"[10] Other significant early influences include P. G. Wodehouse, Thorne Smith, L. Sprague de Camp (especially historical novels such as An Elephant for Aristotle), Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and Philip K.

[15] In the far-future setting of Hughes's Archonate stories, the operating principle of the universe changes at intervals of several thousand years between science and magic with catastrophic effects.

Hapthorn first appeared in a sequence of six stories sold to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, where the arch-rationalist and sceptic discovers to his horror that his rational world is about to come to an abrupt end with the dawn of an age of magic.

Luff Imbry is a con man, forger and thief inspired by a pair of Sydney Greenstreet characters, Kaspar Gutman (The Maltese Falcon) and Signor Ferrari (Casablanca).

Luff was spared in the final book by the intervention of Hughes's editor at Tor, David G. Hartwell and first appeared in a lead role in "The Farouche Assemblage", beginning the character's long association with Postscripts and PS Publishing.

Kaslo, by contrast, is a poor fit for the dawning age as his practical competence does not translate to a talent for magic[21] but he nonetheless attempts to salvage what he can and fight back against interplanar threats.

After this serial was collected as A Wizard's Henchman in 2016, Hughes returned to the character in prequel stories set when Kaslo was still "a hard-boiled, Sam-Spade-type private eye.

"[22] The character of Raffalon, a skilled but seldom lucky thief in the Dying Earth, was created when George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois invited Hughes to submit a story to their anthology Rogues.

[25] Cascor, a former policeman turned private detective who covertly practices magic, was originally a supporting character in Hughes's Raffalon stories.

To Hell and Back is a contemporary fantasy trilogy about mild-mannered actuary and superhero fan Chesney Arnstruther, who causes chaos in the spiritual realm when he accidentally summons a demon and refuses to sell his soul.

Hughes has called his magic realist historical novel What the Wind Brings (Pulp Literature Press, 2019) his "magnum opus".

It was inspired by a footnote Hughes read in a university textbook in 1971, which described how African slaves shipwrecked on the coast of Ecuador in the mid 16th century created a mixed society with the indigenous peoples and successfully "outfought and out-thought" the conquistadors to gain their independence.

[8] Hughes was unable to pursue the idea at the time due to the lack of English-language scholarship but forty years later a Canada Council grant and the increased attention to this passage of history in North America enabled him to complete the book,[8] which received critical acclaim and won the 2020 Endeavour Award.