Boneland
Jeffrey Thomas
Bloodletting Press

scribbled by LM Campbell

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 technology is handed to man in the early 1900’s via unseen beings known only as the Guests. They cannot physically manifest themselves on earth, but can observe us through genetically altered insects.

These Guests bring forth to this alternate universe computers and other advanced machines. However, with technology comes a price. Boneland is a microcosm for the encroachment of 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 megs of RAM. John Board is disgusted at the way our world is spiralling into madness and the fact that our 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 ask 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.