Matthew Hughes Review-a-Thon - Template

Blame it on James Nicoll. He made us Web fiction reviewers in general an offer we couldn´t refuse: to do a collective review day on Matt Hughes´ TEMPLATE - a Novel of the Archonate. Until now I counted six reviews, and, as midnight is approaching fast here in Brazil, I thought best to hurry up and write it down.

Even though Template is just being published as you read this (by PS Publishing, it was written in 2003, and is considered by himself his best work yet. It is a stand-alone novel set in the Archonate universe - the fourth one, I believe, the other three being Fools Errant, Fool Me Twice, and Black Brillion.

I must confess I hadn´t read anything by Hughes so far, but I liked TEMPLATE. This novel introduces us to the life of Conn Labro, a major player in the game-oriented society of the planet Thrais. Slightly reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges´s The Lottery in Babylon, in which people play games that can make them rich ou indentured forever and forced to stay on the planet during the rest of their lives. The major difference to the Borgesian tale is that Thrais is a society oriented to play not for the love of the game, but the profit, which is is all that matters to them in the end.

Labro is specialized in all kinds of games but,, as most of players in Thrais, his cup of tea is direct confrontation with weapons. He is indentured to Hallis Tharp, owner of Horder's Gaming Emporium, "the lifelong landmark of his existence", for it is all he ever knew in his life. Until the day Tharp and the Emporium are blasted out of existence, and Labro finds himself owner of a small fortune and a tiny bead which may contain privileged information - the sort of info that can get you killed just for having it, even if you can´t access ir, as is the case.

To do that, and maybe gain some measure of knowledge of his former life, Labro must go to Old Earth. He is accompanied by Jenore Mordene, a young woman who was friends with Tharp and wise in the alien ways, for she is from Old Earth herself. Together, they will travel in ships and meet many alien races, whose habits and mores are utterly Incomprehensible to him - and, in the process, learn more about himself, as it´s made clear below:

"Conn's upbringing had not encouraged him to examine his motives or moods. His life so far had been a succession of tasks and contests that had grown more complex as he had become better able to meet them. Between assignments, he rested or prepared for the next encounter. He rarely asked himself what he thought or felt about anything, unless it was to check his preconceptions to avoid a complacency that an opponent could use against him."

Template is a very focused novel - it´s as if it tries to reproduce the mindframe of Conn Labro. But it works cleverly making us think about the meaning of life without being cocky about it. Hughes even manages to introduce a couple of warrior siblings who are intent to write a monograph "that argues that every society is fundamentally organized around one or another of the cardinal sins".

That may even be one of the purposes of the novel itself - which can be almost dull sometimes because there is so much dialogue on cultural differences that we find ourselves welcoming any physical action that can possibly happen. But it would be unconsiderate to say this, because it all happens for a purpose. Nicoll compared Hughes to Jack Vance (and I agree), but this novel reminded me also of Iain M.Banks´ Culture stories, at least in the beginning. The question of costumes (specially when Conn is aboard the ship that will take him first to the world of Bashaw, then to Old Earth) is more Vance-like.

All in all, Template is a good reading. Because there is another requisite it fulfills very well: it is fun to read - and what good is a game to the player if he/she can´t enjoy it? Or, as Conn Labro himself would ask: "what´s the tangible gain?" The tangible gain here is a well-spent time.