Dragon's Fin Soup: Eight Modern Siamese Fables

by S.P. Somtow

Dragon's Fin Soup Eight Modern Siamese Fables in the tradition of the Marx Brothers Eight Rowdy Tales where East and West don't meet-they collide Eight Frightening Ruminations where nothing is as it seems, and even the unreal is an illusion Eight Delectable Servings That could only have sprung from the fevered mind of . . . S. P. Somtow The most unique writer of this, or any other, millennium. "One of the most gifted masters of colour and spectacle." Theodore Sturgeon. S. P. Somtow is the J. D. Salinger of Siam." George Axelrod.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

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

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are like little side trips into a twilight zone. 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.

[Victoria McIvor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the raw and often poetic depictions of Thailand, but would love even more to unsee the misogyny and obsessions of these characters.

[DearReader]

A heady collection of shorts and novelettes. Apart from "Chui Chai" (which is easily categorizable as body horror), most of these stories are in a magical-realist vein; that said, Somtow's work is definitely not for the squeamish. He is unafraid to deal explicitly with the gross and disturbing aspects of life (nearly every bodily function gets a mention at some point), including violence and sexuality - which sometimes borders on gratuitousness.

Biggest disappointment: "Anna and the Ripper of Siam" (a readable but lurid - and predictable - alternate history), replaced in some later editions with "The Bird Catcher"

Best discovery: "Diamonds Aren't Forever"

[Sriram · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two good stories and six disappointing ones

I was curious about this author after having come across two of the stories in different science fiction and fantasy collections. Unfortunately, those two stories (Fiddling for Water Buffaloes and Lottery Night) were the only ones that were worth reading. The rest were unsatisfying, they just didn't hang together as stories and they lacked that wicked humour that attracted me about this author. The Steel American had some promise but the rest were just dross.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

...in this town, there’s no distinction between the real world and the world of illusion. It’s the only place in the world where all truths are true at the same time. [p. 264]

Subtitled 'Eight Modern Siamese Fables', these stories are set in Thailand -- mostly Bangkok -- at various points in the late twentieth century, and typically deal with the culture clash between Thai and Western culture, with flourishes of the fantastic. I especially liked 'The Steel American', about a knight seeking the Grail in a small village, and 'Fiddling for Water Buffaloes', a cheery tale of an American anthropologist, the trade in fake antiquities, and possible alien invasion. 

Some of the other stories felt dated: sexist, cyberpunk-inflected, plain body-horror. And the text is not formatted well in this edition.  In some of the stories it looks as though a draft version, complete with markup and comments, has been used.

But when it's good, it's very good: the little details of domestic life, the prevalence of belief in spiritual entities (good and otherwise), the juxtaposition of ancient and modern. I intend to read more of Somtow's work, having (I think) bounced off some of his horror fiction in the 1990s.

Read because: Many of S P Somtow's books are available on Kindle Unlimited, and I wanted to fill a challenge prompt -- 'by a Thai author or about Thailand'. This one looked interesting and accessible, and fulfilled both aspects of the prompt.

[Blair (Patchwork Culture) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inevitably, there’s a reading challenge book that’s a struggle, and this must be 2026’s candidate. Setting aside the formatting issues, the constant turn to vulgarity annoyed and disappointed me. Sex can be a good theme to explore, and it’s even a cool experience when authors revisit the same themes multiple times within a collection. However, the approach didn’t feel meaningful to me. It felt like a dark obsession and an attempt to be edgy. Even the whimsical effect seemed to be tottering off the tracks.

There were a lot of ideas that would have appealed to me without the weird focus on risky/dangerous sex and the fear of contracting HIV/AIDS (which again could have been really good subjects, even commentary on stigma and self-love). In theory, the opening story’s topic about the pressure of family legends and the consequences of eating dragon parts are concepts I should have liked. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me, and I became wary of the rest of the collection. Every time I thought I was enjoying a story, it turned to sex, but in a boring and gratuitous way.

The book revealed the author’s complex feelings about his birth country. His stories were littered with insults and fondness. Perhaps his long sojourn abroad affected how much the foreign was present in his fictional Thailand, full of Western influence as it was. I appreciated the critique about the looting of Thai artifacts and what it meant for outsiders to embed themselves in Thai life. The fact that some characters seemed to dislike their heritage or didn’t mind if foreigners consumed their culture added more to chew on. The really juicy elements like faith, superstition, spirits, financial precarity, rank, and cultural antiquities were dragged down by stilted and overly formal dialogue, cartoonish personas, and sexual, racist, or off-color language. It was just a bizarre reading experience.

Loved: N/A

Liked: The Steel American

Meh: Dragon’s Fin Soup, Lottery Night, Chui Chai, Diamonds Aren’t Forever, Fiddling for Water Buffaloes, The Last Time I Died in Venice

Need to Reread: The Bird Catcher

[Mark Ludmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining collection of short stories where spirits, horror and the fantastical exist just under the surface of everyday life. All set in the author’s native Thailand, they draw heavily on Thai culture and religion, offering fascinating insights into the country’s society and values. They particularly focuse on Bangkok where modernity sits alongside the spiritual and the ancestral past. Typical of a short story collection, some are stronger than others — the title story, "Lottery Night" and "The Steel American" were my favourites but, reading them after a visit to Bangkok, I found them all intriguing, told with playfulness and skill.

[Philip Tidman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another unequal collection of short stories. I have read one novel by this author, the excellent semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights, about an upper class boy growing up in an excentric household in Bangkok. This collection is also mostly set in Bangkok and the Stories give a rare insight into the lives of Thais, including the often outrageous superstitions that govern their lives. Anybody who is a fan of magic realism will certainly appreciate the title story and ‘Fiddling for Water Buffaloes’. And the quite gruesome ‘The Bird Catcher’ will also appeal to some. Sadly, the others are of lesser interest.

[Diana C · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

i couldn't really get into the story-telling or the protagonists. the narrators were mostly too self-aware for my taste - not a miranda july level of self-awareness, but noticeably self-aware - and the mysticism was too complete for my murakami-leaning preference. felt kind of predictable.

[Starry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this just before traveling to Thailand, and found these short stories an excellent prep to understanding a little more of the culture / mindset before arriving. Edgy, quirky stories, a quick read.