Archive for the ‘Matthew Hughes’ Category
The Damned Busters, by Matthew Hughes
Release dates- US: May 31st 2011, UK May 5th 2011
Where I got it: Received Review copy from the friendly folks at Angry Robot Books
why I read it: Interesting premise + totally cool cover art = sign me up.
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Meet Chesney Arnstruther, diagnosed in childhood as a high functioning autistic, his social skills are limited to the occasional game of low stakes poker, reading comic books, ogling over women who jog in the park, and speaking on the phone to his televangelist obsessed Mother, Letitia. Employed at an insurance company, Chesney gets to spend his days doing what he loves: working with numbers. Averages, graphs, predictions, statistics, those are the things that sing in Chesney’s heart. Logical and practical, he respects his mother’s religious leanings, but Chesney’s personal faith lies in numbers, percentages, and algorithms.
You can get the gist of how things get started by following the genius cover art: Man stubs hand with hammer in presence of an inadvertent pentagram. Demon is summoned, offers man his hearts desire in exchange for his soul. Man says “No thanks!”, and before long, all Hell breaks loose. Well, not so much “break loose”, as goes on strike. Yes, the Demons of hell are organized. And Chesney suddenly finds himself smack dab in the middle of their union negotiations. He never sold his soul or signed a deal with the Devil, so what are they do with him? He’s a special case, so he gets a special deal, one named Xaphon. With the looks, sound, and personality of a prohibition era gangster, the demon Xaphon is Chesney’s to command for two hours out of every 24.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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