Just like when I had read the first book in this series (Majestrum), I find myself hesitating over what rating I should give this book. I think I like it. It's definitely interesting. The setting is fascinating, and the characters are - different. The plot - I'm not sure about that, but still, after reading the book, I have to say I can recommend it. ( )

Matthew Hughes is an sf/f writer with a couple of ongoing series that he juggles; I picked up The Spiral Labyrinth because I thought it dealt with the characters of one series but found that it actually tells a story from the other series, that of Henghis Hapthorn, a master "discriminator" living and working in the very far future. A "discriminator" is a detective, more or less, and Hapthorn is the foremost practitioner in the world, a sort of Sherlock Holmes of his times. He is aided in his work by a differentiated body-sharing entity that basically encapsulates his intuition and by an integrator, an AI with vast stores of knowledge that, in Hapthorn's case, has been "decanted" into a grinnet, a small creature sort of like a cross between a cat and a monkey. There have been some odd disappearances of late and when Hapthorn is asked to look into the whereabouts of a devoted spouse who has gone missing, he ends up finding himself shorn of his intuitive self and thrust into a more distant future, where the Wheel has turned away from basing the underlying reality of life in rationality and toward the underlying reality being based in magic. More, a new and strange 10th Plane of existence has opened, a Plane that is sending a shout resounding through the usual Nine Planes, an entity hollering "Bring me Apthorn!" It is up to Henghis and his grinnet companion to unravel the mystery of the 10th Plane voice and the whereabouts of the missing people from his own time, and to get home again - all supposing they can survive, intuition-less, in a world of magic....I generally think of Hughes' Hapthorn series as being science fiction, but this one blurs the line between sf and fantasy more than most novels that I've run across. His writing is sharp, characters very well-drawn and situations both perilous and sometimes astoundingly hilarious, well worth a try. I have read some Henghis Hapthorn short stories/novelettes in outlets like F&SF and Asimov's, but this is my first novel, and although it's clear that there are earlier novels in the series, I didn't feel that I was missing out by not having read them (yet). Recommended - check this one out, and you'll never look at fungus the same way again! ( )

The sequel to Majestrum is a little less satisfying in the mystery end, but more satisfying on the character end since Henghis Hapthorn gets to show off his own talents a bit more, and in a highly hostile environment at that. Hughes has fun playing with the thin line between superscience and magic, and he's brave enough to radically change the status quo at the end of the story. And of course the writing is funny and entertaining as usual. Good stuff.

Full review here. ( )

In which our ultra-rational investigator Henghis Hapthorn, his magic-obsessed alter-ego, and their increasingly gun-shy familiar find themselves coping with another threat of epic metaphysical import. This menace involves time travel, a cabal of amoral wizards, a dragon with a long history, and a sentient hive mind. To say more would be to give away the story, but this novel has tighter plotting than "Majestrum" and a more poignent ending. ( )

The Spiral Labyrinth is the latest novel in the chronicles of Henghis Hapthorn, Matthew Hughes' master detective, but to get the most out of it one needs to have first read Majestrum, (and perhaps the six Hapthorn stories originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and subsequently collected in the Gist Hunter and Other Stories, though one can manage the novels without them.) Anything by Matthew Hughes is in the "must read" category, so if you are unfamiliar with the series, it is well worth buying both books at a go (Amazon.ca offering convenient discounts with their 'buy both and save' button).
Henghis Hapthorn is the Archonate's finest discriminator, a master of deductive reasoning. Unfortunately, in this penultimate age, magic is again beginning to intrude into the universe, disrupting the rationale causation that is the basis of Henghis' investigations. Hapthorn struggles against the changing nature of reality, and the realization that his particular talents are becoming increasingly obsolete in the new age of sympathetic magic. Forced to defend the value of empiricism against various practitioners of magical intuition, his own logical deductions are often mistaken for magic, to his considerable annoyance. Imagine a sardonic Sherlock Holmes set in Jack Vance's Dying Earth, and you pretty much get the idea.
The first novel, Majestrum concerns unraveling a conspiracy against one of Earth's leading families; the second, The Spiral Labyrinth, follows Haphtorn into a parallel world completely dominated by magic. The mysteries are original, compelling, and satisfyingly twisty, but plot is entirely secondary to the droll dialog and wry worldbuilding.
One particularly original aspect of the Henghis Hapthorn chronicles is how the author solves the eternal problem of finding someone to whom the super sleuth can explain everything (i.e., the 'Watson' character): thanks to events recounted in The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, Hapthorn has become a split personality, allowing our protagonist to argue his various clues and cases with, um, himself. It is a clever conceit used to good comic effect, but Hughes also seems to be raising, in a pretty direct and literal manner, the larger question of whether people are ever really honest with themselves.
Hughes is a master of the ironic monolog, and much of Hapthorn's first person narration reveals him skirting over certain moral ambiguities or presenting himself in a better light than might altogether be justified by the facts. (Indeed, when they get around to making the film version of the Hapthorn chronicles, I envisage Kelesy Grammer cast in the title role, rather than, say, Jeremy Irons.) Conceited, self-satisfied, preening gasbag though he might be, Henghis Hapthorn is nevertheless oddly loveable and often rises to the occasion, demonstrating considerable genius and even heroism. And just underneath the irony lies a whole other layer of philosophical debate that underpins much of Matthew Hughes writing. In other words, Matthew Hughes is seriously funny.
But do not just take my word for it: sample chapters of all Hughes major works are available on his website at www.archonate.com. (But if you are moved to obtain the complete Matthew Hughes cannon – which I highly recommend -- note that Gullible's Travels is in fact an omnibus edition of Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice.) ( )