Hughart, Barry (1934– )
Fantasy with an Oriental setting first became pop-
ular in the West with The Arabian Nightsbut has
enjoyed only intermittent success in recent years.
One of the most enduring is the Kai Lung series
by Ernest BRAMAH, which mimics many of the de-
vices of Chinese fantasy, although the China por-
trayed in the text is not historically authentic.
The pulp magazines of the 1940s and thriller writ-
ers such as Sax ROHMERgenerated images of mys-
terious and probably nefarious Orientals, but to
this day only a handful of writers have exerted
major effort in this area, reflecting the “Yellow
Menace” mentality of the time. Since then a
handful of writers including Jessica Amanda
Salmonson, M. Lucie Chin, and Susan M.
SHWARTZhave used Oriental or mock-Oriental
settings. Perhaps the most highly regarded are
Barry Hughart’s three published novels, which
somewhat resemble Bramah’s novels in that they
are set in a fictional version of ancient China
where magic sometimes works, although Hughart
differs in that he used that setting to produce
three unusual and memorable detective stories.
The two protagonists of the series are Master
Li and Number Ten Ox, who first appear in Bridge
of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never
Wa s (1984). The twosome set off on a quest,
searching out a cure for a mysterious illness, in the
course of which they encounter a number of magi-
cal creatures, solve an ancient mystical mystery,
and provide the reader with a guided tour of a
well-imagined alternate world. The story is told in
a deceptively light style that actually masks consid-
erable complexity, and in recognition of its literate
originality it won the World Fantasy Award. In the
sequel, The Story of the Stone(1988), a monk is
murdered to gain possession of an apparently
worthless document, and the two occult detectives
solve the crime in the middle of another cluster of
magical events. Eight Skilled Gentlemen(1991) is an
even better mystery, although the fantasy elements
are less interesting. Someone is systematically mur-
dering respected mandarins, apparently with no
particular motive, although Master Li eventually
uncovers the cleverly concealed truth. The consis-
tently high quality of the three novels has resulted
in their continued popularity, but reportedly a
fourth novel in the series has yet to find a pub-
lisher, possibly because Hughart’s work does not
fall into any of the existing subcategories of mod-
ern fantasy.Hutson, Shaun(1958– )
The British writer Shaun Hutson is primarily a
writer of visceral horror tales, relying heavily on ei-
ther violent action or horrible events described in
graphic detail in order to generate suspense. Some
of his horror novels are technically science fiction,
falling into the nature-gone-wild category, but
most are more overtly supernatural. He is often
compared to the far more prolific Guy SMITH, but
his novels are considerably more substantial and
often more original.
Hutson’s first horror novel was Skull(1982),
in which an oversized and clearly inhuman skull
is unearthed at an excavation site. After an acci-
dent results in contact between the skull and a
sample of human blood, it begins to reconstitute
its original body rather after the manner of a re-
vived vampire. The protagonists plan to destroy
the creature, but the skull is stolen by a mis-
guided man who wants to see what the regenera-
tion will lead to. Although a bit crudely done, the
story has several genuinely suspenseful scenes. In
Spawn(1983), a considerably more graphic novel,
a mentally disturbed hospital worker steals
aborted fetuses and buries them privately. A light-
ning strike not only brings them back to life but
somehow mutates them into hideous creatures
who decide to avenge themselves on the women
who discarded them. Despite some good individ-
ual scenes, the novel is not among his better
works.
Erebus(1984) also contains powerful images.
This time an entire community begins to exhibit
physiological and psychological changes akin to
vampirism. The plot falters in the later chapters,
but the initial build-up is very effective. Hutson’s
next several novels are much more formulaic and
less interesting, although the zombie gangsters in
Assassins (1988) provide some twisted amuse-
ment. Deathday(1986), in some editions pub-
lished under the pen name Robert Neville, is his
best work from that period. Hybrid(2002) is the172 Hughart, Barry