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Publisher's Weekly
Lovecraft fans skeptical of contemporary Cthulhu Mythos fiction will find much to appreciate in Thomas's intriguing brew of eldritch lore, cyberpunk and noir. As in the stories in the author's acclaimed collection Punktown (2000), humans living in a huge sprawling colony city on a distant planet share the urban landscape with a culturally diverse set of alien races: Punktown makes L.A. look like Mayberry. As a joke, Christopher Ruby helps his girlfriend conduct a ritual from Abdul Alhazred's dreaded tome the Necronomicon, but its apparent failure later proves to have been a tragic success. Christopher discovers that many of the alien races in Punktown have their own versions of Alhazred's mythology, one of which tells of a sleeping god who can take the form of a great temple in order to lure sacrifices inside. He realizes that Punktown is in fact a living, organic being, an avatar of this dark god who feeds on our fear and pain. Thomas wisely leaves the question open as to whether his narrator is sane or a serial killer with a particularly morbid fantasy life. The mythos here serves as a metaphor to explore human suffering, to ask if it's the result of outside manipulation or of our own nature. Thomas expands on Lovecraft's themes in new and exciting ways while retaining his own distinct authorial identity. (July) Forecast: The sex and violence may put off fans of more traditional horror, but not just Lovecraft buffs are going to buy this novel, given the high praise for Punktown from the likes of China Mi ville, Ellen Datlow and Paul Di Filippo. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In the dark, dystopian metropolis of Punktown on the planet Oasis, a young man named Christopher encounters a new kind of darkness as his lover falls prey to a bizarre cult that believes in extraplanar entities called the Elder Gods. Set in the same world as Thomas's short story collection Punktown, this novel of supernatural conspiracies and unholy terror draws heavily on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos while creating something unique and horrific. Graphic violence and explicit sex are integral to the story's underlying themes of forbidden knowledge and its terrible consequences. Elegantly written and vividly imagined, this highly charged tale of futuristic horror belongs in libraries where Lovecraftian horror and splatterpunk are popular. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Genre: Horror
Lovecraft fans skeptical of contemporary Cthulhu Mythos fiction will find much to appreciate in Thomas's intriguing brew of eldritch lore, cyberpunk and noir. As in the stories in the author's acclaimed collection Punktown (2000), humans living in a huge sprawling colony city on a distant planet share the urban landscape with a culturally diverse set of alien races: Punktown makes L.A. look like Mayberry. As a joke, Christopher Ruby helps his girlfriend conduct a ritual from Abdul Alhazred's dreaded tome the Necronomicon, but its apparent failure later proves to have been a tragic success. Christopher discovers that many of the alien races in Punktown have their own versions of Alhazred's mythology, one of which tells of a sleeping god who can take the form of a great temple in order to lure sacrifices inside. He realizes that Punktown is in fact a living, organic being, an avatar of this dark god who feeds on our fear and pain. Thomas wisely leaves the question open as to whether his narrator is sane or a serial killer with a particularly morbid fantasy life. The mythos here serves as a metaphor to explore human suffering, to ask if it's the result of outside manipulation or of our own nature. Thomas expands on Lovecraft's themes in new and exciting ways while retaining his own distinct authorial identity. (July) Forecast: The sex and violence may put off fans of more traditional horror, but not just Lovecraft buffs are going to buy this novel, given the high praise for Punktown from the likes of China Mi ville, Ellen Datlow and Paul Di Filippo. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In the dark, dystopian metropolis of Punktown on the planet Oasis, a young man named Christopher encounters a new kind of darkness as his lover falls prey to a bizarre cult that believes in extraplanar entities called the Elder Gods. Set in the same world as Thomas's short story collection Punktown, this novel of supernatural conspiracies and unholy terror draws heavily on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos while creating something unique and horrific. Graphic violence and explicit sex are integral to the story's underlying themes of forbidden knowledge and its terrible consequences. Elegantly written and vividly imagined, this highly charged tale of futuristic horror belongs in libraries where Lovecraftian horror and splatterpunk are popular. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Genre: Horror
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