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The Smell of Telescopes

by

Rhys Hughes

 

If Hieronymus Bosch had, after imbibing ten pints of lager and a dodgy vindaloo, found himself press-ganged onto a pirate ship of uncertain date, captained by a silken-locked Welsh corsair, he may still have been unable to create visions as crowded and luxuriant as those of Rhys Hughes in The Smell of Telescopes. Existing devotees and new readers alike will be delighted to discover this new collection of stories, in which Hughes has not been afraid to prod the murky underbelly of such cultural bastions as Welsh heritage, Anglo-American academia and metaphysical gastronomy, and all in the swirling, kaleidoscopic, mesmerising style for which he is so justly admired.

 

Reviews:

'Hughes' writing has the lightness of Calvino's prose grounded in hardy welsh pragmatism. He is probably one of the most criminally neglected writers in the world - in that his imagination, inventiveness, linguistic cleverness, and his lack of cliché should have been enough long ago to attract the attention of the same literary mainstream that delights in the aforementioned Calvino.' New York Review of Science Fiction

'Hughes has crafted a series of literary gems here, filled with clever puns and word play, light and frothy on the surface, but with a dark and bitter brew concealed beneath the foam. This new collection shows that Hughes has continued to grow as a writer and most especially as a stylist. Anyone with a love of language will find much to enjoy in this book.' Hellnotes

'For me to say that this is an important collection from a publisher that has previously offered up rare volumes by Machen, Sarban and Aickman is to put it in rather lofty company, but I don't feel that such praise is at all unwarranted. Rhys Hughes is one of the most wildly inventive talents that we are graced with today, and I think that anyone willing to approach this book without being shackled by restrictive concepts of what weird fiction should be will be very favourably impressed.' All Hallows

'Rhys Hughes is an accomplished player with words, plots, effect, relationships, sensibilities; you name it, Hughes tries to stand it on its head. More often than seems attributable to mere chance, he succeeds.' Locus

'Dazzling prose. Put your feet up and dip in. Life will never seem quite the same again.' The Third Alternative

 

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