http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
3 volumes (399; 400; 424 pages) : illustrations ; 23 cm
This omnibus collects several decades' worth of Punktown short fiction. In 1980, Jeffrey Thomas began writing his first stories set in the noirish, far future city called Punktown but it wasn't until 2000 that his debut collection of these tales was published, by Jeff VanderMeer's Ministry of Whimsy Press. Since that time, there have been further collections of short stories, plus a number of novels, two shared world anthologies, and a roleplaying game set in the Punktown universe. Except in rare cases, the Punktown stories seldom share the same protagonist or continue a single plotline. They are glimpses into the lives of the city's remarkable denizens, so that the reader is like a drone, stealthily trailing after one character to spy on a critical event in their life before moving on to the next. These characters represent the colorful variety of Punktown's citizenry: the descendants of the human colonists who founded this city on a far-flung planet, the indigenous race called the Choom, fantastically imagined beings from a countless array of other worlds and even other dimensions, not to mention sentient machines. Beyond the setting, there is no simple template, no predictable theme or approach for a Punktown story. Rife with grotesque imagery and nightmarish situations, most often they combine elements of horror with science fiction, but just as readily other genres such as crime fiction will enter into the mix, with the occasional nod to Lovecraft. Many of the stories function as a vehicle for social commentary, even satire of a darkly humorous nature.
v. 1. / introduction by John Langan -- v. 2. / introduction by George Mann -- v. 3. / introduction by Paul Tremblay.
Jeffrey Thomas ; illustrations by David Ho.
The Cushing Library/Science Fiction copy is number 150 and is signed by the author and by the illustrator, and by the introducers in each volume.