Fools Errant
Matthew Hughes's impressive first novel,Fools Errant, is set in a future so distant and strange, it may be read with equal enjoyment by both SF and fantasy readers. The book kicks off with a Wildean battle of wits, but the main influences on this ironic, rather picaresque, and altogether delightful entertainment are Jack Vance and Jonathan Swift.Filidor Vesh is a languid, callow young dandy, "the nephew and sole heir of Dezendah Vesh, ninety-eighth (or possibly ninety-ninth) Archon of those regions of old Earth still inhabited by human beings"; he anticipates a long life of idle pleasure, but a mysterious dwarf spirits him away on a dangerous journey. It quickly becomes apparent that their search for the Archon is an excuse to visit bizarre, fascinating lands. The reader won't mind. The characters are charming and singular, and the journey is packed with pleasures and perils.--Cynthia Ward