Product Description
On this alternate Earth, Rome rules all . . . including the New World, known in other dimensions as America but here as Terra Novo.

General Titus Papinianus is governor of that untamed land, and Aquila, chief of the savage Lacoti nation, is a Roman senator. But official titles aside, their duty is to Caesar. So when Caesar sends them on a quest for the fabled land of China, thought to be somewhere in Terra Novo, off they go.

They are hardly prepared for bloodthirsty Aztecs, flying machines, time-traveling aliens, or Bigfoot—and Aquila’s problem-solving strategies are unconventional to say the least!

Before they know it, their adventures lead them into the hands of the Time Criminal, who is bent on altering all the multiple universes to suit his own evil whims. Somehow they have to stop him . . . before their world is destroyed! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderfully silly romp through alternate history and Latin
I should preface this by saying that I took four years of Latin in high school, and therefore am perhaps more predisposed to like this book than those who have not studied the language. There are jokes scattered (explicit and implied) throughout the volume that are clearly the result of Mr. Somtow's Latin teacher being much like the one I had third year. :->

That said, however, I don't think you NEED to have studied Latin to enjoy it. It's a lovely alternate history that doesn't take itself too seriously. Rome has acquired steamship technology FAR too early and has crossed the Atlantic and begun conquering the North American continent. This book is told from the point of view of Titus, a (not particularly smart, very provincial) centurion of a good old Roman family, but it's really about Aquila, the chief of a tribe known as the Lacoti.

Pygmies on bicycles battle Amazons with bows in the arena; the Romans bring bathhouse technology to the banks of the Missisippi; the difference between speaking Greek and speaking Latin is clearly demonstrated by using English dialect to hilarious effect. Perhaps one of my favorite bits was that all Amerind names are translated into Latin (Equus Insanus, Rufus Nimbus, and others harder to translate without a background in the tongue), and that the transliteration of native placenames and tribal names in the Americas is wonderfully Latinized.

I adore this book, and have for years; when I discovered through Amazon that it'd been reprinted (and the long-awaited sequels!), I went into raptures of joy. However, I am a hardcore geek. :-> ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I was looking forward to enjoying this book, but....
S.P. Somtow writes wonderful short stories and I can easily recommend them. His novel "Jasmine Nights" is very well written, extremely entertaining and on my list for one of the best books I read last year.
Unfortunately "Vanitas" was a bit tough for me to get through. I don't think the author spent much time editing this book and in the end, I was to the point of not caring what happened.
I was looking forward to enjoying this book, but I didn't. Save your time and skip this one but DO read "Jasmine Nights" - you will not be sorry. ... Read more

Product Description
S.P. Somtow's classic sequel to "The Iliad" returns to the print. 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, Prince Astyanax, heir to the Trojan kingdom, marked for death as a child by the Greek conquerors, escaping perhaps by divine intervention . doomed, perhaps, to repeat history. An astonishing panoply of mythic characters come to life in this book, called by Gene Wolfe "in the true sense, a work of genius." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Quoting reviews from previous edition ISBN 0747230927
This has been out of print for so long - the reviews below from the earlier edition on amazon will hopefully demonstrate why this book should be back in print!

****
Good author, good story , October 7, 2005
Reviewer: "General Pete" (SC)
Loved reading about the adventures of Astyanax. An excellent retelling of the legand. I recommend it to all that have an interest in the Trojan war. The book is not perfect it does get a little confusing towards the end.
*****
Excellent adventure set in ancient times, August 28, 2001
Reviewer: "techtor" (Quezon CIty, Philippines)
I had always been fascinated by tales in ancient times. I also find rewrites of these tales quite entertaining, quite explorative. "The Shattered Horse" has this, and more. Astyanax, who should have been thrown down from the walls of Troy as a babe, is still around and he grows to start a new Trojan war, which he does by stealing Helen again. But on the way, he sees the terrible effects of a recent war: deprived states, chaotic governments, rampant crime and death, tragic fates, all of which happened to the Greeks as well as the Trojan after their great war. He probably thought when he returned, maybe I should jump from the walls of Troy anyhow. But it's a great adventure. The events are amazing, the telling gripping, the magical element awe-inspiring (especially Memnon, the Ethiopian god-king). I can't believe such a gem as this was missed by the fantasy-reading public.
*****
Filled with moonlight and old magic, October 21, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
I'like to thank the author for the book... And now I'm go to catch an oppoturnity of buying it.

Good author, good story
Loved reading about the adventures of Astyanax.An excellent retelling of the legand.I recommend it to all that have an interest in the Trojan war.The book is not perfect it does get a little confusing towards the end.

Excellent adventure set in ancient times
I had always been fascinated by tales in ancient times. I also find rewrites of these tales quite entertaining, quite explorative. "The Shattered Horse" has this, and more. Astyanax, who should have been thrown down from the walls of Troy as a babe, is still around and he grows to start a new Trojan war, which he does by stealing Helen again. But on the way, he sees the terrible effects of a recent war: deprived states, chaotic governments, rampant crime and death, tragic fates, all of which happened to the Greeks as well as the Trojan after their great war. He probably thought when he returned, maybe I should jump from the walls of Troy anyhow. But it's a great adventure. The events are amazing, the telling gripping, the magical element awe-inspiring (especially Memnon, the Ethiopian god-king). I can't believe such a gem as this was missed by the fantasy-reading public.

Filled with moonlight and old magic
I'like to thank the author for the book...And now I'm go to catch an oppoturnity of buying it. ... Read more

Product Description
The complete vocal score of Somtow Sucharitkul's opera "Ayodhya", written for the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Reign of the King of Thailand.This grand opera retells the entire story of Thailand's national epic, the Ramayana, in modern terms.Premiered in 2006 with Michael Chance, Nancy Yuen, John Ames, and Charles Hens.Piano reduction with detailed orchestra notes by Trisdee na Patalung.LIbretto is included. ... Read more

Product Description
The son of a Hollywood special-effects technician, Aaron wishes for some real magic and is given the chance to try out as an apprentice to a two-thousand-year-old wizard, setting off a series of spectacular mishaps. ... Read more

Product Description
A complete vocal score of Somtow Sucharitkul's 2003 horror opera, "Mae Naak", edited and with a piano reduction by Trisdee na Patalung.The Nation called this opera "a truly great work" with its exotic colors and ironic cross-breeding of Thai folk music with the tropes of horror film music.As noted for its grand guignol as its sweeping lyricism, "Mae Naak" has been garnering rave reviews since its Bangkok Opera debut with Nancy Yuen in the title role. ... Read more

Product Description
Equus Insanus, son of Aquila, has been missing for three years on his quest to bring the vile Time Criminal to justice. His Roman half brother, Lucius, nephew to Caesar, fears him dead—until he begins receiving strange messages from the lost Lacoti warrior.

Then Lucius learns that Equus has been captured by the Time Criminal, who plans to use him as the instrument which will destroy their world.

Discovering that the secret to Equus’s salvation may lie in the pyramids of Giza and in the riddle of the Sphynx, Aquila and Lucius set out for Egypt. They have no idea that the answers they find will lead them across the entire RomanEmpire, through space, and ultimately through time itself—for the final confrontation with the Time Criminal and the battle for a man’s soul! ... Read more

Product Description
In the sequel to Riverrun, young Theo Etchison is drawn into Strang's terrifying dimension and begins a bizarre odyssey across an inverted land. ... Read more

Product Description
In this collection, S.P. Somtow writes of his native Thailand caught between tradition and change, the ancient and the modern. It is a land where the fantastic is accepted as part of everyday life - and a chance meeting with a dragon, ghosts, aliens, or time travellers can happen to anyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gothic Thailand
The author continues to have a great eye and ear for the differences between Thai and farang (Western) culture.He humorously exploits these bi-cultural differences usually in a hip and slightly edgy way.The stories are fun and often take unexpected turns.If you have been to Bangkok you will probably feel you have sampled little bits of Dragon's Fin Soup tales.

I have a personal prejudice, in that I loved the author's early science fiction works.At some point, however, his writing changed direction and he became a teller of gothic horror tales.For me, gothic horror could have stopped with Bram Stoker, and the world would be no worse off.

While there is still more than a whiff of the abatoir in most of these stories, they don't sink under the gratuitous (and frankly boring) darkness and decay of his vampire novels. These stories show many glimmers of the imagination and savagely funny social commentary that made "Mallworld" a minor classic of science fiction.

8 Voyages into a twilight zone
Somtow is a poet who effortlessly spins a pattern in his tales which make the unbelieveable commonplace and the unimaginable believeable.To read Somtow's stories is to take a journey into a world that doesn't and could never exist in the United States.Only in a reality like never-never land where you step outside your world and greet old friends that you've never met before can you begin to sense the subtle beauty of Somtow's literature.The texture of his style is unforgetable and it will resonate within you, like a memorable symphony, long after you've finished. ... Read more

Product Description
Billy and Charley lives in vastly different worlds. When Billy's world begins to threaten his very life, he discovers Charley to be a true friend and his last hope for survival. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A modern classic of fiction for young people.
Like Rowling, Somtow writes children's literature without talking down to the reader.Far too many books for young people make the mistake of thinking that children can't understand what they read.Somtow let's the story unfold on it's own with out needing to censor reality.It's a pity that his work doesn't get the recognition that it deserves.Adding the original short story is a nice touch for this edition, but the novel is a true masterpiece.

a fine, uncompromising exploration of domestic violence
Although this is a children's book in format, the author doesn't pull any punches.I first read it in 1986.It's been out of print for a long time, but this edition has a cool "extra"; the original short story that the author expanded into the novel, which is written from the child counselor's viewpoint.It's a pretty searing book, but beautiful, too. ... Read more

Product Description
Here collected together for the first timeare all the short stories, ads, and illustrationsfor S. P. Somtow's Mallworld. Included in The Ultimate Mallworld 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). This edition will also contain two new Mallworld stories written by Somtow along with their new interior illustrations by the original artist Karl Kofoed.The Selespridar have locked us, the planet Earth, part of our solar system, and our sun up in a force field because the rest of the Galaxy plain and simple does not want to associate with us. Do we care? Not really. We have Mallworld, the shopping center almost the size of a planet. So come along and play human pinball at the arcades, order your custom-designed baby at Storkways, Inc., experience your ultimate death at the Way Out Suicide Parlors-death by vampire is a special way to go and just one of the three-hundred ways you can decide to end your life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The BarJulians are having a party...
The Earth has been quarantined by a race of superintelligent pan-dimensional aliens who deem us too violent/dangerous/weird to be exposed to the rest of the universe.So a dyson sphere(look it up)force shield is put up outside the orbit of Saturn and dragged out of the universe completely.Until we're ready to play with others.

O well, there's always Mallworld.

A shopping center the size of a planet.Makes the Mall of America seem like a flea market.

A collection of short stories that feature an assortment of characters, many members of the BarJulian family, the richest people in the little universe we have left.

Funny, witty, creative, and still hold up after over 20 years.

Well worth a look.

Best of Somtow Sucharitkul's novels
This is a great reprint to pick up!I have lost a number of loaner copies and worn down one of my own copies of Mallworld over the years.While many of the basic thematics are very much of the 1980's (when malls reigned supreme in US culture) the collection of stories in the planet sized mall, dubbed Mallword have a timeless theme.

Where many of Sucharikul's longer works feel haphazard and muddled at times the shorter pieces revolving around this theme are well done and portray a larger picture than they individually convey.There is not a turkey amongst them and Mallworld is not only good, it is also fun.

30 clicks of Totally Awsome (tzum).
Mallword stands out to me as Somtow's most memorable early work. The vivid scenes that he paints in these stories are still engraved in my mind long after the images of lesser authors have faded. I will devour this latest version yet again. Spectacle!

By the way... What is so unpronouncable about Sucharitkul? (see author's review)

A fun great crazy book that helped warp me as a child!
My father has the first printing of the paperback edition of Mallworld,and I read that book near to tatters over the course of my youth.AlthoughI haven't read the new edition (yet) I'm sure that the addition of newstories and artwork will only elevate this delightful, hilarious booknearer to perfection.I loved it then, I'll buy it now, and I'll read itover and over again.Get it! ... Read more