You might not know Jorge Luis Borges. Which is fine. And you probably haven’t read is Universal History of Infamy either. Which is fine. I haven’t gotten to it yet. That doesn’t preclude you from enjoying Rhys Hughes’s A New Universal History of Infamy.
This collection of short biographical essays on some of history’s most infamous personalities is a great read. Hughes fleshes out these characters and situations to the point of making them real. And each one gets a bit more absurd than the next which doesn’t hinder the story nor does it bring the flow of the narrative to a screeching halt even though you are reading some weird stuff.
The rest of the collection is rounded off with essays where Hughes writes in the manor of other authors and includes several great short stories. Moving through different genres from weird to slipstream to what could be called fiction-in-the-vein-of-Douglas-Adams, Hughes is a capable writer with everything he attempts in this volume.
Though the mini biographies that make up the heart of this volume a quite good and Hughes brings a unique voice to the entries, the short stories in following sections are, without a second thought, great works. Hughes takes on the shape-shifting trope in Street Corner Mouse with a deft hand and turns a normal were creature story into something worth ready and reading again. Or perhaps the story about the dimension touring musicians that built a Moon. It might not have been influenced by Douglas Adams but I find myself thinking how similar in tone and subject.
Hughes’s imagination shines in the main section of the volume spinning brief biographical sketches that could be found in any encyclopedia if only these men and women existed. He is that successful in forcing the reader to suspend disbelief and take what Hughes writes as well researched history. I was disappointed that he did not extend this section with more sketches. Though Borges version only had a scant few as well.
Hughes offers the reader a diverse set of stories with only one or two that are weak but in this entire volume of strong, strange, and fulfilling stories, those weak entries would stand out in any other venue if not for the extraordinary company they keep. Hughes wears his influences on his sleeve but unlike amateur writers who only mimic their influences with hope to sound original, Hughes succeeds in both being original and having an original voice without losing that connection to what he is celebrating; those influences that he wants you to also discover on your own and experience them just as he did.
I came to Hughes on a whim during a buying spree at Clarkesworld Books and I’m am glad that whim hit me when it did. I plan on adding more Hughes to my collection.
A New Universal History is well worth seeking out on the secondary market since Nightshade published this in a limited edition it may not be available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
