The Sea of Flesh and Ash

by Jeffrey Thomas, Scott Thomas

In The Sea of Flesh and Ash, brothers Jeffrey Thomas and Scott Thomas explore the haunted environs of their native New England - and alternate realms of existence - in two poetic and chilling short novels. Jeffrey Thomas' The Sea of Flesh follows the destinies of a dying woman beset by terrifying nightmares; a young Vietnamese woman experiencing strange visions; and an American research scientist is stalked by a menacing figure, with dangerous consequences. Scott Thomas' The Sea of Ash takes us along as three men from three different centuries experience the wonders and horrors of an unknown New England.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 2011

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

[Bill Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Thomas’ The Sea of Ash is his finest work to date, and one of the best works of weird fiction I have had the pleasure to read. There are two components of weird fiction in which Thomas excels beyond all others, and those are: inventing strange beings of unknown origin with inexplicable needs and life cycles; and developing interesting supernatural customs (charms, spells, divinations, conjurations), often based around an artifact of unusual genesis. Usually we get one or two of these per short story; sometimes they are integral to the story (or are in fact the whole story), sometimes they are incidental. In The Sea of Ash, however, Thomas stretches out to novella length and we get a wealth of his inventions. The novella’s episodic nature gives it a bit of the feel of a fix-up novel, a stitching together of a gaggle of short-story ideas. It works, though, as there is indeed an overarching narrative, and all the pieces do come together in a most fascinating conclusion. But the best aspect of The Sea of Ash is that it posits an alternate reality which could be our own, one in which supernatural phenomena are not uncommon if you know where to look, and that is pretty close to defining what I want to get out of reading weird fiction.

The other (first) half of this book, The Sea of Flesh by Scott’s brother Jeffrey, is also a fine horror novella based on the book's cover painting. If you have ever read his blog you will surmise it is also a very personal tale. In it, two characters connected by two degrees of separation experience a surreal dream world which may hold clues to real-world events. Ultimately the story is about the real-world events, with a central conflict rooted firmly in the everyday world of interpersonal strife. As an examination of both familial and romantic relationships it is excellent, fleshing out a wide range of emotions and tempering all the good ones with bad ones. Thomas’ powerful writing makes this a very affecting story as well.

[Justin Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brothers Jeffrey Thomas and Scott Thomas have both been publishing weird fiction for over two decades. The Sea of Flesh and Ash is a wonderful collaboration where both brothers bring their talents to bear, each publishing their own novella based on the book's cover image. While the piece of digital art gives each brother a starting point, their stories could not be more different.

The Sea of Flesh by Jeffrey Thomas comes first, and takes place in modern day Salem, and features a cast of intertwined characters, the main two being Lee and Dot. Dot is a young Vietnamese woman working as a waitress in a seaside restaurant, who begins to experience a strange recurring dream, which is only brought on by sleep or orgasm. Lee is a man in an amiably failing marriage, who begins dating Mai, Dot's mother and a nurse at Lee's dying mother's nursing home. Although Lee hasn't met Dot, they begin sharing the same dream experience.

Jeffrey does many things well with this story. The dream realm he creates is creepily mysterious, and more is seen with each visit. What the author does even better is in creating a tragic drama for his realistic characters to play out. While Lee and Mai are happy together, Dot and Mai are plagued by Mai's abusive husband Trang. The dream realm visits parallel the unfolding situation, leading to a poetically tragic ending.

Scott Thomas takes a different approach with The Sea of Ash, offering what reads like a more classically inspired weird tale. The narrator is a retired man with an interest in esoteric books, who is following in the footsteps of two historical "arcane adventurers" that he has become enamored of. The narrative switches back and forth from the present day enthusiast, to the two men whose footsteps he is following: Dr. Pond, a doctor returned home from the Great War and Simon Brinklow, a British man exploring New England in Colonial times. Scott manages to weave together the three threads to create an intricate story about alternate dimensions, and the three men's obsession with finding out more about the strange phenomena. The Sea of Ash is more lighthearted in tone than Jeffrey's tragic The Sea of Flesh, being more of a fantasy with some creepy moments as opposed to a tragedy, but doesn't suffer for it. If anything it makes it even better of a counterbalance to Jeffrey's story.

Weird fiction readers will most likely be familiar with The Brothers Thomas. I've been a reader of Jeffrey Thomas for awhile now, but this marked the first Scott Thomas story I've read, although I've been hearing great things about his work, and this story backed up everything I have heard. This book could be a great chance to see what both authors are about, and is a great example of how art (in this case, the piece of art used for the cover) affects and inspires everyone differently.

Review originally appeared on my blog, The Arkham Digest.