Fool Me Twice

Matthew Hughes's novels Fools Errant, Fool Me Twice, and Black Brillion are set in the far future of Earth, just prior to the era of Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Hughes has captured Vance's style pretty well, and has done a pretty good job of imagining odd societies in the Vancean manner as well. His first novel, while quite enjoyable, was probably a bit too overtly a Vance pastiche. However his own voice has become increasingly developed in his more recent work. Fool Me Twice is a direct sequel to Fools Errant. In the first novel, the hero, Filidor Vesh, nephew to the Archon of Old Earth, was brought to some understanding of his potential responsibilities, and his capabilities. In this novel, he has become the Archon's apprentice, but despite some additional duties, he does not really seem to have fully taken up his role. Indeed, he seems all to willing to let his aide direct his actions, saving all the more time for his favored pursuits: eating, drinking, chasing women. As the novel opens, he more or less simultaneously makes a careless decision to allow exploitation of a remote rural area by some local nobles (named, transparently, Maguffyne); and falls in love with a girl he sees out his window. Not at all surprisingly, upon tracking down the girl he learns that she had come to petition him to protect her land from exploitation by the very nobles he has just supported. Soon he find himself stripped of his seal of office and effectively without an identity. He ends up chasing the girl in an attempt to make amends (and recover his sigil). He falls in with a travelling acting troupe, and later ends up thrown off a ship in the middle of an ocean. Luckily -- to an extent -- he is rescued by a sea creature -- unluckily the creature tows him to slavery on a remote island. Filidor is once again forced to take real responsibility for his life, and for the good of others as well ... The end is never in real doubt, but the journey is very enjoyable. The influence of Vance is very much in view -- fortunately Vance is an author well worth being influenced by. Fool Me Twice isn't a great book, but it's a very diverting read.

This book was amazing. I had a slight bit of difficulty picking up on the verbose style, but once i'd picked it up, the book was incredible. The book's charm is the author's manner of saying very simple things in a ridiculously complicated way, marking it all the while with nearly slapstick comedy. It's a little bit like the result of the Three Stooges as written by Shakespeare while he was drunk. It's an epic plot, run through with events made funny by how they're presented, along with some parts that are just STRANGE. All in all, a great story, but not for you if you don't like this sort of thing. If you like Douglas Adams, you'll probably like this.

In the very distant future, Earth?s sun has become orange signifying the aging of the solar system. In fact, the remaining inhabitants of the planet refer to it as Old Earth, which is governed by one man, The Archon Dezendah VII and his heir Filidor Vesh. Last Year (See FOOLS ERRANT) Filidor saved his uncle?s life and rescued the world from an ancient evil that slithered in from another dimension. Since then Filidor has reverted to his dandified ways because he feels like he?s not understanding anything that an Archon needs to do. When a pretty woman who had a temper tantrum steals two valuable objects of his, he is sent by his uncle to fetch them back. Accompanying him is his tutor Bassariot who tries to kill him at the first opportunity. Although he fails to do the job, Filidor winds up at the mercy of pirates and it takes all his intelligence (along with the uses of his ear) to get him and his fellow prisoners out of their predicament. The adventures aren?t over for Filidor who must remain in hiding from his would be killer who had declared him an outlaw. While all this is going on the Archon has mysteriously vanished. FOOL ME Twice is an irreverent book that doesn?t take itself seriously yet is nevertheless is very entertaining. MATTHEW HUGHES has a distinctive comedic voice that blends well with the action packed story line. The social structure of Earth in the far distant future is very interesting and is one of the reasons this fantasy novel is going to be as successful as its predecessor was.Harriet Klausner