The Kink of Human Mildness
(2025)(A book in the Trojan Donkey Chapbooks series)
A Story by Rhys Hughes
Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full of the kink of human mildness...
"I decided to construct a ship with wood taken from gallows that had been used to hang murderers. It cost much effort and many moonless nights to steal enough examples of the execution device to suit my purpose. People who noticed something missing at their local crossroads assumed the law had changed and that capital punishment was abolished. This assumption may have encouraged them to indulge in riskier behaviour and ultimately swing for crimes they would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. Is that my fault? Fate seemed to think so."
"Rhys Hughes seems almost the sum of our planet'''s literature. He toys with convention. He makes the metaphysical political, the personal incredible and the comic hints at subtle pain. Few living fictioneers approach this chef’s sardonic confections, certainly not in English.’ — MICHAEL MOORCOCK
"If I said he was a Welsh writer who writes as though he has gone to school with the best writing from all over the world, I wonder if my compliment would just sound provincial. Hughes’ style, with all that means, is among the most beautiful I''ve encountered in several years.’ — SAMUEL R. DELANY
"It’s a crime that Rhys Hughes is not as widely known as Italo Calvino and other writers of that stature. Brilliantly written and conceived, Hughes’ fiction has few parallels anywhere in the world. In some alternate universe with a better sense of justice, his work triumphantly parades across all bestseller lists.’ — JEFF VANDERMEER
Genre: Fantasy
"I decided to construct a ship with wood taken from gallows that had been used to hang murderers. It cost much effort and many moonless nights to steal enough examples of the execution device to suit my purpose. People who noticed something missing at their local crossroads assumed the law had changed and that capital punishment was abolished. This assumption may have encouraged them to indulge in riskier behaviour and ultimately swing for crimes they would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. Is that my fault? Fate seemed to think so."
"Rhys Hughes seems almost the sum of our planet'''s literature. He toys with convention. He makes the metaphysical political, the personal incredible and the comic hints at subtle pain. Few living fictioneers approach this chef’s sardonic confections, certainly not in English.’ — MICHAEL MOORCOCK
"If I said he was a Welsh writer who writes as though he has gone to school with the best writing from all over the world, I wonder if my compliment would just sound provincial. Hughes’ style, with all that means, is among the most beautiful I''ve encountered in several years.’ — SAMUEL R. DELANY
"It’s a crime that Rhys Hughes is not as widely known as Italo Calvino and other writers of that stature. Brilliantly written and conceived, Hughes’ fiction has few parallels anywhere in the world. In some alternate universe with a better sense of justice, his work triumphantly parades across all bestseller lists.’ — JEFF VANDERMEER
Genre: Fantasy
Used availability for Rhys Hughes's The Kink of Human Mildness