Riverrun

Riverrun #1

by S.P. Somtow

Young Theo Etchison is a truthsayer — one with the ability to navigate the great river that connects all the parallel universes. His mother, Mary, is dying of cancer, but she may also be the mother goddess, the nurturer of the world. His father, Phil, is a second-rate poet; his brother, Joshua, has been seduced by a dragon-succubus.

On a journey through America to a Mexican alternative medicine clinic, the Etchison family is sucked into the world of the Darklings, superhuman creatures who are battling for domination of the cosmos, who need Theo’s special gift..

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Called by the Bangkok Post "the Thai person known by name to most people in the world," S.P. Somtow is an author, composer, filmmaker, and international media personality whose dazzling talents and acerbic wit have entertained and enlightened fans the world over.

He was Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul in Bangkok. His grandfather's sister was a Queen of Siam, his father is a well known international lawyer and vice-president of the International Academy of Human Rights. Somtow was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and his first career was in music. In the 1970s (while he was still in college) his works were being performed on four continents and he was named representative of Thailand to the Asian Composer's League and to the International Music Commission of UNESCO. His avant-garde compositions caused controversy and scandal in his native country, and a severe case of musical burnout in the late 1970s precipitated his entry into a second career - that of author.

He began writing science fiction, but soon started to invade other fields of writing, with some 40 books out now, including the clasic horror novel Vampire Junction, which defined the "rock and roll vampire" concept for the 80s, the Riverrun Trilogy ("the finest new series of the 90's" - Locus) and the semi-autobiographical memoir Jasmine Nights. He has won or been nominated for dozens of major awards including the Bram Stoker Award, the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award.

Somtow has also made some incursions into filmmaking, directing the cult classic The Laughing Dead and the award winning art film Ill Met by Moonlight.

Reviews

[Cognatious Thunk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like you would need to be high or tripping on acid to truly enjoy this book. It is not my cup of tea.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an audacious and original book. A family of four, Phil (father), Mary (mother) and their sons Josh (older) and Theo (younger) are on a road trip in the southwest to take Mary to a cancer clinic in Mexico. They fully expect Mary to die in Mexico, but the trip is the family's last journey together. They discover a weird Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, and an argument between the boys culminates in Theo being flung into another reality dominated by an aging king (Strang) and his children Thorn, Katastropha Darkling and Ash. Strang decided to divide his dimension-spanning empire among his children, and this precipitates a war among his children and himself. Theo and his family end up being pawns, and perhaps more, in this conflict. The story could have been told in a conventional manner with a straight-forward plot with concrete characters and fixed locations. Somtow is an unconventional author, and he has fully embraced the idea of alternate realities with multiple incarnations of his characters. This is both the strength and weakness of the novel. It is a strength because it makes the novel very original. It is a weakness because the reader can have a hard time keeping track of what the heck is happening. For me, the positive far outweigh the negatives. I look forward to finishing the trilogy, but I think I will read a book or two before I delve back into the series

[Kaila · Rating 1 out of 5]

UGH, it started out ok, then quickly fell off a 200 page cliff as it became nothing but one endless dream sequence. Why does the omnibus have nothing but 5 star reviews? Dare I try the next book in the trilogy?