As a teaser for Solaris Books’ upcoming publication of Blue War by Jeffrey Thomas, they’re offering his novel Deadstock as a free electronic download. Both books follow the adventures of Jeremy Stake, “a private detective with chameleon-like abilities.”
The science fiction thriller Deadstock takes place in “Punktown, crime-ridden metropolis on the colony world Oasis, which is home to the scum of countless alien races. Stalking its mean streets is Jeremy Stake, the private detective with chameleon-like abilities he does not want and cannot control. There’s his wealthy client, Fukuda, whose company makes synthetic life forms as playthings for the rich. Then there’s Fukuda’s beautiful teenage daughter, whose priceless one-of-a-kind living doll has been stolen. And there is the doll itself, growing in size, intelligence, and resentment. The destinies of all these individuals will converge, and collide, in Punktown.”
Blue War, the next Punktown novel, is due to be published in March 2008: “A jungle of blue vegetation in another dimension. Cloned human remains discovered in an otherwise empty city. The impending threat of a second inter-dimensional war. Just case for private investigator Jeremy Stake, the man with chameleon-like abilities he does not want but cannot ignore. When Stake is called in to investigate the significance of the cloned remains and the bizarre organic facsimile of Punktown that is growing out of the jungle, he finds himself drawn into a murky plot that could re-ignite the war between humans and Ha Jiin. Now he must find a way to stop it before it’s too late—for everyone.”