Thirteen Specimens

THIRTEEN SPECIMENS is a collection of bizarre and disturbing short stories, poems, and odd bits and pieces found preserved in dusty jars of formaldehyde in a sealed-off attic room in the condemned museum of the mind of author Jeffrey Thomas. Included are the novellas "The Mask Play of Hahoe Byeolsin Exorcism" and "Door 7," as well as a trio of powerful stories that -- for the first time in one collection -- visit the three fictional universes that Thomas is best known for. "Close Enough" takes place in the alternate Earth of the novel "Boneland." A sadistic, otherworldly force feeds off the nightmarish images of the Vietnam War, as captured by a conscience-stricken photojournalist. "Monsters" is set in the futuristic metropolis of Punktown. A compassionate surgeon is determined to restore a grotesque alien female, purposely disfigured by the males of her clan, even if he himself incurs their wrath in the process. And "The Burning House" takes readers to the netherworld of "Letters From Hades." Two men -- one of them an angel, the other damned -- join forces in an attempt to rescue the child they both love from an army of torturing demons.