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Punktown #6
Deadstock
Jeremy Stake, a private detective with unique chameleon-like talents he cannot control, wanders the crime-ridden, dark streets of Punktown on the colony world of Oasis in search of a one-of-a-kind living doll that belongs to the teenage daughter of his wealthy client, Fukuda, unaware that the doll is growing in size, intelligence, and resentment. Original.
414 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 27, 2007
22 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey Thomas
247 books281 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 - 25 of 25 reviews
March 26, 2021
A bizarre mashup of science fiction, Cthulhu mythos, and hardboiled detective noir, Deadstock almost seems like it was written specifically for me. As a fan of all of those genres, to find them all embodied in one novel was an unexpected treat. If Neal Asher and H.P. Lovecraft had collaborated on a novel, it would have likely turned out pretty much like Deadstock. But, for all that I love the genres and concepts that make up the tale, the frequently workman-like approach to the storytelling somewhat detracts from the overall package.
I actually first read this book roughly 10 years ago, stumbling across it in the Barnes & Noble new releases section. We all hear the staying “never judge a book by its cover”, but I have to admit that I judged this one pretty harshly at first. Something about that original cover just didn’t work for me, but thankfully I had time to kill. The blurb on the back cover, and perusing the first few pages, convinced me to pick it up anyways, ugly cover notwithstanding (it has a new cover now for its Kindle debut, one that fits much better with the tone of the story). And I’m glad I did. While not a perfect book, there’s just something eerie and haunting and unique about Deadstock. Maybe it’s the world-building. Maybe it’s the slew of fresh ideas. Maybe it’s the oppressive yet seductive atmosphere. Whatever it is, it works, as I was itching to reread this one for the longest time, and finally made time to do so.
Supposedly, Ugghiutu is one of a whole race of god-like beings called the Outsiders, who once ruled the universe but got shut out of our dimension and put into a sort of suspended animation.
As with all my reviews, I will attempt to keep this spoiler free, especially given some of the twists that take place. If I had your attention at buzzwords like “detective” and “Cthulhu” and such, then this book is likely your cup of tea, and you should go into it with as few preconceptions as possible. If those buzzwords don’t rumble your rocket, then this review, and by extension this book, probably isn’t for you. But, in keeping with my spoiler-free review motif, if it’s not mentioned in the official book synopsis, I’ll do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.
I will admit that I still haven’t read any of the other books set in the Punktown universe. This is something I hope to correct in the near future, especially the ones featuring the protagonist from Deadstock, Private Detective Jeremy Stake. I absolutely love the concept of a crime-ridden colony city on some distant world, kind of like a perverse and twisted version of the human outpost from the movie Avatar. Throw in a bunch of alien life forms, some crazy tech, a slight film of sleaze and graft, and morally conflicted characters, and I’m in literary heaven. It sounds like the other stories set in this same universe, both books and short-stories, examine more of these concepts, so I’m definitely on board.
Speaking of characters, we do get quite a few in Deadstock. While Jeremy Stake is the primary “main” character, we do get a few other character viewpoints as well. From the living doll Dai-oo-ika, to the street gang leader Javier, the story is pretty rounded out from the various viewpoints. Sadly, there are also a few literary missteps as well, including random and jarring head hops between multiple characters in some chapters. Sometimes the transition is brief, and sometimes the chapter just switches gears entirely. Thankfully, the whole book isn’t like that, but it still happens enough to become distracting.
”My spirit guide told me I’ll die before I’m twenty, so your next ghost friend could be me!” She giggled.
Jeremy Stake turns out to be a pretty engaging lead character, a former soldier turned private detective, still haunted by the ghosts of his prior life. I am always a sucker for characters with a little emotional baggage, and as a veteran, Jeremy has plenty. But he also has a good heart buried within, though he might shrug it off and call it a solid work ethic. He also has a mutation that allows him a bit of a chameleon-like ability, which comes in quite handy in his line of work. I really enjoyed that while he does have a strong sense of morality, he’s not the kind to shy away from the rough-and-tumble if the situation calls for it. He’s also pretty damn resourceful, as I imagine a private detective has to be in order to be successful. He does spend more time than is healthy dwelling on the past, but little does he know that his past just might catch up with him in a big way. Ultimately, even with his abilities and his violent past, he comes across as mostly just another everyman, trying to get by as best he can in a world that seems to get crazier by the moment. In that regard, despite the sci-fi setting, he’s just like any average Joe in this day and age, which makes him the perfect filter for our view into Punktown.
The live souls who hunched over the tables and bar, wearing baseball caps and windbreakers thick with military pins and patches, were embalming themselves with alchohol; ghosts in the making.
The other character who gets a decent amount of page time is Javier Dias, leader of the Folger Street Snarlers street gang. An aging gang member (25 is considered old in the street gangs), Javier is starting to get the itch that maybe he needs to start thinking of a life beyond the streets. But he has that strong sense of loyalty to his crew, and when one of them goes missing, he brings the whole gang in to try to get to the bottom of it. I liked that Javier was never portrayed as a mindless thug or an unfeeling machine. Yes, he’s part of a gang, and it’s definitely not the healthiest of lifestyles, but he still has some sense of right and wrong. He even has some of his preconceived notions and prejudices change during the course of the story. This helped make him out to be more than just a punk with an attitude.
Outside of that, we get quite a few brief moments with other ancillary characters, though they are generally relegated to a few paragraphs or sentences. The only real exception to that rule is Dai-oo-ika, the toy that is becoming something much more. There are a few chapters from its viewpoint, but they come and go pretty quickly. But, even as short as they are, they do impart a good sense of the confusion that Dai-oo-ika feels about its own existence.
Yes, thought Stake. Because we’re all alone. Even when we’re together.
On the antagonist side, we get a handful, some human and some not. Both are relatively effective, with believable motivations and actual weight behind their threats. To give away any more would border on spoilers, so I’ll just keep it vague.
As for the world-building itself, Jeffrey Thomas has a natural talent. The city of Punktown is teeming with fresh ideas and unique concepts, and feels dingy and dirty and lived in, much like how the original Star Wars trilogy managed to make each location feel real. This isn’t some glossy post-modernist’s idea of the future. This is blue-collar living, with machines that barely function, danger and illicit excitement around each corner, and the weariness of a hard day’s work. It’s grim and it’s gritty, and while I hesitate to put it in the same category as grimdark tales, it’s awfully close. I mentioned Neal Asher earlier and that comparison fits pretty well. If you like any of Asher’s Polity books, you’ll likely enjoy Deadstock. Both authors manage to come up with some awfully cool ideas to throw into their books, while making the future seem dingy instead of glitzy. And Deadstock absolutely has no shortage of these cool ideas and concepts. From Ouija phones that let the living converse with the dead (which is a great concept, and I hope it gets revisited in the other books), to genetic mutation and mental psionics, to living skin clothing, Jeffrey Thomas’ vivid imagination is brought to harrowing life on the streets of Punktown. There’s even a few unexpected twists to give our gumshoe a run for his money.
She held up her hands to ward off potential anger. “Never mind. I’m being too personal, maybe. Things always deteriorate when men and women stop fucking and start talking instead.” She sighed. “I’m not good with long-term relationships.”
That’s not to say it’s all kitten sneezes and unicorn farts. The writing can be a little stilted and clinical at times, and there are moments of derivation. The “outsiders” are straight out of the Cthulhu baddie catalogue, and the blue skinned Ha Jiin who are essentially a stand-in for the Vietnamese people, with the Blue War being not unlike the Vietnam War. A couple of the character names are groan inducing, not the least being Krimson Tableau. So yeah, not every idea is steeped in originality. But there are plenty that are, and even stuff we’ve read before is handled in such a way that it feels somewhat new. And it’s also refreshing to read a sci-fi tale that isn’t afraid to delve into the darker parts of humanity…and other creatures. There’s plenty of sex, violence, booze, and profanity to go around. Keeps us grizzled old book veterans, who are difficult to shock, happy and content.
They no doubt found the ritual of exercise rewarding in some very primal way; maybe it put them more in touch with themselves. Was it a source of pride, a narcissistic achievement, a self-intimacy like masturbation? Personally, Fukuda’s pedaling looked quite boring to Stake, mindless, like a hamster racing in a wheel.
I find it also amusing that Jeffrey Thomas references some of his own books, albeit briefly, in this one. Namely Monstrocity and Everybody Scream!, which are now on my TBR, get a callout as related texts when Jeremy Stake is doing some research.
If you like your sci-fi black (just like my metal!) then you’d likely enjoy Deadstock. I’m definitely glad I gave it another read, and will definitely be picking up a few of Jeffrey Thomas’ other Punktown books. Read it!
I actually first read this book roughly 10 years ago, stumbling across it in the Barnes & Noble new releases section. We all hear the staying “never judge a book by its cover”, but I have to admit that I judged this one pretty harshly at first. Something about that original cover just didn’t work for me, but thankfully I had time to kill. The blurb on the back cover, and perusing the first few pages, convinced me to pick it up anyways, ugly cover notwithstanding (it has a new cover now for its Kindle debut, one that fits much better with the tone of the story). And I’m glad I did. While not a perfect book, there’s just something eerie and haunting and unique about Deadstock. Maybe it’s the world-building. Maybe it’s the slew of fresh ideas. Maybe it’s the oppressive yet seductive atmosphere. Whatever it is, it works, as I was itching to reread this one for the longest time, and finally made time to do so.
Supposedly, Ugghiutu is one of a whole race of god-like beings called the Outsiders, who once ruled the universe but got shut out of our dimension and put into a sort of suspended animation.
As with all my reviews, I will attempt to keep this spoiler free, especially given some of the twists that take place. If I had your attention at buzzwords like “detective” and “Cthulhu” and such, then this book is likely your cup of tea, and you should go into it with as few preconceptions as possible. If those buzzwords don’t rumble your rocket, then this review, and by extension this book, probably isn’t for you. But, in keeping with my spoiler-free review motif, if it’s not mentioned in the official book synopsis, I’ll do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.
I will admit that I still haven’t read any of the other books set in the Punktown universe. This is something I hope to correct in the near future, especially the ones featuring the protagonist from Deadstock, Private Detective Jeremy Stake. I absolutely love the concept of a crime-ridden colony city on some distant world, kind of like a perverse and twisted version of the human outpost from the movie Avatar. Throw in a bunch of alien life forms, some crazy tech, a slight film of sleaze and graft, and morally conflicted characters, and I’m in literary heaven. It sounds like the other stories set in this same universe, both books and short-stories, examine more of these concepts, so I’m definitely on board.
Speaking of characters, we do get quite a few in Deadstock. While Jeremy Stake is the primary “main” character, we do get a few other character viewpoints as well. From the living doll Dai-oo-ika, to the street gang leader Javier, the story is pretty rounded out from the various viewpoints. Sadly, there are also a few literary missteps as well, including random and jarring head hops between multiple characters in some chapters. Sometimes the transition is brief, and sometimes the chapter just switches gears entirely. Thankfully, the whole book isn’t like that, but it still happens enough to become distracting.
”My spirit guide told me I’ll die before I’m twenty, so your next ghost friend could be me!” She giggled.
Jeremy Stake turns out to be a pretty engaging lead character, a former soldier turned private detective, still haunted by the ghosts of his prior life. I am always a sucker for characters with a little emotional baggage, and as a veteran, Jeremy has plenty. But he also has a good heart buried within, though he might shrug it off and call it a solid work ethic. He also has a mutation that allows him a bit of a chameleon-like ability, which comes in quite handy in his line of work. I really enjoyed that while he does have a strong sense of morality, he’s not the kind to shy away from the rough-and-tumble if the situation calls for it. He’s also pretty damn resourceful, as I imagine a private detective has to be in order to be successful. He does spend more time than is healthy dwelling on the past, but little does he know that his past just might catch up with him in a big way. Ultimately, even with his abilities and his violent past, he comes across as mostly just another everyman, trying to get by as best he can in a world that seems to get crazier by the moment. In that regard, despite the sci-fi setting, he’s just like any average Joe in this day and age, which makes him the perfect filter for our view into Punktown.
The live souls who hunched over the tables and bar, wearing baseball caps and windbreakers thick with military pins and patches, were embalming themselves with alchohol; ghosts in the making.
The other character who gets a decent amount of page time is Javier Dias, leader of the Folger Street Snarlers street gang. An aging gang member (25 is considered old in the street gangs), Javier is starting to get the itch that maybe he needs to start thinking of a life beyond the streets. But he has that strong sense of loyalty to his crew, and when one of them goes missing, he brings the whole gang in to try to get to the bottom of it. I liked that Javier was never portrayed as a mindless thug or an unfeeling machine. Yes, he’s part of a gang, and it’s definitely not the healthiest of lifestyles, but he still has some sense of right and wrong. He even has some of his preconceived notions and prejudices change during the course of the story. This helped make him out to be more than just a punk with an attitude.
Outside of that, we get quite a few brief moments with other ancillary characters, though they are generally relegated to a few paragraphs or sentences. The only real exception to that rule is Dai-oo-ika, the toy that is becoming something much more. There are a few chapters from its viewpoint, but they come and go pretty quickly. But, even as short as they are, they do impart a good sense of the confusion that Dai-oo-ika feels about its own existence.
Yes, thought Stake. Because we’re all alone. Even when we’re together.
On the antagonist side, we get a handful, some human and some not. Both are relatively effective, with believable motivations and actual weight behind their threats. To give away any more would border on spoilers, so I’ll just keep it vague.
As for the world-building itself, Jeffrey Thomas has a natural talent. The city of Punktown is teeming with fresh ideas and unique concepts, and feels dingy and dirty and lived in, much like how the original Star Wars trilogy managed to make each location feel real. This isn’t some glossy post-modernist’s idea of the future. This is blue-collar living, with machines that barely function, danger and illicit excitement around each corner, and the weariness of a hard day’s work. It’s grim and it’s gritty, and while I hesitate to put it in the same category as grimdark tales, it’s awfully close. I mentioned Neal Asher earlier and that comparison fits pretty well. If you like any of Asher’s Polity books, you’ll likely enjoy Deadstock. Both authors manage to come up with some awfully cool ideas to throw into their books, while making the future seem dingy instead of glitzy. And Deadstock absolutely has no shortage of these cool ideas and concepts. From Ouija phones that let the living converse with the dead (which is a great concept, and I hope it gets revisited in the other books), to genetic mutation and mental psionics, to living skin clothing, Jeffrey Thomas’ vivid imagination is brought to harrowing life on the streets of Punktown. There’s even a few unexpected twists to give our gumshoe a run for his money.
She held up her hands to ward off potential anger. “Never mind. I’m being too personal, maybe. Things always deteriorate when men and women stop fucking and start talking instead.” She sighed. “I’m not good with long-term relationships.”
That’s not to say it’s all kitten sneezes and unicorn farts. The writing can be a little stilted and clinical at times, and there are moments of derivation. The “outsiders” are straight out of the Cthulhu baddie catalogue, and the blue skinned Ha Jiin who are essentially a stand-in for the Vietnamese people, with the Blue War being not unlike the Vietnam War. A couple of the character names are groan inducing, not the least being Krimson Tableau. So yeah, not every idea is steeped in originality. But there are plenty that are, and even stuff we’ve read before is handled in such a way that it feels somewhat new. And it’s also refreshing to read a sci-fi tale that isn’t afraid to delve into the darker parts of humanity…and other creatures. There’s plenty of sex, violence, booze, and profanity to go around. Keeps us grizzled old book veterans, who are difficult to shock, happy and content.
They no doubt found the ritual of exercise rewarding in some very primal way; maybe it put them more in touch with themselves. Was it a source of pride, a narcissistic achievement, a self-intimacy like masturbation? Personally, Fukuda’s pedaling looked quite boring to Stake, mindless, like a hamster racing in a wheel.
I find it also amusing that Jeffrey Thomas references some of his own books, albeit briefly, in this one. Namely Monstrocity and Everybody Scream!, which are now on my TBR, get a callout as related texts when Jeremy Stake is doing some research.
If you like your sci-fi black (just like my metal!) then you’d likely enjoy Deadstock. I’m definitely glad I gave it another read, and will definitely be picking up a few of Jeffrey Thomas’ other Punktown books. Read it!
June 16, 2008
Jeffrey Thomas is another smaller press writer that I highly recommend. His particular brand of fiction is in the area of science, mystery, horror and mythos. Deadstock is his first Punktown novel featuring his character Jeremy Stake, a private investigator with very unique abilities. And I am happy to say that it looks like we will be seeing alot more of Jeremy Stake in the future. This book was published by Solaris Books, a relatively new publisher of sci fi and fantasy that is aggressively putting itself on the map with the quality fiction it is getting it's hands on and publishing.
Did I also mention that "Deadstock" has just been nominated as a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award? I cannot recommend this book, or any other of Thomas's work enough.
Did I also mention that "Deadstock" has just been nominated as a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award? I cannot recommend this book, or any other of Thomas's work enough.
May 6, 2010
Jeffrey Thomas’ Punktown is one of my favorite worlds to visit. It’s a place that’s so far-flung into the future and yet it reflects a lot about modern society and culture. Punktown is a mirror for ourselves, showing us that the more things change, the more they stay the same. War, poverty, corruption, love, business, family, and struggle all exist in Punktown the same way they exist right here and right now. In Deadstock, Thomas tells two stories. One is a hard-boiled detective mystery featuring Jeremy Stake, a soldier-turned-sleuth who has a mutation that makes his face mimic any other face he looks at. The other half shows two street gangs trapped together in a seemingly abandoned building, trying to survive against a futuristic security system gone amok.
While mysteries are unfolding, Jeffrey Thomas makes sure that we see all of his characters from all sides. They’re not just good or bad people. Everyone is after something and has their personal demons to deal with. Thomas is usually good about showing us both sides of every story. While his setting is the weird and hyper-futuristic Punktown, his characters stay true to basic human nature. While some of these people may be clones, mutants, aliens, or even a demon-god going through an apocalyptic metamorphosis, these are people with regular thoughts, feelings, and motivations. I feel like I didn’t get to see enough of Punktown or its unique culture, but that’s because Thomas puts a lot of time towards fleshing out these characters.
Similar to “Everybody Scream!”, Deadstock has a large cast, and not everyone makes it out alive. But while “Everybody Scream” was more cohesive, held together by the strange carnival setting, Deadstock feels less focused. I feel like the two main plots were really great ideas for short novels that were put together to form a full-length novel. They strike different tones. As soon as I started grooving on the hard-boiled detective stuff, the chapter ends and I’m thrown into the survival-horror genre. And vice versa. Plus, those two plots eventually converge. As the demon-god called Dai-oo-ika constantly evolves throughout the story, Stake’s missing toy case and the survival of a dozen gangsters suddenly lose weight.
“Everybody Scream!” remains my favorite Jeffrey Thomas book, along with several of his short stories, but Deadstock is still a really good read. Punktown is always a fascinating place, and Deadstock treads new territory as hard sci fi with a soul.
While mysteries are unfolding, Jeffrey Thomas makes sure that we see all of his characters from all sides. They’re not just good or bad people. Everyone is after something and has their personal demons to deal with. Thomas is usually good about showing us both sides of every story. While his setting is the weird and hyper-futuristic Punktown, his characters stay true to basic human nature. While some of these people may be clones, mutants, aliens, or even a demon-god going through an apocalyptic metamorphosis, these are people with regular thoughts, feelings, and motivations. I feel like I didn’t get to see enough of Punktown or its unique culture, but that’s because Thomas puts a lot of time towards fleshing out these characters.
Similar to “Everybody Scream!”, Deadstock has a large cast, and not everyone makes it out alive. But while “Everybody Scream” was more cohesive, held together by the strange carnival setting, Deadstock feels less focused. I feel like the two main plots were really great ideas for short novels that were put together to form a full-length novel. They strike different tones. As soon as I started grooving on the hard-boiled detective stuff, the chapter ends and I’m thrown into the survival-horror genre. And vice versa. Plus, those two plots eventually converge. As the demon-god called Dai-oo-ika constantly evolves throughout the story, Stake’s missing toy case and the survival of a dozen gangsters suddenly lose weight.
“Everybody Scream!” remains my favorite Jeffrey Thomas book, along with several of his short stories, but Deadstock is still a really good read. Punktown is always a fascinating place, and Deadstock treads new territory as hard sci fi with a soul.
February 17, 2012
Great introduction to the world of Punktown, a nightmarish yet beautiful city populated by humans, aliens, mutants, robots, clones, and extra dimensional beings on the colony planet Oasis. Ex-soldier turned private eye, Jeremy Stake, investigates the disappearance of a young girl's bioengineered doll and learns a terrible secret about her father's corporation that could spell the destruction of the city. Cool mix of futuristic SF, dark urban fantasy, and hard boiled detective fiction.
October 28, 2019
Deadstock combines many genres to form an intricate story that features a hard-boiled detective in a cyberpunk landscape working on a case that would fit into Lovecraft's mythos. I loved every second, it's a wonderfully weird story that excited the imagination and spirited me away to Punktown on another exciting yet unsettling adventure. Jeffrey Thomas has fast become one of my favourite writers and I would wholeheartedly recommend everyone to check out his work!
November 22, 2011
Punktown on the planet Oasis is a sprawling metropolis home to a wide variety of alien races. DEADSTOCK has two narratives that converge on the mean streets of Punktown. The first features Jeremy Stakes, a haunted Blue War veteran and mutant private detective with uncontrollable chameleon-like abilities. A wealthy client hires him to find his daughter's stolen one-of-a-kind living doll. The other features Javier Dias, an over-the-hill gang leader with no hope in the future. In their search for a missing member the gang finds themselves trapped by belfs (bio-engineered life forms) and must work with a mutant gang to escape. Meanwhile the living doll is growing in size, intelligence and power. Jeffrey Thomas gives the reader an extremely creative story with a nice blend of sci-fi mystery and lovecraftian horrors. DEADSTOCK is a launch title for the new Solaris imprint and hopefully the first of many quality works from Thomas.
September 3, 2010
I wanted to love this book so much. It seemed like the absolute perfect book for me. Unfortunately, I enjoyed it but it turned out to not be anything really special imo.
I liked the setting of Punktown but did not believe the plot aspects were all that original. I did like the 'ouija phone' idea. I will read more by Thomas and, in fact, already have Blue War: A Punktown novel but this author didn't turn out to be the amazing discovery I had hoped he would be.
I liked the setting of Punktown but did not believe the plot aspects were all that original. I did like the 'ouija phone' idea. I will read more by Thomas and, in fact, already have Blue War: A Punktown novel but this author didn't turn out to be the amazing discovery I had hoped he would be.
January 8, 2011
Deadstock does a good job of portraying a unique future world. The story keeps you involved. There's an interesting mix of action and mystery. In one plot thread, there's action with a street gang fighting bio-engineered creatures they encounter while looking for a missing gang member. In the other plot thread it's more of a mystery. (It wouldn't be the most effective mystery by itself, but in combination it works well enough.)
This isn't for "serious reading", but should be good for "entertaining reading".
This isn't for "serious reading", but should be good for "entertaining reading".
June 11, 2007
Love the Punktown!
September 13, 2011
Was this story prophetic? After I read it, the scientific community announced the experiments to grow MEAT in the lab! It was a genuine treat to read this story.
June 16, 2013
Deadstock is the latest offering in Jeffrey Thomas' Punktown saga. Mr. Thomas is pretty well known to most fans of horror and outré fiction for his stories set in the city Paxton on the planet Oasis, and for his interest in HPL's mythos. He is on the verge of making it to the big time. Previously his work has been released as short stories in genre magazines, then compiled in anthologies or single author collections, or as novels published by various small presses. As I understand it, Deadstock was a direct release to mass Markey paperback, a first for Mr. Thomas, and a signal that his backers think he can generate a significant audience.
Deadstock is published by Solaris, an imprint of BL Publishing in the UK. The evocative cover art is by Darius Hinks and, I think, superbly captures the futuristic feel of Punktown and the mutability of the main character in the novel. Page count is 414, although the text itself starts on page 9. All in all, good value for the money.
I think it is difficult for a novice reader to come into this story and fully appreciate it. Although Mr. Thomas tries to place everything into context, you need an appreciation of much of his previous output. First of all, you need to be familiar with Punktown itself, from the various short story collections (Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Gray and Punktown: Third Eye) to really have a sense of how gritty, crime ridden and tense the setting is. It would also be helpful to have already met the various human and humanoid races who inhabit this world, like the wide-mouthed Choom native to Oasis, the blue turbaned, gray skinned Kalians, the tentacle eyed Tikkihotto, etc. The reader also needs to be conversant with the fiction of Lovecraft. Mr. Thomas is a noted mythos author. Most of his stories are in the collection Unholy Dimensions from Mythos Books, which I highly recommend. More recently the author has attempted to blend his love of the mythos with Punktown. It's nothing new for him; you can read his series of short stories about the Old Ones in Unholy Dimensions. This new books is a direct descendent of Monstrocity published in hardcover by Prime Books in 2003, although it is not per se a sequel. There is no overlap of characters but the events and locations of Monstrocity are fresh in Punktown's recent past. The Great Old Ones of Lovecraft and Derleth are not solely or primarily concerned with Earth and humans, and are not constrained by time and spatial dimensions like we are. They can manifest to nonhuman races. If they lost a war with the Elder Gods (Nodens et al) and they are trying to regain primacy in this dimension, then they will manipulate whoever they must to open the interdimensional gates that will allow this to happen. So it should be unsurprising that the races that share Oasis have some myths, legends and horrific truths in common. Cthulhu and its ilk are the Outer Gods to the Kalians. In the future, no one raises cattle or chickens any more; they grow "living" lumps of chicken or beef flesh. Well, in Monstrocity, one of the growers of these foodstuffs is using the technology to raise monstrous creatures, spawn of the Outer Gods, to allow them to penetrate our sphere. Monstrocity deals with the discovery and confrontation of the cult doing these unspeakable things. That finally brings us back to Deadstock, set some time in the aftermath of Monstrocity.
************* Spoilers may follow, stop reading now if that bothers you.**********
Deadstock presents two stories that intertwine but never really mesh. Jeremy Stake, a veteran of the transdimensional Blue War, is a private eye. He is also a mutant whose features will mimic those of the person he is looking at, giving him characteristics a bit like a chameleon. He is hired by John Fukuda, a wealthy magnate of the artificial livestock industry (or deadstock, giving the novel its title) to retrieve a rare doll that was lost by or stolen from his daughter Yuki. These kawaii-dolls are all the range with Punktown teen girls. They are essentially artificial life forms. Yuki's doll, Dai-oo-ika, was the rarest, completely unique, and now it's gone missing. It turns out hers was vaguely anthropoid, with wings and claws, and feelers instead of a face. Sound familiar? Anyone who has read enough mythos fiction can catch a glimmering of where this is going. It also eventually comes out that it was fabricated with the same technology used for such ill purposes in Monstrocity. As Stake slowly unravels the whereabouts of Dai-oo-ika, he also begins to unravel some inconsistencies in the lives of Fukuda and his daughter. We learn more about his experiences in the Blue War, where he had experiences that would not be out of place in a novel about Vietnam and fell for a blue skinned sniper who could easily have been modeled after the enemy trigger woman in Full Metal Jacket. In parallel with this, an outcast Punktown mutant gang and a gang of tough street youths are trapped in an unoccupied building that was designed by Fukuda's brother. This apartment was to have nonhuman robotic servants for each apartment directed by an encephalon, an artificial brain, and they have now run seriously amuck. These disparate gangs are trapped together and try with increasing desperation to escape the merciless onslaught of these automatons. As Slake, Yuki and Fukuda are ultimately drawn to this building where the gangs are trapped, the two groups never meet or directly interact, even after the story reaches its climactic moment. What ties them together are how they are affected by the slow transformation of Dai-oo-ika, who is making its way to this apartment building also.
I never wrote a review of Monstrocity because I was not blown away by it. Unfortunately I am left with a similar impression of Deadstock. I really really like Jeffrey Thomas' short fiction, and my review of Unholy Dimensions shows how much I like his mythos stories. Unfortunately this novel fell a bit flat for me. None of the characters were really developed well; some of them came across as clichés. For example, I could have done without the whole interlude-in-flashback to the Blue War which read like a Vietnam knock off. I never got a good feel for why Stake fell so hard for an enemy combatant and I really disliked the deus ex machine denouement of his relationship with her. After all the build up the plot seemed to fizzle out a bit, and I can't understand why the two plot threads were not more closely tied together to give the novel a greater sense of cohesion. I also was very put off by a shameless self plug in the middle of the book. Stake is trying to research the cult of the Outer Gods and on the web comes across two reference books. Oh, not the Necronomicon or Mysteries of the Worm, but rather Monstrocity and Everybody Scream. And the name of the bookstore where they were for sale was Shocklines. Of course, it is old hat for mythos authors to use the names of their friends and colleagues in a mythos story, but always as an inside joke for devoted fans. Maybe this was meant to be humorous? Sure didn't work for me!
So much for the bad. What was good? Well, Mr. Thomas has an accomplished hand at descriptive prose. The whole book was very readable and filled with interesting little asides and vignettes. He can also pencil a mean action sequence. The battle scenes were very exciting. He has the mythos in his blood; his descriptions of the development of Dai-oo-iki were nicely creepy and rang very true for the genre. Even though I didn't care for some broad brushstrokes of the plot, I liked the parts greater than the whole. In fact this book is a page turner that I read through in a couple of days. I never set it aside like I have been doing with Black Sutra. And, dang it, I just plain like everything about Punktown. I'm glad to have this book but I doubt I'll be rereading it soon. Maybe the mythos and Punktown work better for me in short stories than novels. I dunno. Your move.
Deadstock is published by Solaris, an imprint of BL Publishing in the UK. The evocative cover art is by Darius Hinks and, I think, superbly captures the futuristic feel of Punktown and the mutability of the main character in the novel. Page count is 414, although the text itself starts on page 9. All in all, good value for the money.
I think it is difficult for a novice reader to come into this story and fully appreciate it. Although Mr. Thomas tries to place everything into context, you need an appreciation of much of his previous output. First of all, you need to be familiar with Punktown itself, from the various short story collections (Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Gray and Punktown: Third Eye) to really have a sense of how gritty, crime ridden and tense the setting is. It would also be helpful to have already met the various human and humanoid races who inhabit this world, like the wide-mouthed Choom native to Oasis, the blue turbaned, gray skinned Kalians, the tentacle eyed Tikkihotto, etc. The reader also needs to be conversant with the fiction of Lovecraft. Mr. Thomas is a noted mythos author. Most of his stories are in the collection Unholy Dimensions from Mythos Books, which I highly recommend. More recently the author has attempted to blend his love of the mythos with Punktown. It's nothing new for him; you can read his series of short stories about the Old Ones in Unholy Dimensions. This new books is a direct descendent of Monstrocity published in hardcover by Prime Books in 2003, although it is not per se a sequel. There is no overlap of characters but the events and locations of Monstrocity are fresh in Punktown's recent past. The Great Old Ones of Lovecraft and Derleth are not solely or primarily concerned with Earth and humans, and are not constrained by time and spatial dimensions like we are. They can manifest to nonhuman races. If they lost a war with the Elder Gods (Nodens et al) and they are trying to regain primacy in this dimension, then they will manipulate whoever they must to open the interdimensional gates that will allow this to happen. So it should be unsurprising that the races that share Oasis have some myths, legends and horrific truths in common. Cthulhu and its ilk are the Outer Gods to the Kalians. In the future, no one raises cattle or chickens any more; they grow "living" lumps of chicken or beef flesh. Well, in Monstrocity, one of the growers of these foodstuffs is using the technology to raise monstrous creatures, spawn of the Outer Gods, to allow them to penetrate our sphere. Monstrocity deals with the discovery and confrontation of the cult doing these unspeakable things. That finally brings us back to Deadstock, set some time in the aftermath of Monstrocity.
************* Spoilers may follow, stop reading now if that bothers you.**********
Deadstock presents two stories that intertwine but never really mesh. Jeremy Stake, a veteran of the transdimensional Blue War, is a private eye. He is also a mutant whose features will mimic those of the person he is looking at, giving him characteristics a bit like a chameleon. He is hired by John Fukuda, a wealthy magnate of the artificial livestock industry (or deadstock, giving the novel its title) to retrieve a rare doll that was lost by or stolen from his daughter Yuki. These kawaii-dolls are all the range with Punktown teen girls. They are essentially artificial life forms. Yuki's doll, Dai-oo-ika, was the rarest, completely unique, and now it's gone missing. It turns out hers was vaguely anthropoid, with wings and claws, and feelers instead of a face. Sound familiar? Anyone who has read enough mythos fiction can catch a glimmering of where this is going. It also eventually comes out that it was fabricated with the same technology used for such ill purposes in Monstrocity. As Stake slowly unravels the whereabouts of Dai-oo-ika, he also begins to unravel some inconsistencies in the lives of Fukuda and his daughter. We learn more about his experiences in the Blue War, where he had experiences that would not be out of place in a novel about Vietnam and fell for a blue skinned sniper who could easily have been modeled after the enemy trigger woman in Full Metal Jacket. In parallel with this, an outcast Punktown mutant gang and a gang of tough street youths are trapped in an unoccupied building that was designed by Fukuda's brother. This apartment was to have nonhuman robotic servants for each apartment directed by an encephalon, an artificial brain, and they have now run seriously amuck. These disparate gangs are trapped together and try with increasing desperation to escape the merciless onslaught of these automatons. As Slake, Yuki and Fukuda are ultimately drawn to this building where the gangs are trapped, the two groups never meet or directly interact, even after the story reaches its climactic moment. What ties them together are how they are affected by the slow transformation of Dai-oo-ika, who is making its way to this apartment building also.
I never wrote a review of Monstrocity because I was not blown away by it. Unfortunately I am left with a similar impression of Deadstock. I really really like Jeffrey Thomas' short fiction, and my review of Unholy Dimensions shows how much I like his mythos stories. Unfortunately this novel fell a bit flat for me. None of the characters were really developed well; some of them came across as clichés. For example, I could have done without the whole interlude-in-flashback to the Blue War which read like a Vietnam knock off. I never got a good feel for why Stake fell so hard for an enemy combatant and I really disliked the deus ex machine denouement of his relationship with her. After all the build up the plot seemed to fizzle out a bit, and I can't understand why the two plot threads were not more closely tied together to give the novel a greater sense of cohesion. I also was very put off by a shameless self plug in the middle of the book. Stake is trying to research the cult of the Outer Gods and on the web comes across two reference books. Oh, not the Necronomicon or Mysteries of the Worm, but rather Monstrocity and Everybody Scream. And the name of the bookstore where they were for sale was Shocklines. Of course, it is old hat for mythos authors to use the names of their friends and colleagues in a mythos story, but always as an inside joke for devoted fans. Maybe this was meant to be humorous? Sure didn't work for me!
So much for the bad. What was good? Well, Mr. Thomas has an accomplished hand at descriptive prose. The whole book was very readable and filled with interesting little asides and vignettes. He can also pencil a mean action sequence. The battle scenes were very exciting. He has the mythos in his blood; his descriptions of the development of Dai-oo-iki were nicely creepy and rang very true for the genre. Even though I didn't care for some broad brushstrokes of the plot, I liked the parts greater than the whole. In fact this book is a page turner that I read through in a couple of days. I never set it aside like I have been doing with Black Sutra. And, dang it, I just plain like everything about Punktown. I'm glad to have this book but I doubt I'll be rereading it soon. Maybe the mythos and Punktown work better for me in short stories than novels. I dunno. Your move.
November 24, 2017
Jeffery Thomas was the second New Weird author I read after I had my China Mieville fix and remains one of my favourite authors to boot. Deadstock is not the first in the Punktown series but it is the first I read of his work and also remains one of my favourite novels from him to date.
The plot is standard but the way in which Thomas seeds the world with a variety of strange and interesting concepts makes it unique. It goes from being a missing doll case, to something much darker and stranger with everything coming to a pretty brutal ending.
The characters are all particularly well done. A lesser author would have seeded the world with strangeness to cover up flat characters (Im looking at you Simon R Green), but here Thomas gives all characters a voice, even if that voice is only a few pages long.
One thing I will definitely thank Thomas for is his handling of sex and violence. Its something I dont understand about a lot of writers. They're all fine with blood, gore and brutality but when it comes to sex, they get all squeamish. Seriously people, get over yourselves. But Thomas demonstrates that he can handle such subject matter in a mature and meaningful way.
If there is one thing that knocks it down a notch its the subplot with the Punktown gang. They're not badly written but they don't feel like teens and the story doesn't really add much to the story other than feeling like padding.
But Deadstock is definitely up there in terms of good New Weird Fiction. I just wish that more writers were willing to dabble in this field. I'd love any recommendations people could give me.
The plot is standard but the way in which Thomas seeds the world with a variety of strange and interesting concepts makes it unique. It goes from being a missing doll case, to something much darker and stranger with everything coming to a pretty brutal ending.
The characters are all particularly well done. A lesser author would have seeded the world with strangeness to cover up flat characters (Im looking at you Simon R Green), but here Thomas gives all characters a voice, even if that voice is only a few pages long.
One thing I will definitely thank Thomas for is his handling of sex and violence. Its something I dont understand about a lot of writers. They're all fine with blood, gore and brutality but when it comes to sex, they get all squeamish. Seriously people, get over yourselves. But Thomas demonstrates that he can handle such subject matter in a mature and meaningful way.
If there is one thing that knocks it down a notch its the subplot with the Punktown gang. They're not badly written but they don't feel like teens and the story doesn't really add much to the story other than feeling like padding.
But Deadstock is definitely up there in terms of good New Weird Fiction. I just wish that more writers were willing to dabble in this field. I'd love any recommendations people could give me.
March 29, 2018
Yeah, no. Right off the bat, our 'hero' has a creepy, sexualized relationship with a young teenage girl whose doll he is supposed to be finding. One of her teenage friends casually sucks a teddy bear-thing doll's penis (apparently it contains juice) while he watches, and he ogles them all ceaselessly.
Other female characters in the book, in as much as they exist, are fridged and/or portrayed very negatively.
Even aside from that, the book is badly written, with infodumps and clumsy sentences that are sometimes hard to parse. And it just comes off as trying to hard in its attempts to be gloomy and weird.
It has glowing cover-blurbs from Jeff VanderMeer and China Meiville, both of whom are great authors and masters of New Weird fantasy, but I'm baffled by that. This book doesn't come anywhere close to their works in terms of quality. It doesn't get near as weird and dark (apart from the gross pedophiliac dark) either, and yet comes off as grosser.
I liked the chameleon powers premise, but it's not worth it.
Other female characters in the book, in as much as they exist, are fridged and/or portrayed very negatively.
Even aside from that, the book is badly written, with infodumps and clumsy sentences that are sometimes hard to parse. And it just comes off as trying to hard in its attempts to be gloomy and weird.
It has glowing cover-blurbs from Jeff VanderMeer and China Meiville, both of whom are great authors and masters of New Weird fantasy, but I'm baffled by that. This book doesn't come anywhere close to their works in terms of quality. It doesn't get near as weird and dark (apart from the gross pedophiliac dark) either, and yet comes off as grosser.
I liked the chameleon powers premise, but it's not worth it.
January 8, 2022
Wildly original. Not gripping but incredibly interesting and inventive. World building on another level. The Stake character is worth reading more about.
February 20, 2024
Entertaining sci-fi page-turner in a great setting
September 1, 2015
I read a short story by this author in some sci-fi anthology and liked it enough to seek out this book (set in the same universe.)
Book begins well enough (almost like a horror story), but deteriorates rapidly between the second and third act--due in some part to too many characters and perspectives; if you're reading this in several sittings like I did, it can hard to remember who's who/what (esp. with those alien characters with weird names.)
Most damning however, is the fact that the protagonist doesn't have much of a personality (kind of funny in a sense, since he's supposed to have a chameleon-like power and is struggling with issues of identity in the novel...but this can't be a legitimate excuse, from a writer's perspective.)
I think Jeffrey Thomas is a very creative writer, but I'm a bit disappointed with this novel. That said, I'm still willing to try his other books/short stories, if I can find them.
Book begins well enough (almost like a horror story), but deteriorates rapidly between the second and third act--due in some part to too many characters and perspectives; if you're reading this in several sittings like I did, it can hard to remember who's who/what (esp. with those alien characters with weird names.)
Most damning however, is the fact that the protagonist doesn't have much of a personality (kind of funny in a sense, since he's supposed to have a chameleon-like power and is struggling with issues of identity in the novel...but this can't be a legitimate excuse, from a writer's perspective.)
I think Jeffrey Thomas is a very creative writer, but I'm a bit disappointed with this novel. That said, I'm still willing to try his other books/short stories, if I can find them.
January 19, 2023
I was so excited to see that Blue War had finally come out as an ebook that I took the opportunity to grab the rest of the Punktown books, rendering my collection complete.
Deadstock is still my favorite of the Punktown books, possibly because it is my first. Mr. Thomas gave it away one year during an event called Read an Ebook Week, and I was enthralled. The story is just so vivid; even the monster pulls at your heartstrings a little (in fact, for me, the monster is the very most sympathetic character, followed by the telepathic dwarf Mira).
Punktown is an excellently imagined setting, although this book gives you only a little taste of its richness. If you want to go in with a bit of primer experience, you should probably read the short story collection before tackling this book. Though this book won't present much in the way of entry barriers. People are as people are.
Deadstock is still my favorite of the Punktown books, possibly because it is my first. Mr. Thomas gave it away one year during an event called Read an Ebook Week, and I was enthralled. The story is just so vivid; even the monster pulls at your heartstrings a little (in fact, for me, the monster is the very most sympathetic character, followed by the telepathic dwarf Mira).
Punktown is an excellently imagined setting, although this book gives you only a little taste of its richness. If you want to go in with a bit of primer experience, you should probably read the short story collection before tackling this book. Though this book won't present much in the way of entry barriers. People are as people are.
May 18, 2017
I highly enjoy the concept of this book - set in the future, where primitive life forms are grown in a lab for entertainment purposes, including living dolls for teenage girls. But what happens when those primitive life forms take on a life of their own, a life much less primitive? Thomas has created a cool universe. Some of the subplots don't tie together quite as well as I'd like, but it's still a good story. The author also has an annoying habit of repeating certain phrasings/similes etc. word for word, and there is a lot of crude language used if that bothers you, so be warned. Overall though, good story.
August 23, 2007
I read Thomas's Punktown has been compared to Mieville's New Crobuzon. There's some similarities, I guess, but I think it's a bit unfair to hold Thomas up to Mieville, who I think is brilliant. This one was ok, a semi-interesting, if inconsistent story. Alot of holes and unexplained threads, ridiculous coincidences, etc. But it's not bad for a casual summertime read. I read it in 50-page chunks during breaks from work. Good for fans of the genre.
March 3, 2009
Good story, awesome premise, and fascinating behind the scenes look at the thoughts of a clueless yet evolving bioengineered creature - but way too much sex for the sake of sex (the sex elements, in most cases, did nothing for the story and were useless extra awkward appendages). Still well worth the read, lots of good suspense and creepiness.”
November 9, 2007
I learned that an author who is more than capable of painting a vivid picture of an alien landscape is also just as incapable of portraying human emotions and sexuality. Not that this author didn't try! This is going on a new shelf-the" wish I hadn't spent my time with this book" shelf.
Read
March 29, 2014Really good, really original. I'm kinda shocked this series hasn't received more attention.
April 15, 2015
A one-of-a-kind doll is stolen and Stake is hired to find it. But what he discovers is more than just a young girl's plaything.
Characters well developed. Interesting plot with lots of action.
Characters well developed. Interesting plot with lots of action.
December 31, 2019
3,5 Sterne
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