Dragon's Fin Soup: Eight Modern Siamese Fables [Paperback]

S. P. Somtow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most gifted masters of color and spectacle of this century." -- Theodore Sturgeon

"S.P. Somtow doesn't write like anyone else. His is a fresh voice, engaging as it is unique." -- Dean R. Koontz

"S.P. Somtow is the J.D. Salinger of Siam" -- George Axelrod, author of The Manchurian Candidate

"S.P. Somtow skillfully combines the styles of William Burroughs, Stephen King, and the author of 'The Revelation of John.'" -- Robert Bloch

From the Back Cover

8 Modern Siamese Fables in the tradition of Lafcadio Hearn, Cordwainer Smith, and the Marx Brothers.

8 Rowdy Tales where East and West don't meet - they collide.

8 Frightening Ruminations where nothing is as it seems and even the unreal is an illusion.

8 Delectable Servings that could only have sprung from the fevered mind of S.P. Somtow - the most unique writer of this, or any other, millenium.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Babbage Press (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930235038
• ISBN-13: 978-1930235038
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,998,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gothic Thailand, August 16, 2004

By 

Shady Ave Reader (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon's Fin Soup: Eight Modern Siamese Fables (Paperback)

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.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 8 Voyages into a twilight zone, January 11, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Dragon's Fin Soup: Eight Modern Siamese Fables (Paperback)

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.