance ever liked. But once introduced it shoulders the other material out of the way and becomes more important than the rest of it.
I'm seriously and deeply intrigued by what else this setting has to offer.
September 24, 2009
The following review appeared in The Peterborough Examiner in December, 2004 and was reprinted in The New York Review of Science Fiction in June, 2005.
Black Brillion is the third novel in Canadian Matthew Hughes’ Archonate series, a science fantasy trilogy, the first two titles being Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice. Baro Harkless is a recent graduate of the Bureau of Scrutiny, kind of a cross between CSIS and an old school detective agency. As unwilling partner to his first catch, Luff Imbry, con artist, Harkless is assigned to spy upon and hopefully apprehend another fraudster, Horslan Gebbling, a former associate of Imbry’s. Imbry is funny, intelligent, in possession of highly flexible morals, interesting gadgets and an endless wardrobe full of disguises, while Harkless, at first, comes off as ponderous, naive and dull. Imbry is patient and we feel for him. Hughes, who is often compared to Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe, writes in a dry witty tone, making much use of banter. There’s a lot of dialogue, sometimes page upon page of it. No matter: it’s very funny, as his two main characters are of such opposite types, badly matched as work mates, well matched for the reader in search of entertainment.
Horslan Gebbling claims to have found a cure for the lassitude, a mysterious new ailment that lives up to its name: physical and mental degeneration leading to death. Gebbling has organized a cure cruise aboard a wind powered land ship, feeding sufferers truffles which grow only on the Swept, a vast flatland on this far future Old Earth. He claims to be able to cure the afflicted with black brillion, a third, legendary gemstone, after red and blue brillion, which actually do exist, and were created over aeons by the slow compression of landfill, much as diamonds are created out of coal under pressure. Brilliantly funny–and this book is full of such clever throwaways.
But all is not as it seems. Enter Guth Bandar, a historian of The Commons, a dream time or Jungian collective unconscious which it has become possible to explore, either during sleep or in a trance state, accompanied by the singing of specific notes in particular orders, as protection, navigational tool, portal opener and so forth. Very nicely done.
Harkless discovers formerly hidden talents, foremost that he is a natural at travelling through this noosphere, and Bandar cautions his protege: “You have not yet seen some of the heres they have here. We have taken only the first step behind the front door. It goes on forever and I mean that literally. There is no time here. Space is not what you think it is. And though it is filled with wonders it is no less full of horrors.”
Harkless’s commitment to expose Gebbling quickly wanes as he becomes more and more fascinated with his subjective travels, encountering archetypes such as The Hero and The Wise Man, reminiscent of animate Tarot cards, and occasionally assuming their powers to battle the threat of the forgotten, yet newly perilous alien invasion which our lads literally uncover during their trip across the Swept. And Harkless grows here as a character, finding hidden depths in himself that mirror the depths of the collective human psyche he explores. He learns the truth about his father’s death, and in healing his past sees his present in an entirely new way, and so undergoes great personal change on the one hand while saving the world on the other, as any great hero must.
Any complaints? Well, yes and no. The action scenes, once they arrive, are well executed, and there are plenty of them, which is well and good, for a novel without action appeals to a minority of readers. But our formerly plodding hero’s immersion in The Commons, and his own Self, are quite remarkable, and at least to this reader, more difficult to do well than the slaughter of evil aliens, who are nevertheless quite interesting as evil aliens go. But my hope is that Matthew Hughes has a completely original and rather astonishing psychological fantasy in him somewhere, much as Baro Harkless turned out to have hidden depths, and I’d be the first to read it.
Black Brillion is the third novel in Canadian Matthew Hughes’ Archonate series, a science fantasy trilogy, the first two titles being Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice. Baro Harkless is a recent graduate of the Bureau of Scrutiny, kind of a cross between CSIS and an old school detective agency. As unwilling partner to his first catch, Luff Imbry, con artist, Harkless is assigned to spy upon and hopefully apprehend another fraudster, Horslan Gebbling, a former associate of Imbry’s. Imbry is funny, intelligent, in possession of highly flexible morals, interesting gadgets and an endless wardrobe full of disguises, while Harkless, at first, comes off as ponderous, naive and dull. Imbry is patient and we feel for him. Hughes, who is often compared to Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe, writes in a dry witty tone, making much use of banter. There’s a lot of dialogue, sometimes page upon page of it. No matter: it’s very funny, as his two main characters are of such opposite types, badly matched as work mates, well matched for the reader in search of entertainment.
Horslan Gebbling claims to have found a cure for the lassitude, a mysterious new ailment that lives up to its name: physical and mental degeneration leading to death. Gebbling has organized a cure cruise aboard a wind powered land ship, feeding sufferers truffles which grow only on the Swept, a vast flatland on this far future Old Earth. He claims to be able to cure the afflicted with black brillion, a third, legendary gemstone, after red and blue brillion, which actually do exist, and were created over aeons by the slow compression of landfill, much as diamonds are created out of coal under pressure. Brilliantly funny–and this book is full of such clever throwaways.
But all is not as it seems. Enter Guth Bandar, a historian of The Commons, a dream time or Jungian collective unconscious which it has become possible to explore, either during sleep or in a trance state, accompanied by the singing of specific notes in particular orders, as protection, navigational tool, portal opener and so forth. Very nicely done.
Harkless discovers formerly hidden talents, foremost that he is a natural at travelling through this noosphere, and Bandar cautions his protege: “You have not yet seen some of the heres they have here. We have taken only the first step behind the front door. It goes on forever and I mean that literally. There is no time here. Space is not what you think it is. And though it is filled with wonders it is no less full of horrors.”
Harkless’s commitment to expose Gebbling quickly wanes as he becomes more and more fascinated with his subjective travels, encountering archetypes such as The Hero and The Wise Man, reminiscent of animate Tarot cards, and occasionally assuming their powers to battle the threat of the forgotten, yet newly perilous alien invasion which our lads literally uncover during their trip across the Swept. And Harkless grows here as a character, finding hidden depths in himself that mirror the depths of the collective human psyche he explores. He learns the truth about his father’s death, and in healing his past sees his present in an entirely new way, and so undergoes great personal change on the one hand while saving the world on the other, as any great hero must.
Any complaints? Well, yes and no. The action scenes, once they arrive, are well executed, and there are plenty of them, which is well and good, for a novel without action appeals to a minority of readers. But our formerly plodding hero’s immersion in The Commons, and his own Self, are quite remarkable, and at least to this reader, more difficult to do well than the slaughter of evil aliens, who are nevertheless quite interesting as evil aliens go. But my hope is that Matthew Hughes has a completely original and rather astonishing psychological fantasy in him somewhere, much as Baro Harkless turned out to have hidden depths, and I’d be the first to read it.
October 18, 2024
Baro Harkless is a probationary scroot following a well known con man, Luff Imbry. He trails him to a meeting where he catches not only Luff, but a bunch of people trying to embezzle money. His reward is becoming a full fledged investigator. Unfortunately his first assignment, straight from the Archon, has him paired with Imbry. They quickly determine that a one time confederate of Luff is trying to scam people with the lassitude, a debilitating condition which inevitably grows worse until the patient dies. Baro, who disliked Imbry from the get go, takes offense, for his overspending department funds and for saying that agents in the Bureau of Scrutiny aren’t above cutting a few corners, etc. They join a caravan of potential marks. One of which is Guth Bandar, a noonaut that is the protagonist of The Commons. He tells Baro about the noosphere, known colloquially as the Commons, and Baro finds he has a knack for entering it.
Baro has an ingrained sense of right, going by the book, and a naive innocence that all agents are the same. He has to come to terms with the real world while completing his assignment, which has a nice twist at the end. It either picked up at about the point where Baro met Guth or brought me out of a reading funk, so maybe it's a bit higher than the 4.4 stars I'm giving it. A bit of mystery to go along with the SF-fantasy. Baro is a great character, several times realizing that Imbry is coming up with observations that he, the trained professional, should have had. Along with his character growth from naive cadet to having an aptitude to enter the Commons to rethinking his motivations for joining the bureau.
Baro has an ingrained sense of right, going by the book, and a naive innocence that all agents are the same. He has to come to terms with the real world while completing his assignment, which has a nice twist at the end. It either picked up at about the point where Baro met Guth or brought me out of a reading funk, so maybe it's a bit higher than the 4.4 stars I'm giving it. A bit of mystery to go along with the SF-fantasy. Baro is a great character, several times realizing that Imbry is coming up with observations that he, the trained professional, should have had. Along with his character growth from naive cadet to having an aptitude to enter the Commons to rethinking his motivations for joining the bureau.
March 29, 2019
This was the first work I ever read by Matthew Hughes after I had talked to him on the Jack Vance MB. He was such a nice guy I thought I would give his stuff a try. Am I ever glad I did! So far, Matt has a perfect record with me. I have honestly enjoyed everything he has written (at least in the SF/F genre) and look forward to many more great hours lost among the streets of Olkney on Old Earth.
In Black Brillion we are introduced to one Luff Imbry, a corpulent master thief, and Baro Harkless, a by-the-book lawman. After some initial conflict, these two are made to work together, Imbry having been forced over to the right side of the law. What follows is a great adventure, slightly reminiscent of Jack Vance's Alastor books. Matthew Hughes' work is constantly compared to Vance's, and I am sure he is flattered by that as he, much like myself, is a huge Vance fan. While I can see some similarity, it is only on the surface. Matt focuses more on character than Vance ever did. Matt's characters are not always perfect people and often have inner conflicts and flaws. Matt's plotting is also more complex than that in most of Vance's work. Not that Vance couldn't write complex plots, he could (just read Lyonesse) he just preferred not to do so in most of his SF. So, in summary, by all means check out Matt's stuff whether or not but especially if you are a Vance fan. You might find that, like me, you'll stick around for Matt's originality, not for his similarity to Vance.
In Black Brillion we are introduced to one Luff Imbry, a corpulent master thief, and Baro Harkless, a by-the-book lawman. After some initial conflict, these two are made to work together, Imbry having been forced over to the right side of the law. What follows is a great adventure, slightly reminiscent of Jack Vance's Alastor books. Matthew Hughes' work is constantly compared to Vance's, and I am sure he is flattered by that as he, much like myself, is a huge Vance fan. While I can see some similarity, it is only on the surface. Matt focuses more on character than Vance ever did. Matt's characters are not always perfect people and often have inner conflicts and flaws. Matt's plotting is also more complex than that in most of Vance's work. Not that Vance couldn't write complex plots, he could (just read Lyonesse) he just preferred not to do so in most of his SF. So, in summary, by all means check out Matt's stuff whether or not but especially if you are a Vance fan. You might find that, like me, you'll stick around for Matt's originality, not for his similarity to Vance.
January 29, 2012
A bit weak for Matthew Hughes. An Archonate book, but the hero's character seems a bit too stretched, and the end is a bit unsatisfactory.
At 3 *, I wouldn't re-read this.
At 3 *, I wouldn't re-read this.
September 4, 2018
I enjoyed this one quite a bit even though I wasn't really in the mood to read it when I started. In spite of the semi-fantasy elements of the spirit walking "Commons" that plays such a big part in this story, this is still very much set in the tech-still-works SF version of Old Earth. While I much prefer Hughes' Raffalon and Baldemar stories (true sword and sorcery fantasy tales) this version of Old Earth definitely has its merits. I must agree with the author, most of the characters in this tale were unlikable at best.
I thought the punishment meted out to Directing Agent Ardmander Arboghast was maybe unfair. Considering that criminals in this far future are sent to Contemplariums, linking the man to an archetype, guaranteeing that he would go insane, seems harsh for the standards of this world.
I thought the punishment meted out to Directing Agent Ardmander Arboghast was maybe unfair. Considering that criminals in this far future are sent to Contemplariums, linking the man to an archetype, guaranteeing that he would go insane, seems harsh for the standards of this world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 6, 2024
Matthew Hughes has an effortlessly witty writing style that is a pleasure to read as we explore the Commons of his evocative 'noösphere', along with several other inventive concepts, any of which would be substantial enough to write several more books on.
October 20, 2024
Terrifically imaginative. Got off to a slow start and never quite grabbed me.
August 9, 2017
Black Brillion is the third novel set in Hughes' Archonate/Old Earth universe. It's definitely a stand-alone, and quite a good one, though not without flaws.
The story opens strongly, with probationary policeman Baro Harkless hot on the trail of the notorious con-man Luff Imbry. Harkless gets his man, and a promotion too, but with a surprising twist: Harkless finds himself teamed with Imbry to track yet another con-man, the even-more notorious Horslan Gebbling. Gebbling, masquerading as Father Olwyn, Sacredotal Eminence, is organizing a landship cruise across the great plain of the Swept, presumably to fleece the passengers....
Here the action bogs down a bit, with the introduction of a noosphere subplot, set in some sort of collective race-memory, featuring Jungian archetype dream-sequence set pieces, a sure-fire recipe for eye glaze, at least for me. And Harkless is just too naive and innocent to become a believable character. Really, none of the characters are developed much beyond sketches. And the "Black Brillion" macguffin turns out to be a red herring (but I love the name).
After more eye glaze Jungstuff, the book gets back on track with dramatic revelations of greed, murder, treason and the resurrection of one of humanity's ancient enemies, and the novel comes to a rousing and satisfactory ending, with all biters well-bit.
The story opens strongly, with probationary policeman Baro Harkless hot on the trail of the notorious con-man Luff Imbry. Harkless gets his man, and a promotion too, but with a surprising twist: Harkless finds himself teamed with Imbry to track yet another con-man, the even-more notorious Horslan Gebbling. Gebbling, masquerading as Father Olwyn, Sacredotal Eminence, is organizing a landship cruise across the great plain of the Swept, presumably to fleece the passengers....
Here the action bogs down a bit, with the introduction of a noosphere subplot, set in some sort of collective race-memory, featuring Jungian archetype dream-sequence set pieces, a sure-fire recipe for eye glaze, at least for me. And Harkless is just too naive and innocent to become a believable character. Really, none of the characters are developed much beyond sketches. And the "Black Brillion" macguffin turns out to be a red herring (but I love the name).
After more eye glaze Jungstuff, the book gets back on track with dramatic revelations of greed, murder, treason and the resurrection of one of humanity's ancient enemies, and the novel comes to a rousing and satisfactory ending, with all biters well-bit.
April 6, 2012
This book takes place in roughly the same world as Jack Vance's Dying Earth. After reading Majestrum, which I liked quite a bit, I wanted to read more in the same vein.
The book starts off with a conventional "unlikely duo" premise, and the back and forth between the two characters was very entertaining. Somewhere mid-book, an alternate setting is introduced, initially only as an experiment for one of the characters. Quite a bit of the book focuses on this new setting, and what began as a brief aside eventually becomes an integral part the whole story. Unfortunately this subplot didn't engage me, and I was always anxious to get back to the main story.
I found the book entertaining except for the semi-interesting subplot and an ending that felt a little too pat. I look forward to reading more of Hughes' work, especially those writings taking place in the Vance-like realms.
July 18, 2009
This book sat by my bedside for many months. I would read a few pages before bed when I was in the mood.
It never spurred my interest to go for a more concerted read. Eventually I found I had lost track of some of the plot and characters. I skipped ahead to the end, read that, and was unimpressed.
Very Jack Vancey, in a too much way. Not enough of the humour that made the Gist Hunter entertaining.
It never spurred my interest to go for a more concerted read. Eventually I found I had lost track of some of the plot and characters. I skipped ahead to the end, read that, and was unimpressed.
Very Jack Vancey, in a too much way. Not enough of the humour that made the Gist Hunter entertaining.
January 4, 2009
I'm not sure why I don't like the Commons-oriented books as much as Hughes's other books, but I don't.
March 11, 2013
Interesting but meandering story of illness in the Archonate.
July 27, 2013
So much of the book is oriented around "The Commons", which I never found that interesting.
April 6, 2014
The book really made the 'ancient earth' background work.
January 14, 2018
My new favorite go to author for escapism. Equal parts sci-fi, mystery and action.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews