Hill, Matt
Entry updated 15 October 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1984- ) UK author who also writes as M T Hill; his first novel, The Folded Man (2013), depicts a Dystopian Near Future Manchester, desiccated through political betrayals by the London-based national government, and run by corrupt exploiters of the Midlands population; the protagonist, through his belief that he is in fact a mermaid, lightens the texture of the tale. His second novel, also set in Manchester, though a few years later, treats a surreal human trafficking nightmare in terms that evoke First Contact narratives. Zero Bomb (2019) carries a Midlands protagonist southwards to London, where he becomes embroiled in a putative Pariah Elite masterminded by the aged writer whose 1970s sf novel still seems to convey for some a revolutionary message. What feels obscurely like a viral Pandemic darkens the Near Future world of The Breach (2020), a tale whose stubborn grimness may be seen to paraphrase the later work of some New Wave authors. Lamb (2023) treats material not dissimilar to Hill's previous work, though here the protagonist's grieving for the world, and his coming-of-age quest through the nightmares of what is about to come (see Horror in SF), mark an increase in potency and grasp. [JC]
Matthew Hill
born Tameside, Manchester: 1984
works
- The Folded Man (Scotland: Sandstone Press, 2013) [pb/]
- Graft (London: Angry Rabbit, 2016) [pb/]
- Zero Bomb (London: Titan Books, 2019) as M T Hill [pb/]
- The Breach (London: Titan Books, 2020) as M T Hill [pb/]
- Lamb (Liverpool: Dead Ink, 2023) [pb/Luke Bird]
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