Jeffrey Thomas (born October 3, 1957) is a prolific writer of
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
and
horror, best known for his stories set in the nightmarish future city called
Punktown, such as the novel ''Deadstock'' (
Solaris Books
Solaris Books is an imprint which focuses on publishing science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy novels and anthologies. The range includes titles by both established and new authors. The range is owned by Rebellion Developments and distribute ...
) and the collection ''Punktown'' (Ministry of Whimsy Press), from which a story was reprinted in St. Martin's ''
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
''Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' was a reprint anthology published annually by St. Martin's Press from 1987 to 2008. In addition to the short stories, supplemented by a list of honorable mentions, each edition included a number of retrospective e ...
#14''. His fiction has also been reprinted in Daw's ''
The Year's Best Horror Stories The Year’s Best Horror Stories was a series of annual anthologies published by DAW Books in the U.S. from 1972 to 1994 under the successive editorships of Richard Davis from 1972 to 1975 (after a 1971-1973 series published by Sphere Books in the ...
XXII'', ''The Year's Best Fantastic Fiction'' and ''Quick Chills II: The Best Horror Fiction from the Specialty Press''. He has been a 2003 finalist for the
Bram Stoker Award
The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing.
History
The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since 1 ...
(Best First Novel) for ''Monstrocity'', and a 2008 finalist for the
John W. Campbell Award for ''Deadstock''.
Other books by Thomas include the novels ''Letters from Hades'' (Bedlam Press) and ''Monstrocity'' (
Prime Books
Sean Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for founding the publishing house Prime Books and for co-editing three magazines, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', '' ...
), and the novella ''Godhead Dying Downwards'' (
Earthling Publications). The German edition of ''Punktown'' has cover art by
H. R. Giger
Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...
.
Thomas is also responsible for
Necropolitan Press, an independent publisher in the genres of horror, science fiction, dark fantasy, and "the unclassifiable.", which was founded in 1993 and ceased production between 2001 and March 2008.
Personal life
Jeffrey Thomas lives in Massachusetts. His brother Scott is also an accomplished short story writer, collected in such books as ''Cobwebs and Whispers'' (
Delirium Books
Delirium Books, launched in the summer of 1999 by Shane Ryan Staley, is a horror publisher in the collector's market, producing low print-run limited editions intended for both collectors and readers alike. Delirium Books first published The Ri ...
) and ''Westermead'' (
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Raw is an adjective usually describing:
* Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made
* Raw food, uncooked food
Raw or RAW may also refer to:
Computing and electronics
* .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...
).
Punktown
Setting
Punktown is a far future
megalopolis
A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enoug ...
, infamous for its level of crime. Originally given the name Paxton, it is described as, “a vast city established by Earth on the planet Oasis but since colonized by numerous other races as well. Even the Chooms, who had lived here before the first Earth people, had come to refer to the city by its nickname of Punktown.” Besides the indigenous Choom, human in appearance aside from wide mouths cut back to their ears, the stories often include or focus on a variety of alien races, clones, mutants, and sentient machines. The stories tend to feature common citizens as their protagonists, rather than the larger-than-life heroes of cliché science fiction, an exception being
mutant
In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It ...
private eye
''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...
Jeremy Stake, protagonist of the novels ''Deadstock'' and ''Blue War''. Beyond their grounding in science fiction, Punktown stories also notably combine elements of horror, fantasy and occasionally detective noir.
Thomas has related in interviews that he first devised the city in 1980, with a handful of short stories appearing in small press publications before the collection ''Punktown'' was released in 2000. The ''Punktown'' stories are sometimes cited as early examples of the
New Weird subgenre;
Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo (born October 29, 1954) is an American science fiction writer. He is a regular reviewer for print magazines ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', '' Science Fiction Eye'', ''The New York R ...
in ''
Asimov's'' describing the initial collection as "a harbinger of the New Weird... Not that the concept of Punktown really needs any shoring-up by cliques or claques."
Foreign language editions of a number of Punktown books have appeared in Germany, Russia, Poland, and Greece. Three collections of audio adaptations created by the German company Lausch.
Lausch
retrieved 2010-11-17
Works
Punktown (series)
Novels
* ''Monstrocity'' (May 2003, Prime Books, 236 pages, reprinted as an ebook in Anarchy Books 2011)
* ''Everybody Scream!'' (August 2004, Raw Dog Screaming Press, 291 pages)
* ''Deadstock'' (February 2007, Solaris Books, 416 pages)
* ''Blue War'' (February 2008, Solaris Books, 416 pages)
* ''Health Agent'' (2008, Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Novella
* "Red Cells" (novella) (March 2014, DarkFuse)
Collections
* ''Punktown'' (collection) (June 2000, Ministry of Whimsy Press; expanded edition July 2003; further expanded edition Forma Street Press 2018)
* ''Voices from Punktown'' (collection) (2008, Dark Regions Press, 208 pages)
* ''Ghosts of Punktown'' (April 2014, Dark Regions Press)
Anthologies
* ''Punktown: Third Eye'' edited by Jeffrey Thomas, (2004, Prime Books, 162 pages)
* ''Punktown: Shades of Grey'', made up of stories by both Jeffrey and Scott Thomas) (anthology) (2005, Bedlam Press/Necro Publications, 238 pages)
* ''Transmissions from Punktown'', edited by Brian M. Sammons (Dark Regions Press, 2018)
Hades (series)
Novels
* ''Letters From Hades'' (March 2003, Bedlam Press, 240 pages)
* ''The Fall of Hades'' (2010, Dark Regions Press)
Novella
*"Beautiful Hell" (2011, Dark Regions Press, originally published in the anthology ''Ugly Heaven, Beautiful Hell'', Dec. 2007, Corrosion Press, 276 pages, alongside a novella by Carlton Mellick III
Collection
* ''Voices from Hades'' (2008, Dark Regions Press, 169 pages)
Collections
* ''Terror Incognita'' (March 2000, Delirium Books, 158 pages) (2003 trade paperback reprint without story notes)
* ''AAAIIIEEE!!!'' (January 2002, iUniverse, 212 pages)
* ''Nether: Improper Bedtime Stores'' (with Scott Thomas) (June 2004, Delirium Books)
* ''Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood'' (June 2004, Delirium Books) (containing Thomas' contributions to ''Nether'')
* ''Unholy Dimensions'' (2005, Mythos Books, 288 pages)
* ''Thirteen Specimens'' (Feb. 2006, Delirium Books, 291 pages)
* ''Doomsdays'' (Oct. 2007, Dark Regions Press, 264 pages)
* ''Nocturnal Emissions'' (Jul. 2010, Dark Regions Press, 198 pages)
* ''Encounters with Enoch Coffin'' (with W. H. Pugmire) (April 2013, Dark Regions Press, 202 pages)
* ''Worship the Night'' (October 2013, Dark Renaissance Books, 194 pages)
* ''The Endless Fall'' (February 2017, Lovecraft eZine Press, 238 pages)
* ''Haunted Worlds'' (August 2017, Hippocampus Press, 248 pages)
* ''The Unnamed Country'' (November 2019, Word Horde, 207 pages)
* ''Carrion Men'' (December 2020, Plutonian Press, 221 pages)
Novels
* ''The Arms of the Sun'' (March 2004, Delirium Books, 67 pages)
* ''Boneland'' (July 2004, Bloodletting Press, 167 pages)
* ''A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers'' (July 2006, Black Flame, 416 pages)
* ''Thought Forms'' (2009, Dark Regions Press)
* ''Beyond the Door'' (April 2011, Delirium Books, 120 pages)
* ''The Sea of Flesh and Ash'' (with Scott Thomas) (May 2011, Terradan Works)
* ''Blood Society'' (2011, Necro Publications)
* ''Lost in Darkness'' (January 2012, Bad Moon Books)
* ''Subject 11'' (February 2012, Delirium Books)
* ''The American'' (October 2020, JournalStone)
Chapbooks
* ''The Bones of the Old Ones and Other Lovecraftian Tales'' (1995, chapbook, Necropolitan Press, 70 pages)
** second printing in 1999 with four extra pages
* ''Black Walls, Red Glass'' (Sept. 1997, Marietta Publishing, 66 pages)
* ''Avatars of the Old Ones: Mythos Tales'' (1999, chapbook, Imelod Publications, 48 pages)
* ''These Are The Exhibits'' (2003, Camelot Books & Gifts, 8 pages)
* ''Godhead Dying Downwards'' (May 2003, Earthling Publications, 40 pages)
* ''Unknown Pleasures: Dark Erotica'' (with Mark Howard Jones) (July 2003, Raw Dog Screaming Press, 48 pages)
* ''A Puppet Show For No One'' (March 2004, Delirium Books)
* ''Ghosts in Amber'' (June 2015, Dim Shores)
* ''Scenes From a Village'' (October 2021, Oddness)
Anthologies edited by
* ''A Vampire Bestiary'' (1996)
* ''Terata: Anomalies of Literature'' (1999)
Collections edited by
* ''A House of Hollow Wounds'' by Joseph S. Pulver
Joseph S. Pulver Sr. (July 5, 1955 – April 24, 2020) was an author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror fiction, noir fiction / hardboiled, and dark fantasy genres. He lived in Germany, and died from COPD and other issues in a ...
, Hippocampus Press
Hippocampus Press is an American publisher that specializes in, "the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his literary circle." Founded in 1999, and based in New York City, Hippocampus is operated by founder Derrick Hussey.
As of 2017, it has issued ...
2015
References
External links
*https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.thomas.71
Necropolitan Press official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Jeffrey
21st-century American novelists
American erotica writers
American fantasy writers
American horror writers
American male novelists
American science fiction writers
Erotic horror writers
Living people
1957 births
Chapbook writers
American male short story writers
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century American male writers
Weird fiction writers