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Fiction Review by The Drug Stuffed Corpse
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04.02.09
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Jeffrey Thomas
Bloodletting Press
Jeff Thomas reinvents the wheel as his flair for the bizarre manipulates the past to create an earth with a unique iconography; blending history and pop-culture into an exciting pastiche of factual fiction and fictional fact, Boneland is not so much a horror novel as it is a horror novel by implication. In Boneland modern technology is handed to man in the early 1900's vis a vis unseen beings known only as the Guests. The Guests cannot physically manifest themselves on earth, but can observe us through genetically altered insects. These Guests bring forth to this alternate-universe-earth computers and other advanced machines. However, with technology comes a price.
Boneland is a microcosm for the modern-day equivalent of encroaching technology, the devaluation of human life and how man is slowly losing sovereignty of his own body. Everyday man is becoming more machine than human. We are awoken by machines and told when to go to work by machines. They get us to work and intrinsically do our work for us. Everyday a small piece of our autonomy is swallowed up by computer chips and gigs of RAM. John Board is disgusted at the way his world is spiralling into madness and the fact that his species depend upon the Guests.
Continuing his theme of a just man in a wicked epoch of self-fulfillment and debauched morality (Thomas' Letter From Hades) Thomas spreads his talent over into a dark science fiction piece set on earth in a similar, but foreign dimension. The protagonist is a man with a conscience and seemingly impervious to the temptations bestowed upon man by the Guests. For all of these wonders they expect little in return; in the immortal words of the shotgun-blasted Kurt Cobain, all they request is: 'Here we are now. Entertain us!' And their entertainment is a steady diet of human suffering. They feast upon images of war and murder, watching impassively as the human stain slowly devours itself; this pestilence was not created directly by the Guests, however the Guests coerce and assist nonetheless.
Boneland is another exciting narrative from one man's perspective as he watches his world change while his ideals remain static. The text is enriched with vibrant prose, entertaining characters and a humorous cross-pollination of events both real and imagined, all staples of Thomas' wonderful literary acumen.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total
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