I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. 

A man who escaped a cult faces a universe where magic begins to awaken in author Matthew Hughes’s “Yalum.”

The Synopsis

Yalum Erkatchian is captain and part owner of the space yacht Peregrinator when a distant relative lures him into returning to the planet he fled twenty-five years ago to escape a matriarchal cult. But it’s a trap and Yalum is forced into a quest to recover a sacred relic that pitches him into a desperate struggle for survival.

And then it gets worse, because he discovers that the entire universe is about to be upended by a sudden switch of its operating system from cause-and-effect rationalism to willpowered magic. Yalum and his friends try to prepare to survive, but a new threat emerges: someone has been planning to ride the new reality into a tyranny of spellslinging aided by a bored demon.

The Review 

This was one of the more fascinating and epic sci-fi stories I’ve read this year. The authors’ handling of world-building and developing mythology within this universe was exceptional. The author starts off Strong, building tension with this cult from the protagonist’s homeworld, and really wraps up the action with an apocalyptic switch in reality that turns things upside down.

Aside from the fantastic character development, what really made this a stellar read was the unique way the author switched genres through a reality rewrite, turning the sci-fi story into a chilling fantasy. Readers won’t be able to help themselves from getting invested in these characters as they adjust to this new world/universe and the universal laws that put everything on the line.

The Verdict

Action-packed, witty, and thoroughly entertaining, Author Matthew Hughes “Yalum” is a must-read sci-fi meets fantasy novel. Readers will be able to easily connect with these characters and become invested in their journey. The twists and turns this novel takes have readers on the edge of their seats until the book’s climactic finale. If you haven’t yet, please be sure to pick up your copy of this wonderful novel today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

I write space-opera science fiction and fantasy mostly set in my extrapolation of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. I make no bones about being heavily influenced by Vance, whose work I first encountered as a thirteen-year-old in the early 1960s. I also write crime fiction as Matt Hughes.

Booklist has called me Vance’s “heir apparent” and George R.R. Martin says I “do Jack Vance better than anyone except Jack himself.” I am very proud to have been authorized by the Vance estate to write BARBARIANS OF THE BEYOND, a companion novel to Vance’s iconic DEMON PRINCES series.

I’m Canadian, a university drop-out from a working-poor background. I’ve been a professional writer all my adult life and was staff speechwriter to two federal cabinet ministers in the 1970s. Then for three decades, I was the top-rated freelance speechwriter in British Columbia.

Since segueing into fiction-writing, I’ve sold twenty-four novels to publishers large and small in the UK, US, and Canada (not counting reprints, book club deals, and foreign translations), as well as 100 works of short fiction to professional markets. Lately, I’ve been self-publishing new works.

I’ve won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award and the Endeavour Award, and have been shortlisted for the Aurora, Locus, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Endeavour (twice), A.E. Van Vogt, Neffy, and High Plains, and Derringer Awards. In 2021, I was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame.

George R.R. Martin has called me “criminally underrated.” Robert J. Sawyer has called me a “towering talent.” David Gerrold says I’m a “treasure.”