The Ultimate Mallworld [Paperback]

S. P. Somtow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2000

Here collected together for the first time are all the short stories, ads, and illustrations for 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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc.; 1 edition (April 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189206507X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892065070
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,789,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BarJulians are having a party..., April 9, 2005

By 

Vinnie Bartilucci "freelance pontificator" (Whitehall, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate Mallworld (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of Somtow Sucharitkul's novels, October 28, 2004

By 

W. Johnson (The Mile High City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate Mallworld (Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars 30 clicks of Totally Awsome (tzum)., October 19, 2001

By 

R KENNER BRENT (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ultimate Mallworld (Paperback)

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)