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Punktown #7
Blue War
Over a decade ago Earth's Colonial Forces battled in a bloody war against the blue-skinned Ha Jiin people. Now, the hard-won peace is about to crumble as the work of an Earth-owned biotech corporation goes disastrously wrong. It's up to Jeremy Stake to uncover the truth behind mysterious events, and prevent a new war from beginning...
407 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 26, 2008
13 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey Thomas
245 books280 followersJeffrey 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 10, 2024
I had never read anything by Jeffrey Thomas before and, for some reason, I picked up this book at a bookstore some time ago (always willing to try new authors!) and finally got around to reading it, on a cold wintry day in February. It's science fiction with some good world-building and mixed with some horror and a detective story. Jeremy Stake is the hardboiled private investigator of the story. He has a talent which aids him greatly in his work--he's like a chameleon and can change his appearance. Unfortunately, he has to be careful as he can unconsciously alter his face to look like the person he's looking at! He lives in "Punktown," a crime-ridden metropolis on a colony planet. It's the city he grew up in and where he learned to survive on its mean streets.
This book, published in 2008, is part of the Punktown series. I hadn't read any of the other books of the series, but I had no problem following the story. Stake goes to a world of blue vegetation and blue-skinned humanoid aliens where human colonial forces had fought a war called--what else?--the Blue War. Stake had fought in that war and has a familiarity with the planet and its inhabitants. It was a Colonial Forces officer who sent for Stake to investigate the mysterious Blue City that appeared in the jungle--and that keeps expanding. Strangely enough, it appears to be a replica--in blue--of Stake's own Punktown. And to add to the mystery, the city seems to have cloned three humans, two found dead and one, a baby, found alive.
The story held my interest throughout although it moved a little slowly at first. But I think there's enough action for the action fans. I particularly liked the writing, especially the dialogues. Why are PIs such good wisecrackers? It was also interesting that the blue world was an analogy for Vietnam. I would like to believe that if we Earthpeople make it into the distant future, we will have learned some lessons from the past. But, as the poet said, "To err is human..."
This book, published in 2008, is part of the Punktown series. I hadn't read any of the other books of the series, but I had no problem following the story. Stake goes to a world of blue vegetation and blue-skinned humanoid aliens where human colonial forces had fought a war called--what else?--the Blue War. Stake had fought in that war and has a familiarity with the planet and its inhabitants. It was a Colonial Forces officer who sent for Stake to investigate the mysterious Blue City that appeared in the jungle--and that keeps expanding. Strangely enough, it appears to be a replica--in blue--of Stake's own Punktown. And to add to the mystery, the city seems to have cloned three humans, two found dead and one, a baby, found alive.
The story held my interest throughout although it moved a little slowly at first. But I think there's enough action for the action fans. I particularly liked the writing, especially the dialogues. Why are PIs such good wisecrackers? It was also interesting that the blue world was an analogy for Vietnam. I would like to believe that if we Earthpeople make it into the distant future, we will have learned some lessons from the past. But, as the poet said, "To err is human..."
March 24, 2014
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.
Blue War is Thomas's second book featuring private investigator Jeremy Stake, a mutant human who has taken his unusual morphing abilities up to the next level and uses them expertly in his career as a private investigator. Blue War is an exciting and intriguing page turner. I found it difficult to put this book down and am already anxiously awaiting Thomas's next Punktown creation.
I highly recommend this book.
Blue War is Thomas's second book featuring private investigator Jeremy Stake, a mutant human who has taken his unusual morphing abilities up to the next level and uses them expertly in his career as a private investigator. Blue War is an exciting and intriguing page turner. I found it difficult to put this book down and am already anxiously awaiting Thomas's next Punktown creation.
I highly recommend this book.
February 13, 2011
This is one of the more underrated science fiction novels, managing to embed an interesting discussion on the meaning of identity in a framework blending SF with horror.
http://opionator.wordpress.com/2009/0...
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January 4, 2010
Great book! All the Punktown books/stories are great. I want more.
Isn't it curious how the film Avatar was released AFTER this book was printed?
Isn't it curious how the film Avatar was released AFTER this book was printed?
June 2, 2010
My first read of a (sort of) Punktown novel. A great mix of military SF, and transdimensional Lovecraftian weirdness.
March 2, 2012
In this loose sequel to Thomas's Deadstock, Punktown private investigator Jeremy Stake returns to the extra dimensional world of Sinan, where his people previously fought a war against the dominant Ha Jiin nation, a race of blue-skinned humanoids, to uncover the secrets behind a strange replica of his home city, which is consuming the expansive blue forest. Blue War explores numerous fascinating concepts including cutting edge biotech, interdimensional travel, and an alien culture that seems both original and familiar at the same time. What really makes this novel more than your average SF adventure is its cast of fully realized three-dimensional characters. Thomas combines action, mystery, science fiction, and even a little romance in this tightly written futuristic thriller. He draws parallels between the culture and history of Sinan and that of Vietnam, crafting a world that is simultaneously identifiable and strikingly alien. A stunning, skillfully crafted novel that will leave you eagerly awaiting Stake's next adventure. Highly recommended.
November 27, 2010
It can be pretty gross at times, but it also has a beautiful setting.
Not a story for everyone, but if you're okay with a dose of the disturbing this book has a lot of very intriguing locales and situations. As I recall the plot occasionally felt like a stereotypical private detective story, but the most obvious of these moments tended to be overshadowed by the alien methods through which they were conveyed, be it through the futuristic technology or otherwise.
This is the only Punktown novel I've read, but the exotic sci-fi world the author has described with this one book is so wondrous that I've got high hopes for the rest of the series.
Not a story for everyone, but if you're okay with a dose of the disturbing this book has a lot of very intriguing locales and situations. As I recall the plot occasionally felt like a stereotypical private detective story, but the most obvious of these moments tended to be overshadowed by the alien methods through which they were conveyed, be it through the futuristic technology or otherwise.
This is the only Punktown novel I've read, but the exotic sci-fi world the author has described with this one book is so wondrous that I've got high hopes for the rest of the series.
July 8, 2009
This was a good book, but nothing special. The writing was solid and the characters were believable. I hadn't read anything set in Punktown before this so I wasn't familiar with that setting or the characters but it didn't seem to matter. The book is about a private detective who goes back to a planet where he fought a war several years earlier in order to find out what is causing a runaway nanotech replica of his home city to appear (the nanotech was supposed to build a local village).
The whole - prior war with Earth forces helping one side with the two sides now barely holding a truce and all of them wanting Earth forces out - thing is VERY reminiscent of Vietnam and the author does nothing to dispel that idea. The use of transdimensional space sticks to common tropes but I didn't feel like either of these common themes detracted from the book.
It was a fine commute read, but nothing to write home about.
The whole - prior war with Earth forces helping one side with the two sides now barely holding a truce and all of them wanting Earth forces out - thing is VERY reminiscent of Vietnam and the author does nothing to dispel that idea. The use of transdimensional space sticks to common tropes but I didn't feel like either of these common themes detracted from the book.
It was a fine commute read, but nothing to write home about.
January 28, 2023
This book works as allegory, science fiction world story, romance, however you want to read it. It's a little slow to start, but once the setup is complete, the intertwining stories becomes quite compelling. The Punktown world is one of my favorites, and this extension into another dimension is a great (for me) addition.
May 26, 2025
The book and the story should be worth four stars, but some things kept me from it: Minor, I never immersed in the world-building. Middle, it was full of the typical American chauvinism, embodied by the fact that the protagonist while deeply in love with a Sinan woman never bothered to learn her language. But of course all the natives learned English. And worst: although the character of the story clearly acknowledged sexual diversity, the book itself is decades behind it’s time. Practically all actors were male, the only exemption some woman snipers. This reminded of a “ German lancer and Russian sniper fall in love” story written in the 70ies.
Sorry, the story, the ideas and the writing deserved better.
Sorry, the story, the ideas and the writing deserved better.
March 7, 2024
Fast paced but doesn't hold any of the same interest as the short stories
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews