The first collection by writer Matthew Hughes, and the perfect companion to his acclaimed novel Black Brillion, The Gist Hunter and Other Stories features nine stories taking place in the universe of The Archonate, as well as four non-series stories. The stories of Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth's "foremost freelance discriminator", combine mystery and science fantasy while simultaneously recalling the arch irony of Gene Wolfe and the sly fancies of Jack Vance.
Praise for the Archonate novel, Black Brillion.
"Fans of Jack Vance will not be disappointed by this incursion of Matthew Hughes into Vance's science-fantasy territory." - D. Douglas Fratz, Science Fiction Weekly
"...a solid addition to the canon of Dying Earth literature... considerable wit and a flair for reified metaphysics surpassing anything conceived by Vance." - Locus
Contents:
Henghis Hapthorn
* Mastermindless * Relics of the Thim * Falberoth's Ruin * Finding Sajessarian * The Gist Hunter * Thwarting Jabbi Gloond
Guth Bandar
* A Little Learning * Inner Huff * Help Wonted
Other Tales
* Shadow Man * The Devil You Don't * Go Tell the Phoenicians * Bearing Up
To the long tradition of eldritch horror pioneered and refined by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti, comes Laird Barron, an author whose literary voice invokes the grotesque, the devilish, and the perverse with rare intensity and astonishing craftsmanship.
Collected here for the first time are nine terrifying tales of cosmic horror, including the World Fantasy Award-nominated novella "The Imago Sequence," the International Horror Guild Award-nominated "Proboscis," and the never-before published "Procession of the Black Sloth." Together, these stories, each a masterstroke of craft and imaginative irony, form a shocking cycle of distorted evolution, encroaching chaos, and ravenous insectoid hive-minds hidden just beneath the seemingly benign surface of the Earth.
With colorful protagonists, including an over-the-hill CIA agent, a grizzled Pinkerton detective, and a failed actor accompanying a group of bounty hunters, Barron's stories are resonant and authentic, featuring vulnerable, hardboiled tough guys attempting to stand against the stygian wasteland of night. Throughout the collection, themes of desolation, fear, and masculine identity are played out against the backdrop of an indifferent, devouring cosmos.
Contents:
* Old Virginia * Shiva, Open Your Eye * Procession of the Black Sloth * Bulldozer * Probiscis * Hallucigenia * Parallax * The Royal Zoo is Closed * The Imago Sequence
