Monstrocity

Punktown #2

by Jeffrey Thomas

MONSTROCITY
by JEFFREY THOMAS

There are haunted places. Haunted houses. The metropolis of Punktown, on the planet Oasis, is a haunted city.

An unassuming young man perceives the city's dark tentacles in the lay of the streets, its roots in the labyrinth of subways, a polluted taint in the eyes of people around him. And this evil is building toward an apocalyptic culmination...

The city is not only haunted... maybe it's alive...

A finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, MONSTROCITY combines elements of science fiction and horror in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, and is set in the milieu of Jeffrey Thomas's acclaimed collection, PUNKTOWN.

“Lovecraft fans sceptical of contemporary Cthulhu Mythos fiction will find much to appreciate in Thomas's intriguing brew of eldritch lore, cyberpunk and noir…Thomas expands on Lovecraft's themes in new and exciting ways while retaining his own distinct authorial identity.”
-- Publishers Weekly

FOCUS ON –
• LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR
• FUTURE NOIR
• SCIENCE FICTION THRILLER
• FRIGHTENING MYSTERY

IF YOU LIKE MONSTROCITY, TRY –
PERDIDO STREET STATION by CHINA MIEVILLE
THE BEST OF H. P. LOVECRAFT
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? by PHILIP K. DICK

MONSTROCITY is an EBOOK novel by JEFFREY THOMAS, author of such science fiction/horror novels as DEADSTOCK (finalist for the John W. Campbell Award), BLUE WAR, HEALTH AGENT, MONSTROCITY (original printing a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award), THE FALL OF HADES, LETTERS FROM HADES, UGLY HEAVEN/ BEAUTIFUL HELL (co-authored with Carlton Mellick III), THOUGHT FORMS, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM THE DREAM DEALERS. Short story collections include PUNKTOWN, VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN, SHADES OF GREY (co-authored with Scott Thomas), NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, UNHOLY DIMENSIONS, VOICES FROM HADES, THIRTEEN SPECIMENS, DOOMSDAYS, and AAAIIIEEE!!!. Jeffrey's stories have been reprinted in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR and THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES. Though he considers Vietnam (his wife's place of origin) his second home, he is a resident of ye olde Massachusetts.

Artwork by Jeffrey Thomas.


MONSTROCITY – THE ALBUM
Jeffrey Thomas

Original Soundtrack by DAS SOMBREROS

As a perfect accompaniment to the incredibly haunting Punktown novel by Jeffrey Thomas, and indeed, a brilliant work of composition in its own right, Anarchy Books proudly presents the Original Soundtrack to the novel MONSTROCITY.

Experimental, ambient, strange, atmospheric, odd, hallucinatory, the MONSTROCITY Original Soundtrack is a perfect aural accompaniment developed alongside the novel in order to enhance your reading experience, and is perfect mood music/psycho meditative composition.

Described by Jeffrey Thomas “Unique, varied, always inventive, unsettling, haunting, even blackly comic, in turns... it sounds like the voice of Punktown itself” and by Andy Remic as “So creepy I had to switch on the lights; I didn’t want to take the dog out in the dark after listening to this soundtrack – the bastards!” MONSTROCITY
Artwork by Jeffrey Thomas.

Das Sombreros are Pedro Wong and Klaus Patel. The pseudonymous duo develop 'paranoiac collages' that layer found and treated sounds with nonsensical, misheard phrases and fleeting moments of musicality. The results can be hallucinatory, sinister, erotic and hilarious - sometimes all at once. Their work - as individual pieces or taken as a whole - can be seen as an attempt to sonically document and present the fears and desires of a disintegrating personality. Influences include post-war art music, horror aesthetics, the European avant-garde, Simon Fisher Turner and RD Laing.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, New Weird, Aliens, Fantasy, Bizarro Fiction

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jeffrey Thomas is an American author of weird fiction, the creator of the acclaimed setting Punktown. Books in the Punktown universe include the short story collections Punktown, Voices from Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Grey (with his brother, Scott Thomas), and Ghosts of Punktown. Novels in that setting include Deadstock, Blue War, Monstrocity, Health Agent, Everybody Scream!, Red Cells, and The New God. Thomas’s other short story collections include The Unnamed Country, Gods of a Nameless Country, The Endless Fall, Haunted Worlds, Worship the Night, Thirteen Specimens, Nocturnal Emissions, Doomsdays, Terror Incognita, Unholy Dimensions, AAAIIIEEE!!!, Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood, Carrion Men, Voices from Hades, The Return of Enoch Coffin, and Entering Gosston. His other novels include The American, Boneland, Subject 11, Letters From Hades, The Fall of Hades, The Exploded Soul, The Nought, Thought Forms, Beyond the Door, Lost in Darkness, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers.

His work has been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). At NecronomiCon 2024 Thomas received the Robert Bloch Award for his contributions to weird fiction.

Though he considers Viet Nam his second home, Thomas lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

the goofy title is just about the only thing that doesn't work in this otherwise awesome novel. I even love that bizarre cover.

this is horror in space. or rather, horror on another world, in the city of Paxton (dubbed 'Punktown' by its inhabitants. which I also didn't like that much. ok, two things that don't work).

I just poured my second good-sized glass of nigori sake. I wonder why. well, it is delicious. I'm not the sort of chap who particularly enjoys getting drunk on my lonesome, but hey sometimes it happens.

so Christopher Ruby finds himself engaged in a secret war with practitioners of dark arts who want to bring the eldritch Elder Gods back into our universe. it is Cthulhu time! I wonder why I read so many books about the Cthulhu mythos. I wonder what that says about me. one of these days Cthulthu is gonna appear in front of me and ask Who's Your Daddy? and I'm pretty sure what my answer will be.

anyway, Christopher Ruby has to kill his girlfriend (not a spoiler), he has to kill this fish-mutant dude (also not a spoiler), he has to wrangle with the forces of evil, he has to make many surprising choices. he's a man with a plan. he hasn't amounted to much in his life but he has realized that he is actually a good guy who wants to do good. I really like Christopher Ruby, his mild sarcasm that doesn't veer into nihilism, his lack of sexism, his casual embrace of difference and the different, his loser-ish & loner-like attributes but also his lack of Serious & Soul Debilitating Issues That Annoy Me. really, he's my ideal protagonist. or maybe I've just been reading too much of Mortal Leap and dealing with dead soul types has wearied me. Christopher even rents a whore and it somehow doesn't make him a bad or even exploitative guy. it made me think of friends who have also had their times with prostitutes and yet I wouldn't say they are remotely bad or even particularly sexist guys. huh. oh and Christopher has guilty feelings about it, which sorta made me like him even more.

just realized that my glass of sake looks like a glass of watered-down semen.

so Christopher Ruby fights the good fight and along the way he meets an appealing alien cop who he falls in love with. I sorta fell in love with her too. her species is the author's version of extremist Islamic cultures but yet he manages to not be remotely offensive in his depiction of this repressive alien culture.

ah, time for a new cd. I think Material's Hallucination Engine would be perfect. so alien

ok back to the novel. it is FIRST PERSON YOU ARE HERE NOW OMG! but it really works. no infodumps either. it has a great central set piece in a church, a church sunk beneath the subway lines due to a questionable earthquake. an earthquake caused by Cthulhu & Company? perhaps.

wait, what's that cheesy saxophone doing on this album. next track!

the novel has a brilliant idea at its heart: a terrible, shadowy city that is a kind of extension, an avatar of sorts, of various terrible, shadowy things. a city of strange alien patterns that devours its own. nice. well maybe "nice" is the wrong word. well, you know. this city is where Christopher Ruby lives. kind of an uphill battle.

woah, William S. Burroughs is on this album! forgot about that. how fitting.

there's a lot in the book about corporatization & the meat industry & other assorted modern bugaboos, well futuristic bugaboos in this case, these bugaboos being particularly easy places for terrible, shadowy things to ensconce themselves. nothing new there, but done well here. "ensconce" - nice word. and "bugaboo" - sort of hard to believe that's an actual word.

wow, nearly done with my drink. already!

SPOILER: happy ending! for real. I totally did not expect that. nice to see a doom & gloom novel of space horror end with happy rays of love. gosh I'm a romantic.

so this novel doesn't have challenging prose and it didn't make me cry and I probably won't read it again - all the various requirements I've set up for giving a book that 4th star. but fuck it, imma give this one 4 stars anyway. it was exciting and it made me happy. there, done.

refill? why not, today was a good day, work was good, reading was good, a good talk with a few friends as well. plus I think I will watch Big Brother now and that dumbass show needs booze to be tolerable. 3rd glass, here I come!

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastically bizarre cyberpunk/weird fiction crossover that works amazingly well. I loved Jeffrey Thomas' first collection of Punktown short stories and was hoping that this novel would be just as good, thankfully it is! I found this hard to put down, the story and richness of Punktown itself absorbed me. Jeffrey has such a creative mind, I'm really looking forward to reading more of his books.

[Иван Величков · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много приятна изненада се оказа тази книжка. Хванах я, само защото съм чел един сборник разкази от Джефри Томас и ми беше любопитно как е устроил своя Пънктаун. Очаквах научно-фантастичен ноар и го получих. Това което не очаквах беше да е част от Кхтулу митовете и то издържана изцяло по канона на Лъвкрафт (има си ново божество от пантеона на Древните или старо, но с име дадено от друга раса. Както и два гримоара също с инзвън земен произход.).
Томас прехвърля космическия ужас напред в бъдещето и замесва в митологията извънземни раси, които или симпатизират или се борят срещу идването на Древните.

Пънктаун е мегаполис на планетата Оазис. Както подсказва прякора му, той си има кусурите на всеки един такъв. Дом е на десетки хуманоидни раси, както и няколко нехуманоидни. По крайните квартали се вихри организирана престъпност, а в затворените след голямо земетресение тунели на старото метро живеят мутанти и престъпни банди роботи.
Един обикновен търговски сътрудник ще убие приятелката си, която е довела невинните си окултни занимания стъпка в неправилната посока, като прочита Некрономикон. Така той ще се окаже отмъстител и начинаещ заклинател, който ще трябва да спре нахлуването на един от Древните на Оазис, а от там и навсякъде из нашата вселена. На помощ ще му се притече красива извънземна полицайка, както и няколко тома извънземна изотерика.
Колко дълбоко са се внедрили в управлението на Пъктаун култистите? Какво стои зад кървавите ритуали и изчезналите църкви? Дали нашето момче е направилната страна?

[Gregor Xane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of elements that I like: a vast, nasty SF city populated with alien and human monsters, general sleaziness and grime, an investigation into the occult, sex, violence, and gore. But I was bored to tears for the last 40% of it and couldn't wait to be finished so that I could move on to something else.

The vast conspiracy seemed pretty nebulous, and I found it hard to care about how things would turn out. I wasn't impressed with the world-building either. One of the major alien races seemed to have been constructed based on the George Lucas alien creation method wherein you must use exaggerated and bigoted cultural caricatures.

I'll give Mr. Thomas another go, but I'll likely skip his other Punktown stories.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Look at the shelves I've placed this book on. Do I really need to write a review? Do the shelves speak for themselves? I hope so. Rarely do I come across a book that encapsulates so many of my favorite plot characteristics and devices. I loved the characters, the evil-does were more than nefarious, and the setting of Punktown a place I hope to revisit.

Christopher was an amazing character. He was the ideal hero in my opinion, a loner who was not afraid to act and get his hands a little (at times, more than a little) bloody, someone who realized that everyone is the child of someone else, regardless of that person's outer form. He was the good guy, stuck in a bad, bad city, and he acted as only a true fictional and crazy hero would.

There were some truly grisly scenes in this book, namely involving a specific body. My skin was crawling more than a few times. I loved the color purple running through the story. I loved the variety of alien life, and how each of the different lifeforms were integrated so well within the city. I loved the social sides provided by the news and I loved Saleet's Kalian stories and Christopher's cultural exploration. I loved the ending and I loved just about everything to do with this book. It was well-written, engrossing, and one of a kind.

4 1/2 stars, only due to a slower (yet necessary and interesting) section towards the middle of the book. Highest recommendation.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*
Christopher Ruby helps his girlfriend perform an occult ritual from a book called the Necronomicon, the ritual at first seems to have failed but as his girlfriend starts to change in alarming ways it becomes clear it was in fact successful. Christopher tries to track down the book and in doing so finds out that Punktown holds a lot of dark secrets.

This read had a great noir feel to it, blending cyberpunk and lovecraftian themes effortlessly. The world building done by Thomas is amazing, he deftly reveals Punktown and it's inhabitants, never overloading the reader with detail but dropping it in bit by bit. The characters were interesting, especially the blend of different races and mutants as well as some of the mythology that surrounds them. A great read and a fantastic introduction to the authors work.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are haunted places. Haunted houses. The metropolis of Punktown, on the planet Oasis, is a haunted city.

An unassuming young man perceives the city’s dark tentacles in the lay of the streets, its roots in the labyrinth of subways, a polluted taint in the eyes of people around him. And this evil is building toward an apocalyptic culmination…

The city is not only haunted… maybe it’s alive…

Punktown is a vast sprawling alien metropolis that is home to many different species, including humans. Christopher Ruby is a lowly customer support analyst for a network service provider. His life is meandering along, and he is at a bit of a loose end until he meets the exotic, gothic Gabrielle.

Gabrielle is naturally inquisitive and has a passing interest in the occult. She attempts some incantations and finds herself fundamentally changed by her exposure to forces that she doesn’t really understand. This experience creates a wedge between her and Chris and their relationship suffers as a result. Gabrielle is changed significantly; she is no longer the woman that Chris fell in love with. Their relationship deteriorates even further and this leads to a life changing confrontation for them both.

Monstrocity has some interesting ideas going on in amongst its pages. For example, the notion of bringing together the differing religious ideologies of the multiple races found in Punktown and highlighting their commonality. This adds extra layers to the plot that I wasn’t expecting. These shared elements hint at a much larger story that has yet to be seen. The pace of the novel really picks up in the final chapters as Chris finally comes face to face with the forces that are controlling the city. The final pages certainly suggest that there is more to tell. Will there be a sequel to this? I do hope so.

What was my favourite moment? One character’s exit from the story is particularly memorable. Thumbs up to any author that can make me involuntarily exclaim an ‘Eeeewww’ sound. This, in my opinion, can only ever be a good thing.

Monstrocity is just under two hundred pages long so I zipped through it in a couple of sittings. If you are looking for a little light reading involving inter-dimensional galactic conspiracies and Elder gods you may wish to consider spending you hard earned here.

This latest release from Anarchy Books cements their reputation for publishing dark, gritty, slightly bonkers electronic titles that delight in messing with your head, long may this continue.

Also worth pointing out there is an official soundtrack album that goes along with the novel. This original work by Das Sombreros is available via the Anarchy Books website.

Ha! I got to the end of a review of a book about the Old Gods without mentioning H P Lovecraft or Cthulhu once! …Oh damn it.

[George Wilhite · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read through the stories of Punktown, Thomas had me hooked. This wonderfully weird, darkly sinister world colonized by Earthlings long ago provides a vibrant and violent palette for Thomas to draw from to create endless tales of sci-fi horror. It’s a wonderful amalgam of cyberpunk and The New Weird.

My enthusiasm led to me to move on to Thomas’ Punktown novels, and if Monstrocity is any indication of the overall quality I have to say I am not disappointed. This novel takes all that is great about Punktown and fuses it seamlessly with H. P. Lovecraft’s visions of The Great Old Ones and The Elder Gods.

The novel’s anti-hero, Chris Ruby, assists his girlfriend Gaby in investigating the mysterious death of her friend. Using a book her friend was reading, they innocently read some spells. Chris is skeptical until Gaby transforms into a shadow of her former self and shuts him out of her life.

Chris’ further adventures lead him to into a complex mystery. He acquires a copy of the Necromonicon and soon is entangled in a dangerous world of murder and intrigue that is equal parts detective noir and weird tale.

I will not give away any further plot details but the action is fast-paced and leads to a climax that is both satisfying and left open for sequels.

While I have made some comparisons, stating the novel resembles or borrows from other traditions, I am not saying Thomas’ writing is in any way derivative. His prose is lively, his style all his own, full of wonder and horror, darkly comic and poignant when appropriate.

I highly recommend this and Thomas in general. I will definitely keep reading through his material.

A note on the version I read:

I purchased the ebook through Anarchy Press as well as an accompanying “soundtrack” from Das Sombreros. This was a unique experience. I listened to the music on my headphones while reading the novel on my Nook. Of course, it takes longer to read a novel than hear a 40 minute album, but I listened to it a couple of times while reading. The music was trippy and interesting in its own right and fit the twisted world of Punktown. Very cool concept!

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that this is really my first Punktown-based novel, but that situation will be rectified here shortly. Punktown is really Paxton, a city on the world called Oasis. Several peoples call Punktown home: for example, there are the Tikkihottos, the Kalians and the indigenous Chooms. There are human beings who live there as well. The action begins as Chris Ruby and his girlfriend Gaby are at his home, and for fun they decide to light candles in eight corners while Gaby plays a recording of a summoning spell from the Necronomicon, the evil book of secrets that should not be played with lightly. Soon afterwards, Gaby disengages from life and Chris and Chris wants to know why. His quest takes him down dangerous paths, where he discovers that there are things best left alone in the world, and that sadly, not everyone feels that way, opting rather to delight in the forces of evil.

I loved this book! Thomas gives Punktown its own life and breath so much so that you can actually visualize it. The characters are colorful, interesting and real in the context of this world; the dialog is natural. The writing is excellent and I absolutely cannot wait to read the rest of the Punktown books. I don't think you need to have read the previous ones because the author does a great job of setting the scene. You may wish to have some familiarity with the works of HP Lovecraft for this to make some sense, but again, the author incorporates Lovecraft so well that you don't absolutely need to be a Lovecraft fan to enjoy it.

Overall -- an awesome and fun read; recommended definitely for Lovecraft aficionados and for people who enjoy a good blend of fantasy and horror together in one space.

[Danger Kallisti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether surrealist headtrip, Cyberpunk fiction, or Lovecraft tribute, I loved it. It was like the best alternative comic book, come to life as a substantial novel. Everything about this book was just fucking cool. The story moved really fast, without a lot of the standard plot devices to help drag along the skeptic, but I liked that – it enhanced the comic-book feel, and kept the writing down to a bare minimum. Even then, the descriptions were as graphic, the characters as fascinating, the setting as unique as anyone could hope for. As soon as I have money again, I'm going to seek out the rest of his books.

[Natasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the world the author created here. There wasn't much action at all and I have to say not a bit of horror as the description said. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book. Can't really say whom to recommend this book, it is quite unusual. I'll try other works from this author, I just hope there will be a bit more going on as I was tempted to drop it a few times, I'm glad though I didn't.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the Punktown series! This novel helps to expand on the overall lore somewhat, but focuses upon one character's story rather than a series of shorter stories. In some ways it worked great, while in other ways I personally prefer the author's shorter fiction. Regardless of story length, though, he always manages to paint the scenes well, and give life to the inhabitants of Punktown and, of course, to the city itself.

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 2 out of 5]

από τα πιο περίεργα βιβλία μυθολογίας κθούλου που εχω διαβάσει
θα ήθελα να διαβασω και άλλα από τον κόσμο της αλητούπολης, αρκεί να έχει άλλους πρωταγωνιστές
ο τσίφτης μας πολύ ανώριμος και ό,τι να 'ναι
η ατμόσφαιρα της πόλης όμως εκτιμήθηκε ιδιαίτερα!

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovecraftian cyberpunk! Should have been my new favorite book but I totally lost interest in the last 1/3, felt dragged out and plodding.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Christopher Ruby has a problem. He's just shot his girlfriend. Except his girlfriend was transforming into an alien monstrosity after performing a ritual from the Necronomicon. And now Chris is seeing the world in a different light. He's looking at his city - the city of Punktown - for the first time, and seeing it for the monstrocity it really is....

Jeffrey Thomas is my go-to guy for New Weird. Even his most mediocre stuff still has things in it that are unique and strange and entertaining. And Monstrocity is my go-to book for when I need a fix from him. It's one of my favourite books even if its got its own fair share of flaws.

Character wise, we have Chris and he's a pretty standard protagonist. Just an average guy that's thrown into a world he doesn't understand. In some ways, I suspect Thomas wrote him as a stand-in for the reader because while he's engaging enough, he's also not the most distinct. That distinction goes to Saleet, Chris's new girlfriend after his former, now-dead one. Saleet is an alien from the Kali race, a sci-fi stand-in for Muslims. She's religious, a cop on the Sex Crimes unit and a pretty awesome character. She's compassionate, professional and cheeky and a dab hand with firearms. She's probably my favourite character in the book.
As for side-characters, they're mostly there for flavouring. Since the story is from Chris's perspective, most side characters come and go with little strong characterisation, relegated to background fluff or stereotypes. Saleet's dad is very religious, Gabi - Chris's former, now dead girlfriend - is a plump goth chick. Beyond that, there's not a lot to grab at.

The world of Punktown is where the book really shines. Thomas peppers the book with references and little asides to make the world feel lived in. TV shows, technological advancements, firearms, alien races. It makes the world feel real, despite the unreality of the setting. But there is still enough real-world aspects that make it feel grounded too. Chris's life isn't just dominated by alien entities and Lovecraftian threats. He has relationship woes, fears about his job and life, existential dread and cultural clashes.

However the book isn't perfect. Thomas does a good job of seeding the world of Punktown in many ways that are unique, but feel lacking in creativity. Like I said, the Kali - Saleet's people - are basically a standin for Muslims and as such, they cover a lot of the negative aspects associated with Islam, even with Saleet being a positive representation. Anti-women, anti-homosexual, religious maina. It's all there, so that might give some people the shits.
Also the plot of the book isn't what I would call compelling. Once the intial incident - Gabby's murder - is extrapolated on, Chris just kind of meanders around the city, going about his life, occasionally fighting Lovecraftian entities and getting a new girlfriend. At one point, the plot ends, only to pick up six months later where things have gone sour. Not exactly gripping storytelling.

But like I said, this is one of my favourite books. For all of the things it does wrong, it does enough right that I still enjoy reading it. I'm still looking for that one particular Jeffrey Thomas book/New Weird book that is the pinnacle of everything I like in the genre, but for the time being I'm happy to go back to this one.

[FicusFan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Punktown , the creation of Jeffrey Thomas that is similar to Ambergris, and Bas Lag. A strange surreal city that encompasses humans, aliens, gods, demons, magic, religion and technology.

The story revolves around a a young man who seems to be a slacker who can't get a date. The whole early part of the book seems to be about getting him hooked up. The object of his affection turns out to be into the occult, magic, dead gods, and thinks dabbling is fun. Needless to say she opens up a portal for something evil. Her indiscretion changes his life, and a new cast of characters join the story.

Once the change happens the story takes off and is much more interesting.

I enjoyed the story, the writing and the setting. The main character is a bit bland, but he comes into his own as the book progresses. His 2nd girlfriend is a great character from the start, and the mutants and demons under the street are also memorable even though they only appear briefly.

This is just one of the books about Punktown . I look forward to reading them, even though they are not abut the same characters.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this book at the World Horror Convention in 2002. I had never heard of Jeffrey Thomas. I kept on wandering past the book in the merchants room and was drawn to the name and cover. The book description was the icing on the cake. I had to have it. I bought it on our way out of the convention that Sunday.

Because of this book Jeffrey Thomas became one of my favorite authors. There have only been a couple of times in my life where I was drawn so strongly towards a book I knew nothing about and an author I had never heard of. No doubt, this was fate.

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.

[Matt McRoberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pretty surprised at how much I ended up enjoying MONSTROCITY. It started off kind of slow (Well after the opening scene) and ended up turning into a pretty good supernatural mystery novel with a bit of scifi to it. Mixing the occult stuff and connecting it with alien cultures in the author's universe for this book was fun to read about and how it was translating into the main character's world.

The story developed really well and it kept me interested throughout the read. After this i'll have to look into more of Jeffrey Thomas's works.

Real score: 4.5 out of 5 (i tend to round down with the star ratings on here)

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised it took me so long to even hear of this book and setting. It is so similar to my creative interests I feel left out it took me all this time to get to Punktown.

The tacked on nature of the very ending made me flirt with 4 stars, but I just cant bring myself to do it. Everything else is perfect and exceptionally well-realized. Even the apparently Derlethian interpretation of mythos stuff is handled with enough ambiguity to be more mythic than good vs evil. I will certainly be reading more from this author and this particular setting.

[JW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think middle-far future cyberpunkish SF meets Lovecraft, and it works. The early part of the story is told in retrospect after a cold open, not my favorite structure, but as the story develops it works in some pretty interesting internal monologues that are balanced, okay, almost balanced, by pretty good scenes of tension and action. There’s a love story but it blends well with the main tale.

Good read, I need to seek out more by this author

[Zita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Lovecraft and I love sci-fi. But combining the two has never occurred to me. Until now.
The story was great (although there were a few moments where I didn't really understand the necessity of a certain action), the pace was good and the atmosphere was almost excellent (obviously the Lovecraftian theme is unbeatable in its own time).
I can (and will) only recommend this book. And will start reading the rest of the stories from Punktown.

[David Barbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite Jeffrey Thomas book, but when you think about it, it's still way better than typical Sci Fi you'll find at Barnes and Noble. While we don't get to see a lot of Paxton in this book, it remains a good horror story.

[Amanda B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cthulhu-riffic!

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the title put you off. This may be Mr. Thomas' best long work.

Six years later, rereading. Still a five.

[Stacy Cleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, as I found out after reading the book, that this is the second book in a series called Punktown by the author. But this book, and all the others it looks like, can be read as standalones. Monstrocity was one of those gems I came across, had no expectations, and was blown away. It's a fun and interesting quick read.

On the fantastic world of Oasis is a city called Paxton, locally known as Punktown. An eclectic mix of races live in this squalid city; the native Choom, the Tikkihotto, the Kalian, and a heavy populace of humans who settled in the original Paxton and expanded it into the sprawling metropolis of Punktown.

The first-person protagonist, Christopher Ruby, starts his story by telling us of his new girlfriend Gabrielle, a fun goth-type girl with an open window in her chest to show off the tattoo on her living heart. Gaby has somehow gotten a hold of a copy of a recording from the ancient book The Necronomicon. Gabrielle and Christopher play with the recording, but Gaby's heartlight-tatoo goes out and she estranges herself from Christopher.

Christopher soon finds out how much Gaby has changed, and in tracking down the reasons for Gaby's behavior becomes acquainted with a bookseller named Mr. Dove, who puts him on the path of a horrifying discovery. In his research, Chris meets a beautiful and non-traditional Kalian girl named Saleet, who also happens to be a "Forcer", a type of police inspector. The more Chris uncovers about Gaby's deadly and fatal obsession, the more he realizes that Punktown holds secrets deeper than time itself, secrets of downfallen Gods and the occult.

Thomas's prose is precise and naturally flowing, managing to hook you from the first page and pull you into Punktown any regrets. I'm definitely going to have to pick up some of his other books.

[Shawn Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was with great anticipation that I recently bought myself a return ticket to the city known as Punktown. Said ticket being Monstrocity by Jeffrey Thomas, his first full length novel set in the Punktown series. Originally published in 2003 by Prime Books, I chose this entry because I wanted to read some of the older stories set in this universe, and because I was intrigued by the fact that it was a full length novel. My previous experience with this ongoing series was the recent collection of interlinked stories, Ghosts of Punktown. After reading Ghosts (here's a link to my review, if you haven't checked it out), I was hooked on both the setting, and Jeffrey's writing in general. I knew it wouldn't be long before I returned to the planet Oasis, and the urban sprawl of the mega-city known by outsiders and the gentry as Paxton, and as Punktown by it's true inhabitants... the ordinary people, trying to make a living amongst the lost, the forgotten, the predators, and the insane. Buried in this chaos, you will find tales of love, of redemption, and of disparate beings coming together to forge a unity against the darkness that is lurking just around the corner, waiting in the angles of space and time. A union that will shine a faint light out into the universe, and grow into a beacon of hope, a rallying point for any rational being. Monstrocity tells one such tale, and it tells it very well...



Christopher Ruby is a shy, unassuming type of guy. When, by pure chance, he meets the beautiful Gabrielle, he believes that his life is finally looking up. Gabrielle, however, has some rather strange interests that soon lead to the first in a series of tragic events. A recording of a set of occult incantations has fallen into her possession, which will purportedly call up a demon, if certain conditions are met. While he is, at first, totally against the idea, Christopher eventually gives in hoping to please his girlfriend. The ritual doesn't seem to work, and he has a good laugh and then heads to bed. Awakened by a strange feeling during the night, he finds that Gabrielle has performed the ritual again, and that there is something distressingly... odd about her. Soon after, she disappears, and Christopher frantically attempts to locate her. Along the way, he begins researching the origin of the incantation that started the whole series of events. He eventually discovers that the author was a certain human from Old Earth, apparently of Arab descent. A man by the name of Abdul Alhazred... He soon begins seeing strange apparitions out of the corner of his eye, and has the feeling that he is constantly being watched. His life is gradually taken over by an intense feeling of paranoia, and he begins a swift descent into madness.


The story of Christopher Ruby is stifling, intense, and claustrophobic, and quite intricately detailed. A tale of an ordinary man, thrown into an extraordinary situation, through no fault of his own. A man who just wants things to be as they were, but eventually realizes, that there is no going back. At the beginning of the story, there isn't much to set Christopher apart, to draw you into the character. As the story unfolds, however, he begins to grow and show unexpected depths of both character, and willpower. From his initial quest to rescue his love and return everything to normalcy, his motives turn more towards reaping a horrible vengeance on those responsible for destroying his life. His desire for revenge slowly fades as he begins to grasp the scope of the forces that he is up against, both those from outside our dimension, and the beings that serve them, here in our realm. He begins to realize that, even though he is not the best choice to be a savior, he has been chosen, simply because he KNOWS. In KNOWING, he automatically becomes responsible for DOING. Once he comes to grips with this idea, he starts along a highly selfless path. With no help in sight, the question becomes, quite simply put, will he survive long enough to make an actual difference. The author takes his time in really building up the personality of his protagonist, and rendering him as a perfect example of fallible humanity. The qualities of perseverance, selflessness, and the ability to think beyond the concept of 'I', and serve a greater good are rather remarkably illustrated within the story.


Along with the quality of his characterization, Jeffrey also excels when it comes down to the portraying the details contained within the story(as I mentioned in my opening statement of the previous paragraph). Whether it is something that is normally quite simplistic, such as describing the characters surroundings (there were a number of these descriptions that I found to be quite profound, and a work of art, in and of itself); or in the attention given to various species history, culture, appearance, and unique behaviors, he goes above and beyond the norm. Quite masterful, I must say. The photo-realistic depiction of every aspect of Punktown could lead one to believe that, possibly, this is a real place and that the author is a frequent traveler to the planet of Oasis. Truthfully, the level of characterization, and of description, could easily be a travelogue, if one were to remove the more fantastic aspects of the story. There is no need for a suspension of disbelief, just start reading and you'll find yourself definitely transported to another world. This quality to totally submerse a reader in a story is very rare, and Jeffrey Thomas possesses said ability in spades. It's one of the reasons that Punktown is quickly becoming one of my favorite fictional destinations to visit. Heck, I'd buy a ticket and make my home there, if Jeffrey would let me...



To sum up my ramblings, this is an outstanding, well thought out and executed, absolutely engaging story. There are many highly adult themes and situations contained within it's pages, but we're all adults here. It's so rare to come across a concept that is so effectively realized, so fluid in it's execution, that you you have to step back to truly appreciate the total depth of what you've been reading. Monstrocity is one of these releases, and I highly recommend that you take a look at this entry, and at the series as a whole. For that matter, just go out and pick up a story by Jeffrey Thomas. You'll be amazed by the sights that he will show you...


Here's the product page on Amazon. Here's Jeffrey's author page on Amazon. Finally, here's Jeffrey's site. Why don't you take some time to stop by and look around? A great number of excellent stories are contained there, just waiting for you to discover them. With that, I'll sign off. As usual, happy reading!

[7thTrooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inte lika bra som "Punktown", speciellt i början, men den tar sig. Thomas har god hand med språk och stämning och hela Punktown-universat är fortfarande intressant, om än att det inte är lika utmejslat här av förklarliga skäl. Det börjar ta sig ordentligt först cirkus halvvägs när huvudkaraktären börjar bli ordentligt insugen i paranoia och ockultism och han träffar Saleet, den enda kvinnliga karaktären i boken som faktiskt får ta upp lite plats. Det förhållande hon utvecklar med Chris blir faktiskt engagerande om än helt förutsägbart. Den enda sexscenen av för många - den med den prostituerade, i synnerhet - som faktiskt känns lite motiverad är just den med henne då den faktiskt också utvecklar världen lite. Elementen av Lovecraft-skräck och de lite filosofiska delarna om staden i sig passade in bra, med, utan att skära sig med något jag läst innan. Scenen i templet och i tunnelbanan är också bra skriven, tajt action med bra slafs.

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein SF-Roman, der die Vorstellungswelt H.P. Lovecrafts auf einen extrasolaren Planeten verlegt. Die alten Götter sind nicht so schrecklich aber doch dominant. Ansonsten gibt es Technik und Schrecken. Der Roman lebt mehr von der besonderen Stimmung und Fantasie als von der Spannung. Habe ihn gerne gelesen. War eine schöne Abwechslung. Cthulhu-Mythos und HPL-Ideen passen können die SF durchaus bereichern.

[Square Octopoid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely great. Finally got a copy of this book. I love Lovecraft and science fiction, so a book combining both is definitely a must.
Punktown is an amazing place, this is on another planet, but there's no spacecrafts in the book. Love to imagine the details. There's horror too. Definitely going to read the other punktown books.

[Ryan Pidhayny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Thomas’s Punktown setting, but I found the plot of Monstrocity a little too directionless, and the romance immature.