Review: A Trip Back to Punktown
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2014
A lot of authors try to create one giant, consistent setting to play around in, but too often they fail because they treat the setting as just that: a setting.  Jeffrey Thomas succeeds because Punktown is more than just a setting for a large number of his stories, it's a character in those stories.  Even in tales that largely take place somewhere else within the Punktown universe, such as Red Cells, Punktown itself makes it's presence known by how it's shaped the characters that have lived there.Red Cells takes place in an interdimensional prison, something of an experiment for the powers-that-be in Punktown; what better place to squirrel away the worst criminals than somewhere that, even if they manage escape the walls of the prison, they're probably worse off?  Enter Jeremy Stake, private investigator and hero of Thomas's Deadstock and Blue War (you don't need to read these first, but they're good books so you should anyhow!).  His latest job is to impersonate a criminal and serve his sentence.  Not surprisingly, this plan falls apart almost from the beginning.Needing something to do to occupy his time (and help protect himself from other inmates), Stake agrees to investigate a serious of prisoner deaths that started occurring shortly before his arrival.  The truth behind everything is telegraphed to some extent, but still quite enjoyable.One of Thomas's greatest strengths, especially with Punktown stories, is his ability to throw in little callbacks to earlier works that, if you're not familiar with the earlier stuff, just seem like random little details that don't detract from the story you're reading, but if you are familiar with other Punktown tales really help tie everything together and further define the setting of Punktown as a character in its own right.  Red Cells is no different, with several callbacks to Deadstock and Blue War and even earlier works in the setting.  Again, you don't need to read any of that to fully enjoy Red Cells, but, in my opinion, all of the stories and novels are worth reading so you can see the whole picture of Punktown.