2007 books

[peteryoung]

92) S.P. Somtow, I Wake from a Dream of a Drowned Star City, 1992
Theodore Sturgeon once called Somtow Sucharitkul "one of the most gifted masters of colour and spectacle", and being Thailand's only current SF author of note it was inevitable I'd start reading his SF and mainstream fiction. This novella of a cloned and alien-educated adolescent boy ascending to the royal throne of a far future Earth is most notable for its use of incest as a plot device. There's much Freudian symbolism at play and a strong use of class and underclass; though in many places well written it does have the feel of an inadequately formed idea only hastily sketched out – at novel length, with more background and a greater use of the very interesting aliens, it would most certainly have been better.