Showing results by author "S.P. Somtow" in All Categories

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena. from Literary Titan "If you like your historical fiction brutal and ...

Firmly rooted in modern archaeological discoveries about Bronze Age cultures, The Shattered Horse paints a vivid picture of a decaying golden age seen through the eyes of the survivors of Trojan War. At the center of the story is Prince Astyanax: heir to the Trojan kingdom, marked for death as a child by the Greek conquerors, escaping, perhaps by divine intervention, and doomed, perhaps, to repeat history.

Announced thirty years ago from the now-defunct Pulphouse Press, S.P. Somtow's theme collection of stories about Fathers and Sons has been "about to come out" ever since. Diplodocus Press now brings the collection into print just as it would have been in the 1990s, an interesting snapshot of Somtow's career up to that moment. There are four stories in this mini-collection, with far-flung settings. "Kingdoms in the Sky," about a mafia don taking his son to Peru to participate in an ancient and terrifying ceremony; "Fire from the Wine-Dark Sea," in which a tormented poet with twin sons meets ...

After forty years, S.P. Somtow has produced a fifth novel in the Chronicles of the High Inquest, one of the most lauded galactic empire epics of the 1980s. Critically acclaimed yet never previously in print as a complete set, the series has passionate adherents — and they have finally persuaded the author to enrich the universe with more novels. Homeworld of the Heart is the first of a trilogy within a trilogy. The songs of Sajit were known and loved through the million worlds of the Dispersal of Man. He was the favorite of Elloran, most powerful, most compassionate of the godlike ...

The Inquestor Series was a classic science fiction series of the 1980s — and has now been reincarnated for the 21st century, with more adventures, more spectacle, and more extras. Tachyon bubbles, people bins and galactic empires — and profound family conflicts — Greek tragedy writ large. Light on the Sound, the book that started it all, begins with one lonely planet and three lost souls, and ends with galactic revolution. For twenty thousand years, the godlike Inquestors have held sway over the one million worlds of the Dispersal of Man. S.P. Somtow’s limitless ...

“His multicultural viewpoint may yet give us the best SF novel of all time” — AnalogFor twenty thousand years, the godlike Inquestors have held sway over the one million worlds of the Dispersal of Man. S.P. Somtow’s limitless imagination has created a universe of breathtaking majesty, amazing beauty, and shattering cruelty. In games of makrugh played in elegant floating palaces, planets are destroyed or saved to preserve the balance of the galaxy. Exotic languages and customs, servocorpses, tachyon bubbles, childsolders with implanted laser-irises, people bins that hold populations ...

35 years after the first Mallworld story was produced, S.P. Somtow has produced the Ultimate, Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld collection. Included are all the original stories (and the one story left out of the Starblaze trade edition), all the ads for the Mallworld products (left out in the TOR mass market re-printing), and all the original artwork by Karl Kofoed (the artwork was not included in the TOR edition) and Kofoed's cover art (left out of the Meisha Merlin edition!) With a new introduction by the author. Mallworld was an iconic science fiction novel of the 1980s and a pungent satire ...

The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena. World Fantasy Award winner S.P. Somtow weaves a vivid adventure about one of the most colorful personalities ...

Now acknowledged as one of the most important classics of 20th-century gothic literature, S.P. Somtow's tale of a 12-year-old rock star vampire, his Jungian analyst, and the Wagnerian conductor who is his nemesis turned the entire genre upside down in the 1980s and is considered the ancestor of the "splatterpunk" movement. Vampire Junction has been voted one of the top 40 horror books of all time.

Season One of World Fantasy Award-winning author S.P. Somtow's vella series is adapted and compiled into book form. St. Cecilia's boys' school is an elite boys' school in a remote part of Thailand, a hotbed of hormones, mystery, fantasy, and dark secrets! Five kids (binary and non-binary) uncover the dark secrets of their school amid mysteries of identity and sexual attraction. Why does Dr. Leopold Strange only teach after sundown? Why is Sister Euphemia dancing in the forest without her habit? And why can't Kim and Fluke talk about the awful thing that happened to them in Oldenburg? And ...

Captured by pirates and sold to a Roman aristocrat as a sex slave, Sporus attracted the attention of no less a personage than the Emperor Nero, ruler of the known world. Would-be poet, patron of the arts, aesthete, and brutal autocrat, the Divine Nero saw in the boy a startling resemblance to the Empress Poppaea - and made him an empress as well. Suetonius, Tacitus, and other Roman historians have given tantalizing glimpses into the incredible life story of the boy who became twice an empress to two emperors, and was condemned to die in the arena by a third. In this meticulously researched ...

The conclusion of the three-book series that began with Delicatus and continued with Imperatrix. Captured by pirates as a boy and trafficked to the slave markets of Rome, Sporus rose from a poet's plaything to one of the most powerful figures in the Roman Empire. The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the ...

★★★★★ "A well-written memoir that uplifts while it teaches through story. And funny too. Worthwhile!" - Reader review ___ Memoir meets self-help in this true account about the meaning of buddhism, meditations, and living a spiritually abundant life! Novelist, composer and conductor Somtow Sucharitkul (who writes books under the name S.P. Somtow) had an extraordinary epiphany while driving downthe California coast. At almost 50 years of age, having spent very little time in his native Thailand, Somtow was seized by an overwhelming desire to enter a Buddhist monastery. This is the ...

S.P. Somtow’s novel The Stone Buddha’s Tears was inspired by a real-life incident in 1991 in which the city of Bangkok, about to host an international conference, decided to throw up a corrugated iron fence around a slum in order to conceal it from the passing delegates. In this fantasy novel of innocence and hope, the lives of two boys from opposite ends of the social spectrum intersect because of the wall. The protagonist, a beggar known only as “Boy”, meets a novice monk whose father, a corrupt politician, has sent him to a monastery in order to provide a picture-perfect photo-op...

Kelver is leading a revolution to bring about the end of the twenty-thousand-year hegemony of the godlike Inquestors, who have presided over the million-planet Dispersal of Man in a reign of staggering cruelty and stunning beauty. Conflicted in their love for him are the two young Inquestors who trained with him — Siriss, the White Inquestrix, who has joined his army and yet is compelled to betray him, and violet-eyed Arryk, who was his lover and is now his nemesis. War is inevitable and no world will be left unscathed. The revolution comes to the planet Essondras, where Zalo, author of ...

A retrospective collection of S.P, Somtow’s science fiction stories, from Sunsteps which first appeared in Unearth magazine in 1977 to An Alien Heresy from 2007, this book covers thirty years of the wide-ranging author-composer’s career, including numerous award-nominated stories. From comedic zombie protest marches to alien roller coaster cults, from ambiguous utopias to enjoyable dystopias, from a mediaeval inquisitor confronting an alien to an alien inquestor confronting a planet, these are bizarre and wondrous tales, both serious and satiric. With illustrations from the sketches of ...

At twelve years old, Little Frog has a richly fantastic and sustaining innerlife. It is 1963, his parents have disappeared, and he lives with his maiden aunts, known affectionately as the Three Fates, on the family estate in Bangkok. But, fed by a stream ofbooks and accompanied by his pet chameleon, Little Frogrefuses to accept thathe is Thai, eats English food, speaks only English, and answers to the name of Justin.Into Justin’s eclectically fashioned, whirlingfantasy world steps Virgil, a black American boy, and together they embark on a glorious spree of magic and growing up – in ...

Vampire Junction, S. P. Somtow's groundbreaking novel of vampiric horror, introduced Timmy Valentine, a world-famous rock star with the body of a 12 year old boy...and the ageless soul of a bloodthirsty predator. Timmy returned in Valentine, in which he finally shed his undead curse forever. Or did he? In Vanitas, Timmy Valentine has relinquished his immortality and transferred his vampiric essence to young Angel Todd.

The Millennial War left a sullen void where civilization once stood. But then the whales began their song - a mysterious song that resounded throughout the polluted seas and told an ancient heartbreaking tale that moved the survivors to revive and honored ritual....

Somtow’s very popular Club X series is consistently on Vella’s “Top Faved” lists. Season Two, “Club X: Zombie in the Fridge” is now available as a book. The first book has been made into a web TV series which will be released in 2023. Join Kim, Fluke, Polo, Danger, and Donut as they embark on a wild journey in S.P. Somtow’s second book in the “Club X” series! Set in a mysterious Thai boarding school, these five friends cross into alternate universes, fight zombies and quirky nuns, and team up with their vampire English teacher to uncover the secrets of the universe. With a...