Punktown: Shades of Grey

Punktown #5

by Jeffrey Thomas

China Miéville called Jeffrey Thomas’ PUNKTOWN “something wonderful,” and Ellen Datlow proclaimed it “a brilliant collection.” Now, in SHADES OF GREY -- a brand new collection of stories -- Jeffrey Thomas is joined by brother Scott Thomas in giving voices to the citizens of this futuristic urban hell. In its dangerously alluring streets, you will extradimensional monsters, murderous aliens, vampiric mutants, coffee-loving robots, confused clones, and war vets looking for one last, bloody battle to fight. you are now entering Punktown. You are now entering the city that Publishers Weekly described as “equal parts H. P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and Blade Runner’s dark metropolis.”


Praise for the writing of Jeffrey


Michael Marshall Smith, on "Stories of great impact, a collection of which anyone would be proud to have written just one tale."


F. Paul Wilson, on Letters From "Jeffrey Thomas' imagination is as twisted as it is relentless. Every page...presents new and original horrors."


Brian Keene, author of City of the "In time he will, in this reviewer's opinion, be listed alongside King, Barker, Koontz, and McCammon."


Praise for the writing of Scott


Ellen Datlow, on Cobwebs and "One of the best collections of the year."


Brian Keene, on Cobwebs and "A delightfully wicked read... Highly recommended!


Jack Fisher, editor of Flesh & "Scott Thomas writes like a rainbow on his prose is colorful and elegant, his ideas dark and unnatural."

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Collections

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

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

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another fantastic collection of stories set in Jeffrey Thomas’ Punktown and as with the previous books I absolutely loved it!
Jeffrey has ingeniously created a place in which anything can and will happen, this opens up the possibilities for storytelling immensely. The imagination and creativity in these stories is impressive as each story takes you on an unpredictable journey across genres and emotions with a cast of colourful characters.
Despite the bleakness of Punktown it’s a place that I love returning to, I’d highly recommend this along with Jeffrey’s other Punktown books.

[Ryan Pidhayny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by both Jeffrey and Scott Thomas, Punktown: Shades of Grey is a neat concept somewhere between an anthology and a short story collection. I enjoyed getting a new perspective on the world of Punktown, but I did feel that too many of the stories went the way of screenshots of the character's lives, rather than more coherent stories. Perhaps it's because this isn't my first foray into Punktown, but I didn't feel like this book captured the magic of the first collection.

[John Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors are Jeffrey Thomas and his brother Scott. They write "Weird Fiction" -- usually horror or at least eerie, sometimes very gory, but it always makes you think. I've enjoyed everything by these authors, especially the Hades and Punktown series by Jeffrey Thomas. Their books have been very hard to find in libraries.

[Jorgon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad: the setting and imagination that went into it are the best part of the book, though. The stories themselves are occasionally excellent, but most of the time just slices of life; dark and dystopian but without the realistic feel that is required for all great science-fiction AND surrealism both. I will certainly read more--this is by no means bad, but so far Vandemeer and Mieville both had a far stronger effect on me.