Unholy Dimensions by et al Jeffrey
Thomas
Good Mythos Book
UNHOLY DIMENSIONS collects 27 exursions into realms Lovecraftian and
H.P. Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos, through the minds eye of Jeffrey Thomas,
author of PUNKTOWN and TERROR INCOGNITA.
Personal Review: Unholy Dimensions by et al Jeffrey Thomas
he enterprising small press Mythos Books has finally been releasing some
titles that we have all been waiting on for some time (And some we had no
idea were pending release; their website is extremely user unfriendly
compared to Elder Signs Press, Hippocampus Press or Golden Gryphon
Press. On the other hand Wildside Press and Pagan Publishing won't win
any prizes for keeping up to date either...), like The Taint of Lovecraft and
The Tales of Inspector LeGrasse. Coming soon is a highly anticipated
collection by Walter deBill, The Black Sutra. I feel like I was waiting on
Unholy Dimensions for more than a year.

Jeffrey Thomas is a highly respected horror and science fiction author who
certainly needs no introduction from me (all us reviewers write this before
we introduce someone who needs no introduction...). He is the creator of
Punktown, a wild, weird and wonderful city on the alien planet of Oasis.
Originally named Paxton, it has been renamed Punktown by its
inhabitants, a mixture of humans living side by side with other almost
human races, and other completely inhuman species. Full of crime, drugs,
desperation, poverty and intrigue, Punktown is a violent place. So far the
Punktown saga may be read in Thomas's collection Punktown, the
collection he edited Punktown:Third Eye (guest authors set stories in
Thomas' world), Thomas' novel Monstrocity (which is an entirely mythosian
outing; Punktown's human-like races have their own traditions of grimoires,
and names for the mythos entities and the Elder Gods), and new collection
by Jeffrey Thomas and his brother Scott, Punktown: Shades of Grey. This
last is the best and edgiest Punktown collection so far!
Although Thomas is best known for the Punktown series, HPL's mythos
was influential for him and he has often applied his highly polished gifts to
mythos stories. The bulk of these are now assembled in this trade
paperback from Mythos Books. All of these titles have seen the light of
print before, except The Young of the Old Ones and What Washes Ashore,
newly written for this book. However, most of these were in periodicals like
Deathrealms, Cthulhu Codex and Midnight Shambler, so only an
assiduous mythos collector like James Ambuehl would already have them.
In fact, as I mostly collect books, I only had The Cellar Gods from 1999's
New Mythos Legends.
Here are the contents, although not in the order they appear in the book:
THE BONES OF THE OLD ONES
THE AVATARS OF THE OLD ONES
THE YOUNG OF THE OLD ONES
BOOK WORM
ASCENDING TO HELL
THE ICE SHIP
YOO-HOO, CTHULHU
THROUGH OBSCURE GLASS
THE HOUSE ON THE PLAIN
THE BOARDED WINDOW
LOST SOUL
THE SERVITORS
SERVILE
I MARRIED A SHOGGOTH
THE THIRD EYE
RED GLASS
CELLS
CONGLOMERATE
THE DOOM IN THE ROOM
THE FACE OF BAPHOMET

PAZUZU'S CHILDREN
THE CELLAR GODS
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
CORPSE CANDLES
WHAT WASHES ASHORE
OUT OF THE BELLY OF SHEOL
THE FOURTH UTTERANCE
Some housekeeping: This is a Trade Paperback with 267 pages. It's all
fiction; no author's notes or introductions. The cover is by Jamie
Oberschlake, and it is highly effective, showing a Cthulhu-like entity
crouched over an ancient tome. There is more interior art by Peter Worthy
that didn't do too much for me. The price is $20 list but it is heavily
discounted to $13.60 by Amazon, and available for free supersaver
shipping although at a downgraded rate. Thomas continues the Lovecraft
Circle tradition of mentioning other mythos authors he likes in some of his
stories. For example, one of the cultist victims in The Bones of the Old
Ones is Willy Pugmire, some action in The Avatars of the Old Ones takes
place in the Ambuehl Building and a note from S. Sargent appears in
Corpse Candles. Thomas also pays homage directly to W. Pugmire by
setting a story Through Obscure Glass in Pugmire's Sesqua Valley. This
was a daring story, I think, because no one can really write with Pugmire's
sensuous prose or make the visceral Sesqua Valley come alive like he
can. The trilogy of stories that opens the books is set in the Punktown
universe; The Bones of the Old Ones actually takes place in Punktown.
HPL names like Ward and Poe names like Pym appear in some stories.
Much of Thomas' approach to the mythos (or Yog Sothothery if you prefer)
is very conventional, the Great Old Ones were cast into imprisonment by
the Elder Gods. The Elder Sign has unusual potency against them and
their servitors. The grimoires are the usual suspects, except for Thomas'
own The Book of Awe and The Metal Book.
My summary is that I highly recommend this collection. I think, however,
that the stories written later, like What Washes Ashore are more deftly
written than the earlier ones (well, our favorite authors are always honing
their craft, aren't they?). Also I tended to like those stores more
tangentially mythos, like What Washes Ashore, more than the more
conventional Old Ones trilogy. The poetry, The Ice Ship and Ascending to
Hell, and the comic relief, the poem YooHoo, Cthulhu and the story The
Doom in the Room, were all low points for me. Others might like them
more. Unfairly perhaps, in GW Thomas' Book of the Black Sun, I thought
the sum was more than the parts. I was engaged all the while in that book
but saw no flashes of brilliance. The best mythos stories sparkle, like the
dazzling Annandale's Final Draft in Dead But Dreaming; they match the
best that horror, fantasy or science fiction of any stripe has to offer. For
what it's worth, while I think the bulk of these stories are well crafted at a
high level, none of them really stopped me in my tracks. When I read One
Way Conversation by Sammons in Horrors Beyond I had to pause to catch

my breath and immediately reread it. Not so with Unholy Dimensions,
although mostly the stories are very good reads and a few were quite fine.
I'll briefly comment on some of the stories; mild to moderate spoilers may
follow, so don't read further if that bothers you.
THE BONES OF THE OLD ONES
THE AVATARS OF THE OLD ONES
THE YOUNG OF THE OLD ONES - These 3 stories, set in the Punktown
universe, are the most Derlethian tales. Similar Derleth's heroes, an
unwilling detective John Bell is forced to accept that mythosian entities lurk
beyond the veil and he has to sacrifice himself to oppose them. These
were good straight up mythos stories.
BOOK WORM - I highly enjoyed this story, where a lover of antiquarian
books and arcane mysteries sneaks into his grandmother's house to
peruse an ancient volume she intends to sell as part of his late
grandfather's estate. Sometimes you can really lose yourself in a book...
LOST SOUL, even though a very different sort of story, also dealt
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