Crow: Temple of Night [Mass Market Paperback]

S P. Somtow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2000

The Eternal One

At our human limits, when we've gone as far as flesh and imagination can take us, meet the Eternal One. The Crow.

His alabaster delicate features tell of his ivory goddess ancestry. Immemorially old, and inconsolable, he is there only for those who seek both revenge and love, and are willing to go all the way--and beyond.

Temple Of Night

Turn-of-the-century Bangkok is a glittering modern city where high-tech industry and ancient mystery meet. It is a powerhouse of international finance by day...and a playground of depravity by night. The Klong Toey shantytowns are home to shadowy erotic emporiums, where millionaire celebrities act out their darkest sexual fantasies, protected by money, influence, and American diplomacy.

Enter a young American journalist, assigned to expose the latest cover-up. Stephen is about to break the two cardinal rules of journalism: Don't fall in love. And don't get killed....

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

S.P. Somtow is the author of numerous novels and short stories, including Darker Angels and Vampire Junction. He has directed two feature movies, for which he has composed original scores. He has homes in California and Thailand.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061059935
• ISBN-13: 978-0061059933
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,379,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as 'the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,' Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas.
Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.
His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, 'skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.' Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers' Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. He has also published children's books, a historical novel, and about a hundred works of short fiction.
In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon's Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His forty-seven books have sold about two million copies world-wide.
After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok's first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.
According to London's Opera magazine, 'in just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.' His operas on Thai themes, Madana and Mae Naak, have been well received by international critics. He is directing Wagner's Ring Cycle for the Bangkok Opera, a four-year project which recently received full page coverage in the New York Times.
His current project is Ayodhya, a modern opera that retells the entire Ramayana in a single evening. He has written both the libretto and the music for this spectacular work which will premiere in November 2006 and which he has dedicated to His Majesty the King

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enveloping journey into a place beyond our comprehension, March 21, 2000

By 

Ian Taylor (Hinsdale, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crow: Temple of Night (Paperback)

American culture often protects us from the realities that occur all over the world. We live in a cookie-cutter sitcom world and it takes a prolific and informed source to bring us out of our illusions. S.P. Somtow does just that. The Crow has never been better in this atmospheric and careening dive into the underworld of modern Bangkok. You can't help but smell the sin and feel the pain around you while S.P. Somtow takes you on a tour of humanity's scarred underbelly. Our character, an unlikely hero. Our villan, a frightening reminder that evil lives inside man as part of us, his madness convincing and as far removed from the earlier, more contrived Crow villians as can be. Without giving anything away, this story is original, true to the Crow legacy, but a masterpiece all it's own and in it's own right. A must read, not for the faint of heart, or the closed minded. Somtow knows the subject matter and presents it beautifully.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crow 101 Understanding the Basics, January 13, 2002

By 

Rick Russell (Bowling Green, oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crow: Temple of Night (Mass Market Paperback)

The original comics that started the Crow franchise were well done, an excellent work even if it was cathartic in nature. The first movie was a wonderful adaptation, but every thing that has come out since is garbage. With one exception. Temple of Night actually succeeds where every other "sequel" has failed. It touches your soul. The entire point of the Crow is not about getting revenge, it's about moving beyond the fetters that your anger forces upon you, that chain you to your past life. Somtow takes his familiarity of Egyptian, Native American and Thai mythologies/religions and turns them all inside out while still pointing out the similarities. This book is a perfect example of how and why creativity can overcome the stigma of the usual sequel; and while this is not Somtow's strongest work, it is still pure Somtow.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great, October 23, 2001

By 

Richie Laurencin (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crow: Temple of Night (Paperback)

This should have been the sequel for The Crow series! Its awesome in all ways... great plot! A must get for any Crow fan collector!