Rhys Hughes

Embark on a cerebral odyssey into the realms of the infinite with: ADVENTURES WITH IMMORTALITY - Short Tales of LongevityIn this thought-provoking collection, Rhys Hughes unveils eleven mesmerizing narratives that delve deep into the recesses of eternal life, unraveling the enigmatic threads of the immortal psyche.Every story is a riveting exploration, from the intricate dance of living countless lives to the elusive pursuit of nirvana's enlightenment and even the gravity-defying plunge into the abyss of a black hole.Illustrated by Mike Dubisch, his visual artistry will leave an indelible imprint on your perception of existence.

There are few students in my class. When one considers what the subject is, this isn’t surprising. I teach myself. In other words, I impart to my students facts and fancies based on my life and ideas. It’s the least popular class in the university and I doubt it will be funded for another term. But none of that is my fault. I wanted to teach a proper discipline such as ecology, but the authorities wouldn’t let me. They insisted that I teach myself; and as a result, I do so. The students are given an assignment. They each have to write a short piece about how I spend my free time. But this is information I’ve always kept secret. I can’t imagine how they’re expected to know anything about my private life, certainly not in detail. Clearly I’m being spied on. Unless it’s guesswork? I read the essays anxiously. Yes, only some of them have got it right…

A collection of stories introduced by a novelette that is a fusion of memoir, travelogue and speculation. 'Mombasa Madrigal' charts a modern voyage to that city of crumbling equatorial grandeur. A thoughtful, pulsating, intuitive text, it is something new in the somewhat conventionalised universe of contemporary narratives. The short stories that follow complement and amplify the impact. Outrigger canoes with crab claw sails ride the currents of the Indian Ocean into oblivion, the mountains of Kenya loom high over grounded ships miles from the sea, pirates dream impossibilities and scheme them into reality along the Swahili Coast. And always Mombasa, the gateway to East Africa, pulsing endlessly in the heat of the night.

Marco Polo is travelling again in the service of Kublai Khan but this time he wanders off the path and ends up in an unknown part of the world. In his solitude he becomes an emperor of dreams. The ghosts of prehistory visit him, and the phantoms of later ages and the future too. He even finds himself in the unexpected position of haunting himself. Only his very last spectral guest can know everything that is essential, and that last guest may well be you, the reader.

A selection of previously uncollected short stories from a highly regarded author of speculative fiction. The work presented here samples two distinct periods: the beginning of a career and its fast approaching conclusion. The early stories tend to be more conventional fantasies, the later are more experimental. But most are whimsical and all are ironic.

Rhys Hughes has never been a stranger to experimental fiction and unusual ways of constructing stories, and this mini-collection gathers some of his most far-reaching examples, placed squarely in the world of OuLiPo writing. Short for Ouvroir de litt rature potentielle or the workshop of potential literature, OuLiPo is a grouping of authors who fashion works based on constrained writing techniques - writing that follows rigorous and extremely precise rules concerning structure and layout etc. And here, we encounter works based on rigid numerical constraints, works in the form of grids that can be read in any direction, and a "logico-erotic tale in which the permutations of the sexual acts are based on the workings of logic gates."The intricacy of construction within these carefully defined restraints is stunning but the resulting literary world is still very much the author's own, filled with his characteristic sense of humour, the absurd and the fantastical. This is a slim but large-format book to give space for all the complex layouts, grids, structures etc. that make up these stories.

Rhys Hughes has never been a stranger to experimental fiction and unusual ways of constructing stories, and this mini-collection gathers some of his most far-reaching examples, placed squarely in the world of OuLiPo writing. Short for Ouvroir de litt rature potentielle or the workshop of potential literature, OuLiPo is a grouping of authors who fashion works based on constrained writing techniques - writing that follows rigorous and extremely precise rules concerning structure and layout etc. And here, we encounter works based on rigid numerical constraints, works in the form of grids that can be read in any direction, and a "logico-erotic tale in which the permutations of the sexual acts are based on the workings of logic gates."The intricacy of construction within these carefully defined restraints is stunning but the resulting literary world is still very much the author's own, filled with his characteristic sense of humour, the absurd and the fantastical. This is a slim but large-format book to give space for all the complex layouts, grids, structures etc. that make up these stories.

A short novel consisting of more than eighty linked fictions, each concerning the magical, metaphysical, whimsical and ironic adventures of a woman from a different country and culture, and her interactions with the world, with time, space, love, logic and impulse, and with the narrator who exists in many different dimensions at the same time.

A collection of previously unpublished stories by a highly regarded writer of modern speculative fiction. The seashell contract is binding on the human race. Once it is signed, the ocean will grow warmer and storms rage across the land. Other tales involve the longest chopsticks, a man who falls afoul of the sons of the sea, the first selfie photograph ever taken and its unexpected consequences, the man who swallowed an apple pip in order to grow a tree in his stomach, and the sasquatch who went to work in an office... 22 stories in total and all for a good cause. The author's profits from the sale of this book will go to The Mariposa Trust, a charity that supports mothers and families who have lost babies..."It's a crime that Rhys Hughes is not as widely known as Italo Calvino and other writers of that stature. Brilliantly written and conceived, Hughes' fiction has few parallels anywhere in the world. In some alternate universe with a better sense of justice, his work triumphantly parades across all bestseller lists. " -JEFF VANDERMEER"Rhys Hughes seems almost the sum of our planet's literature... As well as being drunk on language and wild imagery, he is also sober on the essentials of thought. He has something of Mervyn Peake's glorious invention, something of John Cowper Powys's contemplative, almost disdainful existentialism, a sensuality, a relish, an addiction to the delicious. He's as tricky as his own characters... He toys with convention. He makes the metaphysical political, the personal incredible and the comic hints at subtle pain. Few living fictioneers approach this chef's sardonic confections, certainly not in English." - MICHAEL MOORCOCK"Every Hughes story implies much, served with wit and whimsy and word-relish, high spirits and bittersweet twists." - IAN WATSON"A dazzling disintegration of the reality principle. A rite of passage to the greater world beyond common sense. Raises the bar on profundity and sets a comic standard for the tragic limits of our human experience. Like Beckett on nitrous oxide. Like Kafka with a brighter sense of humour." - A.A. ATTANASIO"Hughes' world is a magical one, and his language is the most magical thing of all." - T.E.D. KLEIN"There are no easy phrases to describe Hughes' fiction; it's so exotic. His writing is incredibly precise and at the same time his imagination is so unfettered." - JEFFREY FORD