Specimen #11

In honor of the release of my collection THIRTEEN SPECIMENS from Delirium Books (see my post of July 4), in oh-so-affordable trade paperback form, I am posting thirteen entries that will each feature an excerpt from one of the thirteen pieces in the book. In addition, each post offers an odd little specimen from my personal life. I’ll leave it to you to decide which, fact or fiction, is more compellingly disturbing. Here’s the next item on our tour…

(1) From the story THE BURNING HOUSE:

Iblis Al-Qadim’s heavy black robes did not fully hide the fact that his body was an unpleasant cross between human skeleton and insect exoskeleton. His face was more human, but a human long dead, his skin a mere black parchment clinging to jutting bone, twin stars gleaming in the deep wells of his skull sockets. Even his teeth were black, in a lipless and humorless grin. He wore a black metal miter, making him all the more towering, intricate patterns of holes in this officious headpiece showing the green flames that blazed from the top of his skull…where it had apparently been sawed open to emit them.

He carried a staff of iron with a strange swirling design at its head, either a sign of office or a weapon’s blade, or both. His shoulders were bulked with a framework under the robes to make his width more commanding, as if taking a cue from football players (maybe if the ball were a human head), and on one of these shoulders perched and squirmed what Michael at first took to be some kind of familiar. It was a black octopus, its head so bloated with, perhaps, the gases it breathed that the stretched skin was almost translucent. It had small, bat-like wings growing out of the sides of its head, above its golden eyes with their horizontal pupils.

(2) A Cornucopia of Reviews:

Here are links to a number of reviews of my work, that I’ve neglected to post previously:

Regarding my short story IMMOLATION in the anthology THE NEW WEIRD, these comments at the quirkily titled Warm Fuzzy Freudian Slippers (hm, I think I’d like to try on a nice pair of warm fuzzy Freudian slippers…or a least one slipper): http://www.warmfuzzyfreudianslippers.com/2008/03/unvarnished-reviews_26.html

“High-minded stuff indeed, and so beautifully written that the intellectual heft of each tale sometimes doesn’t hit until after you’re done reading.” These kind thought and more regarding PUNKTOWN at another site with a great name, Enter the Octopus: http://entertheoctopus.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/im-liking-punktown-by-jeffrey-thomas/#comment-809

My story IN HIS SIGHTS from volume #1 of THE SOLARIS BOOK OF NEW SCIENCE FICTION included on a list of best novelettes from 2007, at the Fantastic Reviews Blog: http://fantasticreviews.blogspot.com/2008/02/aarons-hugo-recommendations-novelette.html

A review of DEADSTOCK at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review (in which it is observed, “Punktown is a truly nasty place to live, especially the poorer area of SubTown where the law is just another dirty word. Anything can happen in Punktown up to and including insect invasions from another dimension, not so fun to be stuck in the middle of but definitely fun to read!”): http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/2008/07/deadstock-jeffrey-thomas-solaris-books.html

A review of BLUE WAR at Sci Fi London (who say, “Jeffrey Thomas’ Punktown novels – particularly Deadstock – are great stuff. The setting is rich and full and consequently the stories are compelling, veering wildly from cyberpunk to horror to detective noir. Blue War however is a different proposition, more thoughtful, more measured. That’s not to say it’s any less bizarre in places; weird creatures like the deadly jellyfish-type Benders, vicious Snipes and carrion trees abound, then there’s the faceless Sinanese clerics who mutilate themselves as a show of faith and best of all, there’s detailed and groovy-sounding sex with the local hermaphrodite, but overall it’s a much more philosophical outing than previous Punktown novels.”): http://www.sci-fi-london.com/news/article/1220024204/4/blue-war

And finally, this review of THIRTEEN SPECIMENS itself at Dark Scribe, where the reviewer seemed a little freaked out at the goings-on in the scary sideshow tent of my mind (since he states: “Right away, the title caught my attention: Thirteen Specimens. A cool title. One that had me anticipating stories of the strange, oddities and freaks perhaps…Well, in reading this book, I got more strangeness than I bargained for…if you like tales of the strange, stories that take left turns to nowhere, and alternate universes where anything is possible, then this book might just be for you.”): http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/thirteen-specimens-jeffrey-thomas.html

Think you’ve got a stronger threshold for the bizarre, the unique, the unconventional? If so, then step right up, punter, and slip into this dusty little tent to see THIRTEEN SPECIMENS. And they’re all ALIVE! : https://www.horror-mall.com/THIRTEEN-SPECIMENS-by-Jeffrey-Thomas-Trade-Paperback-p-18122.html