Customer Reviews

Punktown

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4 star:		(3)
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All I can say to this new author is...WOW! What a great compilation of stories. Interesting, well written, imaginative, and absorbing; you won't want to leave Punktown once you submerge yourself into its seedy depths.

On the planet of Oasis, an Earth established colony is formed called Paxton, but is known to everyone on Oasis as Punktown. In this colony, people from many different worlds and cultures live crowded into the apartments and streets, the colony overflowing with teeming life forms from the native Choom to the strange L'leweds and Antses and Waiais and of course the Humans.

Although each chapter is a separate story, they all blend into each other as a single fully developed tale of the colony itself, and the lives that carry out their existence there. When I read the first two chapters, I found myself being a little disappointed that they seemed to end rather "unfinished", like there should have been more wrap up to that particular tale. But as you read along, this feeling will fade because you realize that the overall concept of the book is that "life goes on", and you begin to feel the continuum of Punktown itself; as an entity comprised of individuals and not the individuals themselves.

My favorite chapter has to be the first one, "The Reflections of Ghosts", about an artist who clones himself to make artwork out of his creations, twisting the helix here and there to cause mutations according to whatever specs his customers wish. He calls them "Starfish" because of their complete lack of intelligence, but his narcissistic captivation with his "art" will be his downfall. Wait till you read about his "wall piece". Yuck.

Next, in "The Flaying Season", we follow a human woman named Kohl who lives in the Antse part of the neighborhood, and cannot seem to let go of her past even though it has already been erased.

"Wakizashi" is a very strange tale, introducing us to the L'lewed, one of the strangest residents Jeffrey Thomas dreamed up for Punktown. This chapter gives us a reason to ponder just how far does Tolerance extend when you are dealing with such diverse cultures?

"Precious Metal" is a new look at "Man vs Machine", a rather interesting tale that would be at home in Asimov's "I Robot". (Yes, it's that good!) Mob bosses and a robot jazz band and beautiful women make this tale a tasty and satisfying addition to this collection.

"Heart For Heart's Sake" is a beautiful tale of love conquering both evil, and artistic desires. Teal has created the perfect piece of art, his best work ever, and his girlfriend Nimbus does the performance art within his creation. But what price could possibly be worth such a treasure?

"Face" is a different kind of love story; the unconditional love of a parent for their child. This chapter is not about the conquering power of love, but the gut-wrenching pain that familial love can cause, and just how far one will go to never let go of their love. Or avenge it.

"The Palace of Nothingness" is a short, futuristic Haunted House story.

"Immolation" is an interesting and sad tale of a "Culture"; which is a clone specifically created for work. Would these "Cultures" have feelings? Love? Anger? Would there be room in their "brain-drip educated" minds to feel friendship, affection, or perhaps even seek vengeance?

The last chapter in the book, "The Library Of Sorrows", is about a cop named MacDiaz who has a photographic memory chip installed in his brain. This proves to be great for solving crimes and tracking killers, but just how many grisly scenes can he handle having total image recall of? At what point does one grow weary of the carnage?

This is the first book I have read of Jeffrey Thomas's, and I must say it is absolutely wonderful. I loved the world he created, and the different aliens. His descriptions of the strange beings bring them out into flesh without teetering over into boring repetitiveness or patronizing "you should know what I'm thinking" prose. The characters are well though out, believable, and likeable; and the scenes they wander through flow like mind candy past the eye. Punktown is a fast read, which is good, because you will want to stay up reading this one. Enjoy!

Punktown, a near-future city in the vein of traditional post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk visions, is the heart of Jeffrey Thomas's collection of short stories, all of which take place in the eponymous city, Punktown - the affectionate name for the city Paxton on the alien world Oasis. The Choom, fairly human in appearance and culture, save for their shark-like mouths, are the natives of the planet and have opened their world for immigrants, which has made Paxton a melting pot of alien cultures, a new New York City. Dozens of races intermingle, but, invariably, the protagonists in each of the narratives is human, their antagonists either aliens - other immigrants to Oasis - or the city itself. The majority of stories in the collection of nine concern male protagonists with poor, or no, relationships with women, or, as in the case of "The Flaying Season", a woman with poor relationships with men: Punktown not only explores humanity's inability to interact healthily with their fellow inhabitants in the city of Paxton, but also itself.

Most interesting is the first story in the collection, "The Reflection of Ghosts", which approximates the viewing of a David Cronenberg film, but in prose. The plot concerns an artist whose art is created through the manipulation of his clones, in their incubation periods, to create horribly disfigured versions of himself. Like Cronenberg, Drew, the artist, is concerned with the possibilities of the flesh, finding infinite variations of life in the fusion of technology and genetic science. Drew is commissioned to construct a female clone of himself, for wealthy clients, most of whom rape, torture, and/or kill their commissioned clones as the clones are created to be rather mindless and as such the rich have no compunctions about doing such, but as one might expect, Drew finds himself transfixed by the slightly intelligent female version of himself. Sparing the details, the sexual relationship of Drew with his female clone is at once wholly engrossing and equally repellant - impossible to put down as the best horror achieves and lingering in its effects.

Unfortunately, the rest of the collection exists in the shadow and excellency of "The Reflection of Ghosts". While some of the stories are rather interesting, none of them approach the sheer visceral impact of the first story in the collection. Other stories of interest include "Heart for Heart's Sake" and "Wakizashi", the former a further examination of future art made possible by technology, the latter a study of direct minoritarian cultural interaction. "Heart for Heart's Sake" details the purchase of a performance artist by a wealthy alien, who then proceeds to rape the artist. Only when she sabotages the structure in which she dances does he finally set her free, the work of art destroyed in her sabotage and the buyer's possession of her. Nimbus, the performance artist, is influenced by her desire to return to her lover, thus making the narrative overwhelmingly sentimental. Similarly sentimental is "Wakizashi" wherein a Japanese prison guard is confronted with the sacrifice of an imprisoned man for his wife's benefit: It is only through this alien culture that so mirrors his ancestral culture that he realizes the merits of his ancient heritage, emblematized in the wakizashi of the title. When the sacrificing husband is accidentally killed, it is only the sacrifice of the Japanese prison guard that saves his wife - predictable, but effective through its characterization.

While sentimental, the final story in the collection is a rather interesting examination of cybernetics. "The Library of Sorrow" concerns a homicide detective with a cybernetic implant that gifts him with perfect, eidetic memory. MacDiaz, the protagonist, is haunted by the horrific images of crime scenes and the beauty encountered in his youth. As such, he is unable to cope with the mounting conflicts that occur between his memories and his life, his past and his present. Eventually, only through losing his memory can MacDiaz cope with the present. Thus, the stories are largely sentimental, which distracts from the horrific aspects of many of them: Without the sentimental aspects thrown into the various narratives, they would be explicitly horrific. As such, while most of the stories are interesting and the characters well developed, Thomas seems trapped in a romantic mode. "The Reflection of Ghosts", while achingly sentimental, is so perverse that the sentimentality acts as a trap; otherwise the romantic aspect of the stories deadens the horror that would otherwise compel readers, both in their reading of Punktown and elsewhere.

Available at ..., Thomas has authored a parallel website to further explore the world of Punktown. The site features later and shorter material that wasn't included in Punktown. The most interesting of the various material are the doctored images, although most of them are rather amateur in nature. If at all interested in the collection of short stories, a visit to the site might be in order: While simplistic, the site offers a wonderful introduction to the aesthetics at the heart of Punktown, an aesthetic that is at once horrific and sentimental and bound to establish Thomas as an important voice in contemporary horror.

Jeffrey Thomas' is a grim, grimy, and enthralling world. A genre-busting collection, Punktown has cyberpunk and horror (even a touch of splatterpunk) in its lineage, and a compelling collection of tales merging a smattering of species on a faraway planet with the gritty, crumbling, degraded desperation of life in a huge megopolis slowly suffering the unstoppable enfeeblement of its advancing age. A future noir in its own vein. Thomas' stories bring life and death, excess and blight, triumph and failure to Punktown with a clear, sharp writing style. Punktown is not to be missed.

Punktown blends S/F and elements of horror to create a future world of disturbing possibilities. Nine short stories, set on planet far away in time and space, in a city gone tough, vicious and criminal. Aliens, clones, robots, and something really scary, humans, inhabit a strange city with strange rules. Thomas gives us characters, no matter how flawed, that we can root for. Strange things lurk here, but the strangest of all are those that bring grace, atonement, justice and freedom. Enter Punktown, but don't turn your back on anybody and don't go unarmed.

Dark fantasy enthusiasts will find this an involving collection of tales which revolve around a city called Punktown, on a planet where intelligent beings collide. Blends of cyberpunk and fantasy make for stories which excel in powerful characterization and revealing, emotionally charged plots - all with an otherworld background.

I'm sure we all know the feeling; the one you get when you discover a new author. You're reading a book with no expectations and find something brilliant beyond your wildest imaginings. You get so excited. You want to share it with everyone. You feel like running down the street and buying copies for everyone you meet (or maybe that's just me). Jeffrey Thomas is one of those authors. Punktown is an astounding, fabulous, awesome work of art. The collected stories are set in Thomas's fictional city of Paxton, where anything can and does happen. Thomas has given himself a world with no boundaries. He stretches his imagination farther and farther with each story. He made me shiver with revulsion at the title story and laugh out loud in subsequent ones. If ever there was an author with no limits, Thomas is he.

If I were a wealthier man I would buy a copy of this collection for every member of my family and my closest friends. I would donate copies to every library within driving distance. Simply put, Punktown is brilliant. It deserves to be widely read and appreciated for the masterpiece it is. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But for the relatively low price, you WILL get your money's worth. Jeffrey Thomas is an author I'll be watching for a long long time.

Jeffrey Thomas explores his Punktown universe in this collection of 18 short stories. Punktown (officially know as Paxton) is a city on the planet of Oasis which is inhabited by indigenous aliens, humans and a slew of other alien races (some human-like and others... not so much). The entire collection isn't horrific enough for me to able to label in the `horror' genre, but rather it's more of a science fiction novel which would comfortably fit the mixed genre of sci-fi/horror. These two essential elements are presented in each story. There's also a fair bit a prose and word usage which the reader endeared amidst the horror all snug in the wealth of imagination.

The Reflections of Ghosts - 4/5: Drew makes clones for customers, which happen to be mangled versions of himself, so that they could do whatever they please to the helpless copies. He makes a female clone for a wealthy customer who he can mistakenly relate to on a basic level and finds himself in a dilemma. 15 pages

Pink Pills - 4/5: Marisol finds she has a type of tumor named Orb Weaver's Tumor, which is growing from a lump in her jaw. At the alien physician's office, a technician befriends her who could also provide a truth to her lingering suspicions of a rumor. 12 pages

The Flaying Season - 4/5: Kohl has an interest in reviving her erased memories of two traumatic episodes. Could her sister refresh her memory? Could the doctor reload her memories into her brain? Or could a coffee shop customer be a link to her past? 10 pages

Union Dick - 3/5: Yolk is a Union representative and veteran from the Union Wars. His job is to ensure that factories have enough active human employees to work in tandem with their robotic counterparts. One company, though, takes advantage of a loophole in the rule which angers Yolk's dedication to preventing degradation. 11 pages

Wakizashi - 3/5: Officer Soko must assist alien diplomat in its religious purification, even though it will be a horrible death for whoever agrees to be the victim. 14 pages

Dissecting the Soul - 3/5: Maddie is a pathologist who is retrieving the memories of a recently executed murderer. During her retrieval she reviews some events which made the man the monster he became. 6 pages

Precious Metal - 5/5: A robotic jazz band is gunned down inside a club as gangster Grey watches. His clan may be to blame but how does the boss Ng justify this assassination? 10 pages

Sisters of No Mercy - 3/5: A group of women view an act of initiation as the member-to-be Ayn dismembers her victim. With Ayn's further act of dismemberment upon the male race, how will her zealousness be viewed in the eyes of her fellow sisters? 6 pages

Heart for Heart's Sake - 2/5: Impoverished artist Teal and his girlfriend Nimbus are confronted by the power company for stealing electricity and need to come up with money. Thankfully, at his art exhibit a wealthy man purchases his massive artwork... but also comes with its performing beauty, Nimbus. Will this sacrifice help or hinder their relationship? 19 pages

The Ballad of Moosecock Lip - 3/5: Dazey and Brine are drug makers and dealers. They bring a mysterious girl into their circle who then falls victim to the addiction and her life falls apart. Dazey and Brine decide to save her they only way they know how. 6 pages

Face - 4/5: Declan mourns the loss of his mutant son Ian as he revisits the Christmas decorated sewer-mall they had visited in the summer before Ian's death. Declan faces guilt, envy and love yet cannot cope with his loss. 8 pages

The Pressman - 5/5: Manny is a pressman at a printer who works with the new insubordinate yet creative robotic pressman. The mantis-like machine makes Manny seethe with hate and the machine's attitude doesn't help any. 4 pages

The Palace of Nothingness - 4/5: Titus is a Properties Investigator for a real estate company. When reviewing a section of the city, he sees a building, if it is a building, which has been under change decade after decade, yet there is no official mention of its function. Titus takes it upon himself to explore its innards and innateness. 9 pages

The Rusted Gates of Heaven - 2/5: Mendeni visits the Bellakee's estate to see a relic which he had picked up on satellite. The invitation turns into a further unexpected invite and ends with yet another invite, each more provocative than the last. 4 pages

Immolation - 4/5: The non-union Plant worker clone Magnesium Jones escapes to fulfill an assassination contract. This hit is being paid by Plant union employee Parr and the target is the union boss. What are Parr's intentions and the 5-years-out-of-the-tank clone Jones can trusted? 16 pages

Unlimited Daylight - 5/5: Anoushka explores the city to visit book stores and takes lunch at an Indian restaurant in a Choom town. She spies a goggled man there and finds him again in his own bookstore. They befriend each other and talk about each other's language and genres. 15 pages

The Library of Sorrows - 3/5: MacDiaz is the detective of the grisly multiple-murder scene. His memories of this and other murder scenes haunt him, as he has a memory chip installed. His delusional mother has been placed in drawer where she'll stay until she dies. Is the chip more of a blessing than it is a curse? 13 pages

Nom de Guerre - 5/5: A quartet of human assassins meet with a quartet of Vlessi assassins, an alien race shrouded in mystery (rumored to be interdimensional beings, doppelgangers and vampires). Their opposing pharmaceutical company clients have faced them off against each other. Will the rumors be unveiled? 18 pages

This was a great collection of stories. I feel that the first stories were the strongest and the last stories the weakest but even at it's worst these were wonderfully crafted stories. The writing style never fails to make you sympathize or in some cases, even empathize with the characters involved. Great to get you started in the always colorful, probably with gore, Punktown (Paxton to the socialites). Great stuff. Highly recommended place to start for all P-Town related books. Move in to Monstrocity after this and find out how bad things in the city REALLY are.

"Punktown" is a collection of short stories of the futuristic city of Paxton (a.k.a. Punktown).

This collection is Thomas at his best (and if you have read his works "Monstrocity" or "Letters from Hades", you know this is high praise). Speaking of "Monstrocity", it is a novel also set in Punktown and is highly recommended as a follow-up to "Punktown".

While each story in this collection can stand on it's own, they are best when read together. There is a continuity present throughout these stories, and as a whole, they create a collage of a fantastically creepy city. Thomas delivers in creating a world like no other, and he does it well.

In the realm of the concave of space, in the infinite palette of stars, we experience this broad brush of great talent in Mr. Thomas's aspect of his eye. He is brimming with imagination, almost choking the literary world with this book's essence and flair. I thoroughly enjoyed this series of stories of the incredulous, and can't wait to read more, and to stoke my memory with the imagery it hangs in midair like a surreal Dali freakout. Suspended by sheer imagination, this book is a complete work by itself, evenly charged with bountiful prose that guts even the most mundane of human boor's soul, peels it back, and hoses out the insides. Bravo!