S P Somtow

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 trilogy, World Fantasy Award winning author lays bare the darkest secrets of Imperial Rome - its triumphs and its nadirs, its beauty and its cruelty. If Gore Vidal had written Quo Vadis this could well have been the result. Through this chaos, a contorted mirror of our contemporary world, this figure of Sporus moves, all too knowing yet all too innocent, providing a worm's eye view of one of the wildest periods in ancient history. Imperatrix, the second volume of the tale, takes us into the heart of the Imperial palace with all its intrigue, depravity, and splendor." Somtow's pen knows no boundaries. From outrageous sex scandals to fascinating detail-rich elements of history that draw you right into the machinations of Ancient Rome ..." - from Proof Positive"This is compulsive reading and all the more remarkable for being broadly speaking a true story. All the key players in this story are genuine and the story follows real events in their lives. The book feels very well researched but the research is used to fuel the story rather than slow it down. Somtow's writing has rarely been more compulsive than this. It's a fast, and incredibly easy read despite the complexities of the politics woven into the narrative." - Marc Lyth in Marc's World of Books

World Fantasy Award winning author S. P. Somtow has written a book for "children" of all ages - a book about the symphony orchestra, reimagined as a band of dinosaurs. Pithy, outrageous poetry and humorous illustrations come together in a book originally created to go along with a musical fantasy to be performed by a symphony orchestra. For precocious kids and nostalgic adults alike, Dinosaur Symphony is fun for the whole family.

Embryos go missing from a museum of the dead. A serial killer reveals his deepest secrets moments before his lethal injection. A shapeshifter realizes she isn't insane after all ... Three uncollected horror tales by S. P. Somtow from the last decade showcase the talents of this World Fantasy Award winning novelist.

In World Fantasy Award winning author S. P. Somtow's second book in the "Club X" series of light novels set in a Thai boarding school full of dark secrets, Kim and his on-again off-again best friend Fluke, gender-bending Polo, psychic Danger and fish-out-of-water Donut, the principal's daughter, cross into alternate universes, battle zombies and eccentric nuns, and enlist the help of their vampire English teacher to solve the mysteries of the universe. A queer take on the standard "kids unearth the dark secrets of their school" trope, the first book has been made into a web TV series which will come out in 2023.

In one volume at last - all of world fantasy award winning author S. P. Somtow's vampire stories - from the sci-fi Vampire of Mallworld to the courtroom drama of Vanilla Blood, to stories about Timmy Valentine, some of which were not incorporated into the three volumes of the Timmy Valentine Trilogy. Includes the International Horror Guild Award winning story Brimstone and Salt, which describes what really might have happened in Gomorrah, the Los Angeles fairy tale The Ugliest Duckling, in which a vampire searches for human connection during the era of AIDS, Red as Jade, a standalone Timmy Valentine story set in the mafia-run jade markets of the Golden Triangle, and many more.

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 what's in the closet?

The shopping center as big as a planet is back - this time with over 80 pages of new material including the first new Mallworld story in thirty years - the jaw-dropping Mallworld Becomes Elektra which takes the premise of the entire satirical universe and turns it on its ear. A pungent satire of the rampant commercialism of the 1980s, S. P, Somtow's Mallworld stories first appeared in Isaac Asimov's during the post-Star Wars age of science fiction. Many things predicted in the Mallworld stories are happening today' from roller coasters inside shopping malls to cloning your filet mignon. Other things haven't happened yet but who knows? From suicide parlors to dining on the larvae of super-intelligent alliens, from baby showrooms to child repo agents ... everything is possible in Mallworld, the comic yet chilling dystopia of a future gone wild. Join the cult-of-the-month club, Insert your suppository vaculax, and shop for a nice second- hand body, preferably with compound eyes ... and if you are very lucky, party with the barJulians, who own simply everything ... including your soul. BEYOND MALLWORLD is the newest, most complete collection of Mallworld stories including the complete illustrations of Karl Kofoed and a brand new novella about a Mallworld in which people have ceased to shop

The shopping center as big as a planet is back - this time with over 80 pages of new material including the first new Mallworld story in thirty years - the jaw-dropping Mallworld Becomes Elektra which takes the premise of the entire satirical universe and turns it on its ear. A pungent satire of the rampant commercialism of the 1980s, S. P, Somtow's Mallworld stories first appeared in Isaac Asimov's during the post-Star Wars age of science fiction. Many things predicted in the Mallworld stories are happening today' from roller coasters inside shopping malls to cloning your filet mignon. Other things haven't happened yet but who knows? From suicide parlors to dining on the larvae of super-intelligent alliens, from baby showrooms to child repo agents ... everything is possible in Mallworld, the comic yet chilling dystopia of a future gone wild. Join the cult-of-the-month club, Insert your suppository vaculax, and shop for a nice second- hand body, preferably with compound eyes ... and if you are very lucky, party with the barJulians, who own simply everything ... including your soul. BEYOND MALLWORLD is the newest, most complete collection of Mallworld stories including the complete illustrations of Karl Kofoed and a brand new novella about a Mallworld in which people have ceased to shop

"S. P. Somtow doesn't write like anyone else" - Dean R. KoontzVirgin. Mother. Goddess. Miriam of Nazareth was all three. S. P. Somtow's deconstructive retelling of the life of the most famous woman in history is set in a richly pagan world, where hellenism coexisted with monotheism, where Roman-occupied Judaea was not all sand and zealots but a richly-layered territory of a polyglot, multiethnic world. It's a world where women still practice their ancient mysteries alongside the rigidly structured society of patriarchs. Perhaps controversial, "Miriam" lay in a drawer for two decades despite its author's success in fields such as science fiction, horror and fantasy. It's now being released one episode at a time." Annunciation" is the first part of an epic novel in serial form.

The majestic conclusion of the original Inquestor Series, S. P. Somtow's classic masterpiece of the fall of a galactic empire, returns in a new edition in time for the publication of new novels in the series. What is it like to rule over a million worlds, to uphold a civilization that has not changed in twenty thousand years? Haunted by the spirit of a sentient star. in the grip of the Throne of Madness, Kelver has tried to lead a revolution - but has godhood corrupted him? Published for the first time with Theodore Sturgeon's specially written introduction, this edition of The Darkling Wind completesthe reissue in new paper, hardcover and digital editions of an iconic series which is now growing in breadth as a second trilogy emerges in the twenty-first century. In the long dark age that followed, the High Inquest would be remembered as a golden age. For the Inquestors had harnessed the unfathomable power of the heart of stars, sailing the overcosm in their delphinoid ships and tachyon bubbles to dance on the faces of suns. But the Inquest had its darker side as well. For these beings played a ruthless game with billions of lives, snuffing out worlds as chessplayers take pawns. Waging an unending war on the false utopias that tempt mankind, they sought to free humanity by enslaving it. At last, after countless centuries, the Inquest was torn apart. This is the story of the fall of that great empire, and of the rebel Inquestor who hastened its end.

Kelver had been chosen by a heretic to be the chosen one who would bring down a galactic empire that had lasted twenty thousand years and controlled a million worlds. He was sent to Uran s'Varek, the vast artificial sphere build around the black hole at the heart of the galaxy, to be trained in the ways of the High Inquest, the godlike elite who ruled the known universe. Instead, he fell in love with the beautiful, cruel White Inquestrix Siriss, and the violet-eyed boy Arryk - was entranced by the singing city of Shentrazjit - wept at the sepulcher of worlds - made love in a desert of powdered chocolate - and was finally possessed by the Throne of Madness, whose unimaginable power came from the deaths of stars. The Inquestor Series, a dazzling future history of a galactic empire of shattering beauty and brutality, was iconic science fiction of the 1980s by World Fantasy Award and Campbell Award winner S. P. Somtow, who created worlds, languages, cultures and spectacle. In the words of Analog magazine, "He may yet give us the greatest science fiction novel of all time." Forty years on, the series has come to life again, with additional novels, revised editions and new introductions and ancillary materials. Somtow's far-flung galactic civilization is a creation to rival Silverberg's Majipoor or Herbert's Dune. It is a universe with its own language and exotic customs, vividly etched characters and rich history that spans thousands of worlds and tens of thousands of years. The godlike Inquestors of the High Inquest had forsaken all that made them human. But one young Inquestor rediscovered the power of compassion and hastened the end of their ancient, starflung empire....

Conclusion of the Fifth Novel of Somtow's galactic epic "Chronicles of the High Inquest" - and beginning of the Sixth novel in the series, "Stillness in Starlight/"

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 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 of entire planets, delphinoid ships that sail the overcosm, utopias that must be hunted down and destroyed in the name of the High Compassion, thinkhives that connect the galaxy via the space between spaces ... All this must end. And end it does, in what Theodore Sturgeon has described as "the greatest magnitude of color and spectacle since Stapledon." For the fortieth anniversary of the publication of the first Inquestor story in Analog, Diplodocus Press is bringing back revised editions of all four of the original Chronicles of the High Inquest -- and releasing a fifth volume, Homeworld of the Heart with a sixth, Stillness in Starlight, already in preparation."he can create a world with less apparent effort than some writers devote to creating a small room ... yet these tales are intricately wrought as those handcarved oriental balls within balls" -- The Washington Post"his dense, poetic prose is as unique as his name" -- Los Angeles Times "One of SF's formidable talents " --Publishers Weekly"His multicultural viewpoint may yet give us the best SF novel of all time" -- Analog

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 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 of entire planets, delphinoid ships that sail the overcosm, utopias that must be hunted down and destroyed in the name of the High Compassion, thinkhives that connect the galaxy via the space between spaces ... All this must end. And end it does, in what Theodore Sturgeon has described as "the greatest magnitude of color and spectacle since Stapledon." For the fortieth anniversary of the publication of the first Inquestor story in Analog, Diplodocus Press is bringing back revised editions of all four of the original Chronicles of the High Inquest - and releasing a fifth volume, Homeworld of the Heart with a sixth, Stillness in Starlight, already in preparation. "he can create a world with less apparent effort than some writers devote to creating a small room ... yet these tales are intricately wrought as those handcarved oriental balls within balls" - The Washington Post"his dense, poetic prose is as unique as his name" - Los Angeles Times "One of SF's formidable talents " -Publishers Weekly"His multicultural viewpoint may yet give us the best SF novel of all time" - Analog

a retrospective collection of S. P, Somtow's science fiction stories, from Sunsteps which first appeared in Unearth magazine in 1977 to Alien Heresies from 2007, this book covers thirty years of the wide-ranging author-composer's career. 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 Mikey Jiraros

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 Inquestors -- even, it was rumored, his lover. In his old age, Ton Elloran visits a backwater planet that purports to contain the tomb of Sajit. A nostalgic visit to his childhood companion birth planet, however, reveals that everything he thought he knew about his closest friend was wrong -- and that there were at least two Sajits, their stories bifurcating and melding in an ever more complex skein of memory, desire, and loss. Homeworld of the Heart begins in a small village in a backworld -- where a microscopic glitch in Inquestral management has caused two contradictory games of majr gh to be played out. People bins are raining from the sky, a city is devouring another city, and a goddess must learn to become a whore as cultures and worlds clash. The Inquestor Series is like Game of Thrones -- but on a galactic scale. For twenty centuries, the godlike Inquestors have ruled the million worlds of the Dispersal of Man, keeping all its disparate civilizations in precarious balance by playing the star-destroying game of makr gh. Theodore Sturgeon said "Somtow deals with the greatest magnitude of concept since Stapledon ... I deeply envy anyone who has not read the tale of the Inquestors, for they have before them this transcendent experience." Orson Scott Card said of this series, "he can create a world with less apparent effort than some writers devote to creating a small room ..." and in HOMEWORLD OF THE HEART Somtow revisits and vastly expands the teeming landscape of the Inquestor series.

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 Inquestors - even, it was rumored, his lover. In his old age, Ton Elloran visits a backwater planet that purports to contain the tomb of Sajit. A nostalgic visit to his childhood companion birth planet, however, reveals that everything he thought he knew about his closest friend was wrong - and that there were at least two Sajits, their stories bifurcating and melding in an ever more complex skein of memory, desire, and loss. Homeworld of the Heart begins in a small village in a backworld - where a microscopic glitch in Inquestral management has caused two contradictory games of makr gh to be played out. People bins are raining from the sky, a city is devouring another city, and a goddess must learn to become a whore as cultures and worlds clash. The Inquestor Series is like Game of Thrones - but on a galactic scale. For twenty centuries, the godlike Inquestors have ruled the million worlds of the Dispersal of Man, keeping all its disparate civilizations in precarious balance by playing the star-destroying game of makr gh. Theodore Sturgeon said "Somtow deals with the greatest magnitude of concept since Stapledon ... I deeply envy anyone who has not read the tale of the Inquestors, for they have before them this transcendent experience." Orson Scott Card said of this series, "he can create a world with less apparent effort than some writers devote to creating a small room ..." and in Homeworld of the Heart Somtow revisits and vastly expands the teeming landscape of the Inquestor series.