Boneland [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

BONELAND by Jeffrey Thomas will be limited to 400 signed and numbered hardback copies. The cover art and illustrations will be by Caniglia.

Publisher: Bloodletting Press

Publishers description:

In 1893, the Guests attempt their first contact with the human race. Families go mad. Parents commit suicide. A president is assassinated.

By 1918, in the bleak boneland of the 20th Century, human assassins commit atrocities and global wars are waged to sate the appetites of the Guests. John Board is a crime scene photographer, whose nightmarish images of human destruction are used as titillating entertainment. Board's future is tied in with these unseen, unfathomable forces -- and so is his past. America is drowning in a sea of blood as flashbulbs click and movie cameras roll. The Guests are here to stay.

BONELAND is a tale of a not-so-alternate history...a story of horror, science fiction, and the surreal by Jeffrey Thomas, acclaimed author of LETTERS FROM HADES, PUNKTOWN and MONSTROCITY.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey Thomas is the author of the novels MONSTROCITY and LETTERS FROM HADES, and the collection PUNKTOWN which has been translated into German and Russian editions. He is also the editor of the shared world anthology PUNKTOWN: THIRD EYE.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 167 pages
• Publisher: Bloodletting Press (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972085955
• ISBN-13: 978-0972085953
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,335,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am the author of such science fiction/horror novels as DEADSTOCK (finalist for the John W. Campbell Award), BLUE WAR, HEALTH AGENT, MONSTROCITY (finalist for the Bram Stoker Award), THE FALL OF HADES, LETTERS FROM HADES, UGLY HEAVEN/BEAUTIFUL HELL (coauthored with Carlton Mellick III), THOUGHT FORMS, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM DEALERS. My short story collections include PUNKTOWN, VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN, PUNKTOWN: SHADES OF GREY (coauthored with Scott Thomas), NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, UNHOLY DIMENSIONS, VOICES FROM HADES, THIRTEEN SPECIMENS, DOOMSDAYS, and AAAIIIEEE!!!. Stories of mine have been reprinted in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR and THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES. Though I consider Vietnam (my wife's place of origin) my second home, I am a resident of ye olde Massachusetts. Visit my blog at www.JeffreyEThomas.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alternate American history complete with bugs and Guests, April 23, 2005

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Boneland (Hardcover)

Once again I find myself highly recommending a book that is a limited edition, but if you liked George R.R. Martin's 'Sandkings' for the bugs, you will love Thomas's 'Boneland'. For me, I do not regret one penny spent on this superb tale of morbid history, alien invasion, bug-like mechanisms, and pale humanity. I could not put it down.

Boneland is short, only 167 pages, but covers and amazing amount of ground as it follows the life of John Board, born in Chicago, which is soon to be renamed Coccyx.

In 1893, young Johnny's mother hangs herself, her last words being that there were bugs inside her head. Strange rains of insects had been occurring lately, but though Johnny was too young to make the connection, the history of America was forever changed from how we know it. The Guests are here.

In exchange for being able to observe our violent world, the Guests have provided us with organic, bug-like inventions such as cameras and radios and TVs. Jeffrey Thomas's vision of such inventions and such a world is so breathtaking and surreal that my only wish is that this was a longer novel.

You will follow John Board through his life as a camera man, skillfully manipulating the organic cameras from police work to prison to Hollywood, now known as Boneland. Board does not trust the Guests, but it is not wise to question them or their Mediums either.

Thomas made it easy to envision his world, and skillfully conducted the passage of time throughout John's life, a tale of a man still all too human in a skewered world. I absolutely loved Thomas's renaming of famous places and things into organic titles, like Mandible's Chinese Theater and Scapula Blvd. Don't miss out on Boneland, definitely a 10 Star book. Enjoy!