Hugh Cook 9/8/56 - 8/11/08
Hugh died very peacefully on a beautiful dawn. Our farewell ceremony to Hugh was interwoven with his poetry and with the words from so many of you who have encouraged and supported him over this past most difficult time. It is wonderful too though to remember that Hugh lived his dream for almost all of his life. He engaged in the almost lost art of finding joy and pleasure in the simplest things and because of this he was a man satisfied with his life.
Hugh's death notice appeared in the New Zealand Herald yesterday. His obituary, written by Dan Rabarts, will appear in the NZ Herald on 22nd November. Dan will also write a more extensive obituary that will be posted, among other places, on this blog in due course.
Thank you all for your recent comments and support.
Catherine
Hugh's death notice appeared in the New Zealand Herald yesterday. His obituary, written by Dan Rabarts, will appear in the NZ Herald on 22nd November. Dan will also write a more extensive obituary that will be posted, among other places, on this blog in due course.
Thank you all for your recent comments and support.
Catherine
posted by Hugh Cook at 2:30 AM
33 Comments:
All of Hugh's many fans will be saddened by this news. My thoughts are with his family.
My thoughts are with you all. Seeing Hugh's books in stores was a life-changing experience for me. To realise that someone in New Zealand could write fantasy was revelatory to a child raised on Stephen King and Tolkien. Without those books I may never have written my own stories.
It is a great loss. His writing was some of the most innovative and joyfully chaotic I have ever encountered and it still irritates me that it did not achieve the profile it merited. Rest in peace, Hugh.
Seamus
Drake Douey salutes Hugh.
We have lost a great thinker and writer.
My thoughts and good wishes to Hugh and his family - thanks for all the wonderful stories and worlds, Hugh,you were a great writer.
Yes a sad day indeed. Hughs books are the most enjoyable that I've read in my adult life. Please do what you can to keep them available for people in the future.
Sadly it seems practically impossible to find the majority of them on lulu.com which no longer seems to have the ability to enable access to mature content.
I am saddened to hear of his death. I own and enjoyed many of his books and remember feeling a quiet sense of pride in seeing an author from nz write such fine fiction when all of the other authors in the fantasy/sci fi section were from overseas. Tomorrow I will re-open "The walrus and the warwolf" and think of him.
Andrew
nice blog
http://www.youknowster.com/jokes/view/13-you-know-youre-a-parent-of-a-child-with-cancer-when
I always wanted to write to Cook to tell him that though few people ever read his work in the States that I have always loved them and kept them for years. 10 years pass. I finally get around to doing so and now it's too late. I'm sad to hear that he has passed on, but it makes me happy to know that he lived happily and fully. He'll always be a creative inspiration to the few that discovered him.
Hugh lives on, through his work.
"In any man who dies there dies with him, his first snow and kiss and fight..."
"Not people die but worlds die in them."
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko
Crushing news. The most imaginative and fantastic author. I too, as Gerald wrote, regret not having told Hugh personally what a favorite he is and will always be.
My condolences,
John, Connecticut
Have just read the news in the NZ Herald today. My condolences to Hugh's family. To them, of course, their consolation is their fond memories of him. From the perspective of a fan, the consolation is in knowing that Hugh Cook is one of those people who created something singular and brilliant that will live after him. I personally will be re-reading his books for the rest of my life.
I once had the privilege of meeting Hugh. I've always wished I had expressed better to him how much his work had meant to me since I first read it as a teenager. Now that he's gone, I would like to say, thanks for everything. One day the Chronicles will have the recognition they deserve. Until then, I guess it's just those of us in the often-mentioned "cult fan base". On behalf of my fellow cultists...
...thank you for Hostaja Sken-Pitilkin, Jon Arabin and the Hermit Crab. Thank you for Yen Olass, Farfalla and the Empress Justina. Thank you for Selzirk, Untunchilamon and the Warwolf. Shabble, the red and green bottles, the death stone and a hundred other people, places and things. 御国が来ますように。
I miss him.
I'm sorry to hear the news. I published Hugh's story "Heroes of the Third Millennium" in FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION and I always enjoyed our correspondence. I'd hoped to meet him in person someday and I'm sorry that won't happen now. My condolences to you friends and family members of Hugh's who were lucky enough to know him well.
---Gordon Van Gelder
brilliant author thankyou for all the laughter i received due to youre books will be missed
Thank you for all your stories.
nice post!
I can't claim to be saddened by Hugh's passing. I never knew him.
But I can claim to be saddened by the passing of a universe that (I feel) Hugh created just for me. Created? Pah! Hugh simply told me about a place that really exists!
But, for that, Hugh has my eternal gratitude.
Truly, I believe Amarl to be the finest literary creation - ever.
i think, when someone reads one of Hugh's novels, some of the awesomeness passes from the book, through the person and into the world
I have all ten of The Chronicles Of An Age Of Darkness lined up on the shelf two feet from me as I type.
RIP Hugh. Have the other 50 waiting for me when I get there.
I only just read this. Very sorry to hear it. I loved his books which made some very serious and deep points while also managing to be very funny at other points. He was also willing to say things that weren't popular with the majority but were definitely right. His work already has many fans but he really deserves to be famous as a writer.
Wow, I can't beleive it has been a year already. I like checking back everyonce in awhile to see if someone new has written in. I really liked the comment about how everytime someone reads one of hugh's books, some of the awesomeness from his imagined world enters the real one.
Here's one of my favorite examples: I often find an occasion to say: "I wouldn't go so far as to say that is illegal, just that the legality of it hasn't yet been tested in the courts." Pure Hugh Cook, from one of the Island setting books.
I like to see posts by real Hugh Cook fans at least occasionally interspersed between the spam posts.
You know what's funny? I was a teenager when I first read "wizard war" as it was called in the states. That the main characters were all in their early thirties seemed like they were so old.
Then I was in my early twenties when I read the Drake book, and so he was much younger.
It wasn't until I was 30 or so when I read the Werewolf book, and the main character was finally of my age group. Hugh had a line in there that the character was in the "youth of his middle age".
Seeing as how alot of the book was about banking, maybe I should re-read that now that the economy is falling apart!
Say, I was looking at some of the comments in the previous entries, and someone posted some correspondence they had had with Hugh.
I wish I could have saved mine, but I communicated with him from a work email that isn't operable anymore. Boo!!
In fact, that employer put up a firewall that prevented him from sending me the monthly emails he used to send out. Does anyone have those anymore? That would be quite interesting to read those again!
Good thinker.just do what ever you want... Elizabeth Wilcox
___________
Elizabeth Wilcox
I recently opened a box n the attic and found my full set of Hugh Cook novels (Age of Darkness). I remembered how much I enjoyed reading them many years ago and decided to do some google searching for this person: Hugh Cook. Having now learnt of his departure I am in somewhat of a reflective subdued mood. However I have found his original website (zenvirus and his blog) positively brimming with content that I can't wait to read. RIP Hugh!
Interesting! I have noticed that similar types of air crafts are being developed in the last couple of years! I wonder what this trend is all about.
What a tragic loss!
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I still check in, because Hugh Cook was imoortant.
If you want to talk with other Hugh Cook fans - please join us on the Hugh Cook Fan Subreddit (Just google that) Thanks guys.
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