Majestrum (A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn)
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Product Description
Synopsis
When Hapthorn is hired by Lord Afre to investigate the motives of his daughter's new companion, a young man of indeterminate circumstances, he takes the job expecting it to allow him the opportunity to explore and understand his changing universe. Little does Henghis Hapthorn realize, but the path of discovery will lead to deeper questions, a mysterious assignment from the Archon himself, and the ancient and powerful secret name...Majestrum!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a fan of Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories and a confirmed Sherlockian this book seemed to be right up my street, and I was not mistaken. This world is in the far distant future, the Moon no longer exists, humanity has spread to ten thousand worlds and is still bickering, squabbling and putting one over on its fellows.
This society is so advanced that it is retreating into a form of enlightened barbarism and is ruled by a benevolent autocrat who has skeletons in his cupboard. Not only that, but the whole order of things is due a change, with logic and rationale giving way to intuition and what our hero (Henghis Hapthorn) has to admit is no less than magic.
What follows is a slow burning detective story where the wonders of this world are treated so matter of factly that you easily slip into the beliefs and protocols of this distant time and place.
Matthew Hughes never lets gadgetry or fantasmagoria get in the way of the plot, these things are there as part of this world and that's it. To my mind Hughes' dry cerebral style is more remeniscent of Dashiell Hammett than Jack Vance as he takes us on a journey to uncover a dreadful secret and save the world.
Uniquely entertaining - I loved it
This society is so advanced that it is retreating into a form of enlightened barbarism and is ruled by a benevolent autocrat who has skeletons in his cupboard. Not only that, but the whole order of things is due a change, with logic and rationale giving way to intuition and what our hero (Henghis Hapthorn) has to admit is no less than magic.
What follows is a slow burning detective story where the wonders of this world are treated so matter of factly that you easily slip into the beliefs and protocols of this distant time and place.
Matthew Hughes never lets gadgetry or fantasmagoria get in the way of the plot, these things are there as part of this world and that's it. To my mind Hughes' dry cerebral style is more remeniscent of Dashiell Hammett than Jack Vance as he takes us on a journey to uncover a dreadful secret and save the world.
Uniquely entertaining - I loved it
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you like the writings of Jack Vance I am sure this book will appeal to you. The hero- a Sherlock Holmes of some far future- is asked by the Archon-the ruler of Old Earth- to untangle a mystery which involves a book written in a language spoken on a world eons before of which not a single person remains. The language therefore is indecipherable by any normal means. To add to our heroes problems he has passed through a force of sorts that has split is persona in two and he is constantly having conversations with himself, some in private , others out loud.
This is an enjoyable book written very well but probably will only be enjoyed by the devout.
This is an enjoyable book written very well but probably will only be enjoyed by the devout.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
May the Canon Continue
27 Dec 2006
Format:Hardcover
Consider this more a recommendation than a review. This book deserves to be read by anyone who has ever enjoyed Jack Vance, CA Smith, Thorne Smith, Wodehouse, or M John Harrison's (lighter) Viriconium stories. There is a sufficiently complex and oddball mystery to involve readers, but dialog and setting are the true delights of MAJESTRUM. Hengis Hapthorn is a PI, or discriminator, in a far future earth era based on science and reason, but into which magic (sympathetic association) has begun to assert an influence, as it apparently has in ages past. Hapthorn prides himself on his logic, sometimes justifiably, and is disconcerted that magic's influence has turned his hand-built AI, or integrator, into a living familiar, mostly still able to function in AI mode except when hampered by its newly acquired carnal needs (sleep, food, and a lot of each). In earlier short stories (collected in Nightshade's THE GIST HUNTER), the integrator was Hapthorn's foil, providing most of the humorous dialog. In the novel, this is complicated by the integrator's incarnation and also by a magical incident's separation of Hapthorn's personality into his normal, logical mode, and his intuitive sub-persona. Another delight is seeing Hughes venture offworld and dabble in building truly strange pocket cultures, a la Jack Vance.
Quibble: Without going into detail, Nightshade, please edit more carefully in the future.
I am looking forward to the next two Hapthorn novels, and hoping that there are more in the planning.
Quibble: Without going into detail, Nightshade, please edit more carefully in the future.
I am looking forward to the next two Hapthorn novels, and hoping that there are more in the planning.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
No Junk Food Speculative Fiction, Please
27 Oct 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Matt Hughes has offered up yet another richly imagined run of prose with Majestrum. Take a police procedural, dress it in what Victorian prose wanted to be when it grew up, send it into the vastness of colonized space, and there you go. If you like a leisurely plotted story (but not too leisurely, think brisk on an autumn morning), along with characters and dialogue both nuanced, textured, and oh so witty, then I suggest you take your I-don't-want-to-be-spoonfed reading self to the pages of this Henghis Hapthorn offing and any others by Mr. Hughes. As for those any others, refer to his webpage, www.archonate.com, for a thorough bibliography and some sample pages to whet your appetite. He's a deft hand at providing readers with conflict on virtually every page and long on irony and the well-placed twist or three or . . . well, you'll see. Majestrum is a thinking person's dose of science fiction. So, go out, put the napkin in your lap, ready the fork and knife, and dig in.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A very well-crafted tale Buy this book!
5 Aug 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Another good Night Shade publication. I am reaching the point where I just buy their list without discrimination, everything I have actually read has been very good.
This detective/adventure tale (did I miss a previous one?) takes place in a science-fiction setting (advanced tech, etc) but functionally operates almost as a fantasy - technology is an unelaborated means to an end, fast interstellar travel, etc. This does allow the author to tell a story unencumbered by the need to explain why anything can be done technologically, and it works very well here.
We follow the adventure of a detective/effectuator, initially on an investigation of apparently little import, but then summoned to assist the ruler of Old Earth (the planet amazon readers use now) on a matter of critical importance. This mystery is enhanced by giving the protagonist schizophrenia, as his magically-aspected persona has manifested as a separate entity and is waxing in his own slow rise to dominance over the currently rationality-based persona and world. A few questions do see unanswered at the end of the story, at least as I caught it.
The read familiar with Jack Vance may find echoes of much of his work from the 60s and 70's in this effectuator's tale, and the unsuspecting might be persuaded that this is an unpublished title by the same author. (the resemblance was so strong that at times I thought I saw specific indirect references to vancisms, including the Connactic's (of the Alastor trilogy) habit of going out anonymously amongst his people when the Archon got a knot on the head. Am I wrong? Comment!)
Edit - I have read an interview with the author, and he comes right out and says this is set one eon before the Dying Earth and that " I write the kind of story I like to read, and what I like to read is a Jack Vance story."
He does a great job of it.
This detective/adventure tale (did I miss a previous one?) takes place in a science-fiction setting (advanced tech, etc) but functionally operates almost as a fantasy - technology is an unelaborated means to an end, fast interstellar travel, etc. This does allow the author to tell a story unencumbered by the need to explain why anything can be done technologically, and it works very well here.
We follow the adventure of a detective/effectuator, initially on an investigation of apparently little import, but then summoned to assist the ruler of Old Earth (the planet amazon readers use now) on a matter of critical importance. This mystery is enhanced by giving the protagonist schizophrenia, as his magically-aspected persona has manifested as a separate entity and is waxing in his own slow rise to dominance over the currently rationality-based persona and world. A few questions do see unanswered at the end of the story, at least as I caught it.
The read familiar with Jack Vance may find echoes of much of his work from the 60s and 70's in this effectuator's tale, and the unsuspecting might be persuaded that this is an unpublished title by the same author. (the resemblance was so strong that at times I thought I saw specific indirect references to vancisms, including the Connactic's (of the Alastor trilogy) habit of going out anonymously amongst his people when the Archon got a knot on the head. Am I wrong? Comment!)
Edit - I have read an interview with the author, and he comes right out and says this is set one eon before the Dying Earth and that " I write the kind of story I like to read, and what I like to read is a Jack Vance story."
He does a great job of it.
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