Customer Reviews

Blue War

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jeffrey Thomas' Blue War is a highly enjoyable novel that is hard to categorize as it blends a number of sub-genres into a thoroughly engaging whole. Being another of Thomas' Punktown stories, it has the urban-punk feel familiar to readers of China Mieville and William Gibson. And with the return of Jeremy Stake, the chameleon-like war veteran turned private investigator of his previous novel Deadstock, it has the gritty detective feel of Dashiell Hammet in a sci-fi setting. Add in a dose of a Michael Crichton cautionary techno-tale and you'll approach what there is to find in Blue War.

Chronologically, Blue War takes place shortly after the events of Deadstock and while Blue War could work as a stand-alone novel, it really works better if you've read Deadstock first. One of the things about Thomas' world of Punktown that makes it stand above others is that it - and the characters who inhabit it - all have history, and Thomas does a wonderful job of bringing this out in his descriptions:

"The men and women sheltering in the gloom of the Legion of Veterans' Post 69 ranged in age from early thirties to there-are-still-people-alive-from-that-war? The bartender was a veteran of the Red War, which had cost him an arm, replaced with a black prosthesis like something grafted on from a giant beetle. Watt was a Choom, one of the indigenous people of this planet, Oasis, though most of the Earth people in the colony city dubbed Punktown had been born here, too, as had their parents and even grandparents. To all appearances Watt was human, aside from the wide mouth carved back to his ears, giving his broad face a bit of a frog-like aspect. He was, however, rather more dangerous-looking than a frog.
--Seated in the post were a couple of Punktown servicemen who had been deployed to the world of Echo, part of a raid on the colony city of Oracle. A group of Red Jihad extremists had captured and sabotaged the atmosphere control facilities there, resulting in the death of 37,000 colonists. One of these vets, named Isaiah, cried a lot when he'd had a few Knickersons too many, recounting the numbers of suffocated children he had seen throughout the colony, strewn everywhere like placid-faced dolls.
--There were the brothers, Bobby and Wally, slouched over the bar in shiny blue jackets and faded baseball hats, all covered in glittering pins and embroidered patches indicating that they'd been crewmen aboard two military starcraft in the same fleet. They were withered and cantankerous and intent on claiming their explosive space battles made every other vet's war look like a picnic in the park. Gnome-like Bobby frequently came close to blows with younger vets, infantrymen bristling at the suggestion that their ground combat could be less hellish than what this old-timer had experienced from inside his massive warship. They always restrained themselves, however, having heard that his brother Wally had once smashed the jaw of a drunken vet twenty years younger than himself, in this very bar. Not to mention that Watt was quick to break up trouble, and that plastic beetle claw could grip you by the back of the neck good and hard on your way out the door.
--Two black men with shaved skulls, a branded insignia on their foreheads and metallic silver bar code on the back of their necks, had been coming in to sit at one end of the bar for a few months now. No one knew what war or conflict they'd been in, and they didn't volunteer it. Maybe Watt knew, but he was discreet. They spoke to no one, not even each other, just sipped their Zubs and watched the big VT screen mounted on the walls. Their polished domes reflected the blue of a holographic sign that read: 'Zub... for a mellow buz!' "

In this novel, Stake, a veteran of a war known as the Blue War that took place on an alien world called Sinan, a war that ended eleven years ago, is called on by an old army buddy who wants him to go back to Sinan to help solve a mystery that is threatening to unravel the peace that has held there for eleven years. A seemingly harmless Jin Haa urbanization project involving "smart matter" technology that allows a city to basically grow itself has gone wildly out of control, spilling across the border into Ha Jiin territory and swallowing up vast swathes of land. To make matters stranger still, the city has apparently created a living clone of a human, something it was not designed to do. Henderson needs Stake to try and find out what has gone wrong, and who this unknown clone child was made from, before war breaks out again. As as anyone who has read Deadstock will know, Stake himself has some unresolved history with his enemy/lover of his previous time on Sinan, the beautiful - and deadly - blue-skinned "Earth Killer", Thi Gonh.

One of the things I particularly like about Thomas' characters is that they are not black or white. They have their flaws, their baggage, and in many cases their conflicts, both in themselves and with others. All of which make them all the more real, and what happens to them will matter to the reader.

And as in Deadstock, there are a number of highly imaginative creations that are sprinkled throughout Blue War: benders (imagine Portugese Man-o-War's that can float through the air and kill you in ways you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy), snipes (no, these aren't imaginary though you'll wish they were if you run into them), rust art, Wonky Science, smart matter, and others.

All in all, Blue War works on a number of levels; quite an achievement for such an ambitious blending of genres. And, without giving anything away, one can only hope that there will be more, of Stake, of Thi, and of Punktown in general. Highly recommended.

It seems that the two first reviews give a lot of great information about this book, so I will keep mine short, sweet and to the point.

If you love Jeffrey Thomas's Punktown, like me, you will love this book. If you have never read any of Jeffrey Thomas's Punktown stories, this is a great place to start and get hooked. And if you have never read any Jeffrey Thomas you have NO idea what you're missing, and I say get to it! This is a great one to start with. Punktown is a metropolis where humans and beings from other worlds and dimensions all reside together. It is a place full of darkness and mystery, with frequent shades of mythos thrown in for good measure.

Blue War is Thomas's fourth Punktown novel, and second featuring private investigator Jeremy Stake, a mutant human who has taken his unusual morphing abilities up to the next level and uses them expertly in his career as a private investigator. Blue War is an exciting and intriguing page turner. I found it difficult to put this book down and am already anxiously awaiting Thomas's next Punktown creation.

I highly recommend this book.

One critic wrote somewhere that the last part of BLUE WAR was the strongest. While that section of this story is surely strong, that critic should step back, I think, because he's missing the mark: The joy of this book, like DEADSTOCK, is following Private Investigator Jeremy Stake around in what has to be the most imaginative and original world in recent science fiction, Punktown. Besides that, the writing is top-notch throughout this book. Realistic, motivated characters interacting in fascinating settings. Even the "small stuff" is great, like the description of the blue-skinned Thi Gonh toiling in the earth, her clothing showing "the dirt of her labors." The scenery of the burnt-out Wonky Science lab was so well done, so realistic, that I easily imagined myself there. In fact, I found every scene, every character so credible that pages went by before I was even aware that I was a breathing creature who wasn't actually in the room with these people.

Behind the deft writing and exciting settings, beyond the detective yarn, await some fun concepts: In DEADSTOCK, for example, we encounter a certain lover of Jeremy Stake's. Of course, Jeremy has the ability to shapeshift, and his lover takes advantage of this ability by making him watch movies with her favorite actors in them and once Jeremy changes into one of these fine actors, she, well, you know... Eventually, Jeremy feels used!

It's comic scenes like this, coupled with captive action sequences, that move BLUE WAR as well. But I also came away from this novel truly hating two characters; that's how emotionally drawn they were. Fittingly, one was named Dink. BLUE WAR is the kind of book that's so well written you can hand it over to those snobby readers who "hate" science fiction and convert them; for even they can't deny its literary essence.

I regretted finishing BLUE WAR, because now I'm facing the sad fact this book is over. What's really sad is seeing the likes of me back at Barnes & Noble, staring at walls of other sci-fi books that just don't live up to the creativity of these Jeremy Stake novels. Meanwhile, I'm applying for my passport to Punktown: I'm on the hunt for Mr. Thomas' novel, MONSTROCITY, eagerly awaiting the next Jermey Stake appearance--eagerly awaiting, too, the next Punktown novel that, rumor has it, is in the works...

Quick, what story features foreign soldiers on a blue planet, a hero who wears a face that's not his own, an alien culture that our hero infiltrates only to fall in love with one of the blue-skinned female natives, and the colonization of the native's natural habit for cynical corporate gain? No, not Avatar...Blue War!

Blue War features the chameleon-faced Jeremy Stake, a mutant from Punktown who is also an ex-Vietnam-style veteran of the Blue War. The Blur War took place on Sinan, an earth-like world in another dimension that has a blue-skinned, black-eyed people. Like so many of our modern wars, the occupying soldiers were an intervening force in a civil war between the Haa Jin and the Jin Ha. Fans of Deadstock know Stake's story, told in flashbacks, and will welcome the return of his lover, Thi Gonh. On opposite sides of the war, Corporal Stake captured the female sniper, protected her while she was in his custody, and became her lover. Much of Blue War deals with the decidedly unromantic aftermath of such a fairytale pairing.

Stake doesn't just return to the lover and battleground that haunts him; all of Punktown visits too in the form of a self-replicating virus that builds the city from blue material, block by block, building by building. When it's discovered that the city is even replicating human beings, international attention returns to Sinan and all the sins of the war's past.

Blue War is a gripping read, thrusting readers into a world even more foreign than Punktown. The ending wraps things up a little too obliquely for my tastes - the arch-villain's defeat happens almost independently of all the protagonists - but the ride is worth it. The ending, sad, thoughtful, romantic, and yet appropriate, will stick with you long after the blue fog lifts. Blue War is as much a romance story as it is a sci-fi action mystery.

And if that sounds familiar, just remember...Blue War did it first.

Private Detective Jeremy Stake has chameleon-like abilities dubbed "restless skin". This mutation came in very handy during deep cover missions during the Blue War. The Blue War ended eleven years ago though. Now Jeremy keeps tight control on his features and tries not to look at anyone for too long, else his features will begin to mimic whoever he was looking at. For the most part, Jeremy succeeds. Yet every-now-and-then Jeremy forgets himself and finds himself with a stranger's face.

When Colonial Forces Captain Rick Henderson shows up, Jeremy knows something interesting must be going on. Jeremy has not seen Rick since their time together in the Blue War. Sure enough, Rick needs his help on Sinan, in another dimension. (Sinan was where the Blue War was fought.) A company named Bright Horizon has been working with the Jin Haa, creating little condo-type village complexes, in and around the capital city of Di Noon. No one seems to know why, but the smart matter used to make the village complex is not following the program originally placed. The smart matter is supposed to make the complexes and then stop. Instead, the smart matter has begun making a clone of Punktown, which houses millions of people. People are calling it Bluetown. It has already grown much bigger than it was originally supposed to and Blue Town does not look like it will stop growing until it reaches the size of Punktown. Should this happen, the cities nearby will be totally wiped out, including Di Noon. There may be a new war between Ha Jinn, Jin Hass, and the Earth Colonies too.

While the smart matter was consuming the area's vegetation to make a clone version of Punktown, it also seems to have consumed the remains of a few MIA soldiers. Three cloned humans are found in Bluetown. One of them, a five-year-old boy (nicknamed Brian), is alive!

**** If you read DEADSTOCK then you already know Jeremy Stake and his morphing ability. Since Jeremy spent four years fighting on Sinan, he already knows much of the surroundings and customs. It is also where he met Thi Gonh (Earth Killer) and had an affair for one week. Being back on Sinan, Jeremy looks up Thi to see how she is doing. Therefore, readers delve deeper into what happened during the Blue War, as well as into Jeremy's personal background. It all runs, like sub-plots, during the Blue Town investigation. By writing in this way, the author makes Jeremy much more realistic, more human. This story is more than worth your time and money to pick up! Author Jeffery Thomas has the most intriguing writing style I've seen in quite a while. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

The basic rule of good writing is "show, don't tell," right? Well, Jeffrey Thomas never bothers to show us when he can tell us. Characters' emotions, attitudes, hangups and personalities aren't revealed through their actions; they're told to us. We're told how the Jin Haa and Ha Jiin feel about one another, but their interactions neither support or enrich that relationship. Thomas goes for the alien and weird (e.g. monks who smoke cancerous incense to leave a "spiraling crater" where their face should be) without giving us enough groundwork to make it believable (um, how does that not eat into their brain and respiratory system enough to kill them?). The dialogue is wooden, most of the supporting characters are one-dimensional, and the main character himself is something of a cipher (in a way that's frustrating rather than intriguing). I kept wondering when the book would get to the point where I'd *care,* where I'd be swept into an alien and fascinating world, but that moment never came, and I finished the novel more out of habit than anything else. It gets two stars because there was enough creativity in the setting to keep suggesting the promise of a good story, but it just didn't pull it off.

While it's not necessary to read Jeffrey Thomas's 'Deadstock' first, I highly recommend that you read it prior to diving into 'Blue War'. It will provide the backdrop for the enigmatic Jeremy Stake and his connections to Sinan and Thi Gonh.

Private Investigator Jeremy Stake is a chameleon, a shifter, whose face changes outside of his control, usually into the face of the nearest person. Sometimes his genetic affliction helps his investigations, sometimes it hinders him. Eleven years ago, Jeremy was a soldier in the Blue War, a trans-dimensional war between Earth/Oasis against the planet Sinan (an extradimensional world). Sinan had it's own civil war between the Jin Haa and the Ha Jiin factions, a war now ended and the peoples separated by a neutral zone. Jeremy still loves Thi Gonh, a Ha Jiin, also known as The Earth Killer, though now Thi is a simple farmer and wife to a man named Hin.

In Punktown (on the planet Oasis) a man named David Bright had a vision. He's developed organic "smart matter", a building material, and used it to construct a new condo project in the forests of Sinan near the neutral zone. But somehow the smart matter went haywire and instead of building a small condo project, it's now replicating the enormous city of Punktown on Oasis, overrunning the Jin Haa and Ha Jiin villages and farmlands. And it's not stopping. Now closing in on Di Noon, the capitol city of the Jin Haa, something must be done to stop it. The only clues to Bluetown are three clones found in the sprawling organic city, two dead but one five year old boy alive and well. Found with the clones were fragments of their identity - some gear and a few items of clothing. These fragments, along with the boy, could contain the clue to stopping Bluetown ... if they could be found.

Colonial Forces Captain Rick Henderson approaches his old friend Jeremy Stake to take the job of unraveling the mystery of Bluetown, against the wishes of his commanding officer Colonel Dominic Gale. Jeremy accepts, not knowing that he's in for the ride of his life. Complicating his search is the "sinon gas" industry, and the conglomerate of the gas industry ran by Richard Argos. Sinon gas is emitted from the corpses of the dead Sinanese from their crypts, and used on Oasis for trans-dimensional travel. Eleven years after the war, corpses are becoming more scare and the lack of dead Sinanese threatens the gas production. Not to mention the Sinanese are already wary of Earthers because of a deadly STD brought to their planet via Earth.

Jeremy must discover the secrets behind Bluetown and it's connection with Punktown. Through paranoid and corrupt politics, faceless priests who cannot speak but can kill with the volume of their chants, Snipes - half dog half humanoid, Benders - floating jellyfish that can cross dimenions and kill humans for food, and Carrion Trees who can travel independently and whose fruit smells like decomposition, Jeremy relentlessly probes the secrets of Bluetown. The one thing he can't resist, though, is tracking down his ex-lover Thi Gonh, The Earth Killer.

Thomas's world of Punktown has always fascinated me, and his imagination for the bizarre combined with his talented writing and gift for keeping a tight pace make this novel well worth reading. The characters are fully fleshed and the descriptions vivid enough you'll believe you are actually there. 'Blue War' keeps you on the edge of your seat as events unfold and mysteries are unraveled. Strange enough to be sci-fi and exciting enough to be a thriller, 'Blue War' is a must-have novel. I can smell another Jeremy Stake book blooming in the future, and I sure hope that Thomas is working on one. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

It's a good book, but mostly because Deadstock so thoroughly invested me in the character of Jeremy Stake. His love story, his interactions with other people, make the book well worth reading. The plot was a little dull, though. Something mysterious happens, and Stake investigates. Some people get in the way, some help, conspiracies and corruption are unveiled...

Still very much an above average book in its genre. Just not what I have come to expect from Thomas.

I am sure going against the grain here. Thomas is being dubbed some great author that everyone would recommend, without fail, and would claim his world is absolutely fascinating and unique. I could not have disagreed more than an absolute and definitive, "Uh, no."

Thomas seems to be the type of author who writes on shock value. After all, how can you write a sci fi novel without making the aliens so strange and weird, or maybe throw in a hermaphrodite scientist. When he writes he doesn't create a world the reader can live in. He doesn't write the characters emotions so that you can feel the emotions. Instead he tells us, he states the emotions. All this does is the leave the reader at a distance, never able to become involved with the characters or the world.

And perhaps some of the worst part is that the dialogue is so forced and unreal you are taken aback, forced to stop and think, "How did that happen and why would that have come up?" Or stuff would just appear out of nowhere with no apparent reason. Out of nowhere a new alien species would be introduced with no prior mention, to be followed by a few page explanation, and then done, no more mention.

I would not recommend Thomas to anyone. He is not a fluid writer and everything seems so forced and unreal. 2 stars simply for the fact that he wrote the story from one to end with some semblance of a storyline. Beyond that, certainly not a recommend.

2 stars.

I liked this book, but I found its settings to be slightly less "weird" than some of his previous Punktown works. I was also a little distracted by the fact that the people, plants and animals were all direct analogs of Vietnam with maybe some weird blue skin thrown in. I also didn't feel like there was a lot of Cthulhu Mythos flavor to this one, unlike his previous works. It doesn't make the book any less reading, just not quite what I expected. I do recommend it, particularly if you liked Punktown.