Fool Me Twice

No good deed goes unpunished; After returning from his quest to save the world from his uncle, the vaguely all-powerful Archon of Old Earth, Filidor Vesh now bumbles blindly through an attempt to squelch the machinations of a would-be political usurper. As a result, he must contend with an odd assortment of evil agents as well as the discovery of his true love - a ravishing beauty who knocks him down, steals his heart, and dares him to pursue her.

Set in an exotic and strange far future, Matthew Hughes's Fool Me Twice is the entertaining sequel to his fine debut novel, Fools Errant. The witty, satirical Fool novels should please most science fiction and fantasy readers, especially fans of Jack Vance, Douglas Adams, or Jonathan Swift.

Fool Me Twice continues the adventures and misadventures of Filidor Vesh, heir to "Dezendah Vesh, ninety-eighth (or possibly ninety-ninth) Archon of those regions of old Earth still inhabited by human beings." When Filidor is knocked off his feet, literally and emotionally, by a beautiful stranger who steals the plaque and sigil of his office, he pursues the woman (and the proof of his inheritance) across the sea. Filidor's search for Emmlyn Podarke takes him into increasingly peculiar and precarious situations, until he finds himself captured, along with his beloved Emmlyn, by a powerful and possibly insane enemy who has excavated an ancient and dangerous artifact. --Cynthia Ward