vintonole's review against another edition
4.0
A fun set of stories that introduce Henghis Hapthorn, the Sherlock Holmes of the Archonate. I discovered him through this Last Case published in Lightspeed magazine last year. These stories take place before the penultimate age of the universe while rationalism still reigns. Looking forward to reading his first novel Majestrum.
kathijo63's review against another edition
4.0
Week 12 of the 2015 Reading Challenge - A Book of Short Stories. I had not heard of this author but apparently he is pretty popular in the UK. The stories are about Henghis who is a detective of sorts on an alien world. I enjoyed them and would probably read more of his books.
islandhopper's review
5.0
I was introduced to Matthew Hughes and his Archonate world through the novel he is currently serializing through Lightspeed Magazine. The writing style combined with the fascinating SciFi/Fantasy mix led me to pick this up for free on my Kindle.
9 Tales does exactly what the title suggests. It tells 9 Tales about Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator as he unravels cases, solves crimes, seeks out missing folks, and finds himself mixed up with the magical mysteries that are seeping into his logical world.
I loved this collection of stories. Henghis himself is a fantastic character. Intelligent and witty, he reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, but would undoubtedly give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. The Archonate setting itself is filled with a myriad of bizarre, detestable, or simply quirky characters. Since Henghis is usually taking on contracts for the absurdly wealthy, he runs into a variety of dangerous nobility types that lead all sorts of hedonistic lives.
As I understand it, the 9 tales encompass events that cover the entire timeline of the three Henghis Hapthorn novels. Having never read the books there were times when I was wondering if I shouldn't know more about a certain character or concept already. I didn't find that to be an issue, though, and I'm excited to read the novels themselves.
Overall, this is a top notch collection of stories and and it was a pleasure to read.
9 Tales does exactly what the title suggests. It tells 9 Tales about Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator as he unravels cases, solves crimes, seeks out missing folks, and finds himself mixed up with the magical mysteries that are seeping into his logical world.
I loved this collection of stories. Henghis himself is a fantastic character. Intelligent and witty, he reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, but would undoubtedly give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. The Archonate setting itself is filled with a myriad of bizarre, detestable, or simply quirky characters. Since Henghis is usually taking on contracts for the absurdly wealthy, he runs into a variety of dangerous nobility types that lead all sorts of hedonistic lives.
As I understand it, the 9 tales encompass events that cover the entire timeline of the three Henghis Hapthorn novels. Having never read the books there were times when I was wondering if I shouldn't know more about a certain character or concept already. I didn't find that to be an issue, though, and I'm excited to read the novels themselves.
Overall, this is a top notch collection of stories and and it was a pleasure to read.
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