What do you think?
Rate this book
Mallworld
So what is the rest of the galaxy doesn't want us? So what if the Selespridar have locked us up in a force field and towed our solar system to an uninhabited parallel universe? So what if we're always trying to get out?
We've still got Mallworld, the shopping center the size of a planet!
--Spend a week at the Gaza Plaza, carved out of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
--Dine on the delicacies of a thousand worlds at the Galaxy Restaurant, from Denebian whiteworms to softshell malaprops.
--Enjoy the psionically amplified performances of the greatest clavichrome player of all time, Julian Barjulian XIII, the wealthiest man in the Solar System.
--Play human pinball at the Arcades.
--Order a custom-designed baby at Storkways, Inc--but don't miss a payment or the Bogeyman will get you!
--Experience the ultimate at the Way Out Suicide Parlors: death by vampire is just one of 300 ways to go.
Hang on to your MegaCreditCard! You're about to embark on the wildest shopping spree in hthe universe!
We've still got Mallworld, the shopping center the size of a planet!
--Spend a week at the Gaza Plaza, carved out of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.
--Dine on the delicacies of a thousand worlds at the Galaxy Restaurant, from Denebian whiteworms to softshell malaprops.
--Enjoy the psionically amplified performances of the greatest clavichrome player of all time, Julian Barjulian XIII, the wealthiest man in the Solar System.
--Play human pinball at the Arcades.
--Order a custom-designed baby at Storkways, Inc--but don't miss a payment or the Bogeyman will get you!
--Experience the ultimate at the Way Out Suicide Parlors: death by vampire is just one of 300 ways to go.
Hang on to your MegaCreditCard! You're about to embark on the wildest shopping spree in hthe universe!
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
3 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
S.P. Somtow
180 books156 followersCalled 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 7, 2014
I stumbled on this in a second hand book store and bought it for two dollars. My life will never be the same.
Mallworld is a collection of seven short stories all taking place in the same universe, a place far in the future where everyone lives in space, and there's a shopping mall the size of a planet.
The whole book is excellent. That's basically going to be the rest of my review: EXCELLENT. Would recommend. Ten out of ten. I picked up a paperback book from the 80s that no one had ever heard of and was not expecting it to be of this quality.
My only qualm is the front cover text, which advertises the book as being the next funniest thing to the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. First off, that is a really high expectation to place on your book. Second of all, it's totally not true. This book is not much of a comedy book. The locations and events are odd, and humorous, but not very funny. Most of the stories are dark and weird. Enjoyable, and light-hearted, but not very funny.
I'm going to break it down by story to the best of my memory.
#1-
Throughout each story, there's a small side narrative of these alien overlords who have kept Earth in a bubble and away from the rest of the galaxy, discussing if Earth is ready to be freed. The frame for each story is that they are looking into human minds from various points in the last number of years and evaluating them.
The first tale is about a girl from the bible belt, a chain of astroids that is fairly backward in that they still teach kids to read. They believe in this odd mix of about five real world religions. The narrator for this one- all the stories are in first person- is one of my favorites. She runs away to mallworld, a place that is described in fairly similar ways each chapter, so much so that I wonder if the chapters were published stand alone at some point.
There, she generally wanders and we see a lot of awesome exposition. I love mallworld. It's so ridiculous, between suicide parlors and automatic shopping bags, and all the other hundred of so things this book introduces you to. I don't want to give full plot for each of my summaries, but this is a cute first story.
#2-
Our second tale is a man reflecting on his youth. He's introduced as Julian barJulian, part of the richest family in the human universe. He owns mallworld. His whole family is a bit of a running theme in the book, showing up and playing parts or at least getting mentioned. Julian barJulian is my absolute favorite name, by the way, and I will treasure it forever.
Julian talks about strange people he used to see in mallworld, homeless kids who lived there. And he gets caught up with one of them, tracking her and trying to find out who she is. Compared to the previous, light-hearted tale, this one is seriously pretty dark. There's a nice resolution, but still- bad things exist, and they are not changed. Also, he plays a musical instrument that puts on laser light shows.
#3-
This is probably my favorite. A reporter, and his robot camera, try to investigate the stories of a vampire living in mallworld. The whole story is a mystery, with them running around and trying to solve it. It's fun, the mystery is fun, and again it's very high in drama and darkness.
This is also the first time we see the theme of stars show up. The rest of the stories usually have a bit to talk about them- when the humans were bubbled from the rest of the universe, all the stars were blocked out.
#4-
This one is the story of how stars were brought back to mallworld in one specific restaurant. The milky galaxy (or something like that) was a high end restaurant that serves alien cuisine and has windows that display fake stars. The main character is a waitress working there when an alien dish turns out to be alive and escapes into mallworld. Whatever it bites becomes rabid and attacks others. She and her boyfriend try and catch it.
This story brought out a very sudden reaction from me towards the end, where I sort of exclaimed out loud 'no'. Because, no. Wow. There was a twist that actually gathered a real reaction from me. That's a pretty good sign!
#5-
Moving back to the theme of the barJulian family, this is the life story of an artist who is tasked to create an icy tomb for one of the barJulians. Essentially, he has sex with her when he's a teen, and she challenges him to build a giant, ice stature of her on the outskirts of jupiter to serve as her tomb.
This one is a lot more of a life story, as said. He talks about trying for a few years, but never getting farther than her lips. And then he goes off and marries someone in mallworld and has twelve children, and is severely depressed with his life- until dimensions cross and he meets an alternate version of himself and visits that other universe.
This one was actually super great. The vampire one is my favorite, and this is probably right behind it. I love any family of insane rich people, and the barJulians are pretty great in that aspect. The actual story here is sweet too.
#6-
This one is.... weird. The next one is even weirder. A woman works as a boogeyman for the child genetics lab. Essentially, if you don't pay your bills for your child, a boogeyman picks the kid up and puts them on a used child lot and up for sale. That part of the story is not the odd part.
Our hero is tasked to collect from a sect of the barJulians, essentially the disliked cousins. They haven't been paying for their expensive, custom designed daughter who has eyes that honestly show Jupiter. They collect ugly art and the father has custom-limbed himself until he looks like a human centipede of limbs.
The girl travels with the boogeyman, and tries to convince her to take her to mallworld, where a gang called the 'mallkyries' have been contacting her.
This story isn't terrible, but it's weird as hell. Everything that happens, really. Also, a weird but semi-expected thing is that the age of consent is like 8 in this world, and the young girl casually asks the bogeyman if she'd like to have sex. I don't know. It can get uncomfortable. But the ending is still cute?
#7-
Wait, did I say the last one was weird? This is weirder. The main fact there is a place called 'copuland' should cue you in.
The main dude practices anti-grav surfing, and is interrupted by a barJulian and old friend who wants him to convince his family to open Copuland, a sexual themepark. Evidently, the council of mallworld thinks the place is too crass.
At one point, he tours Copuland and views all the odd sexual things. There's even a creature called a porcupine who- god. It's weird, okay? This chapter has a lot of sexual things in it, and it's very weird. My high praises for this book were not lies, and there's some great stuff going on. It's interesting. But god, it's weird as hell.
Porcupines are people covered in various sexual orifices, allowing for some weird orgies (you have to pay extra for a private session). Our main hero falls accidentally in love with one. Then Copuland starts flooding, and a giant shark is involved, and-
Okay. Let's end it there.
End notes:
Just read this book.
Mallworld is a collection of seven short stories all taking place in the same universe, a place far in the future where everyone lives in space, and there's a shopping mall the size of a planet.
The whole book is excellent. That's basically going to be the rest of my review: EXCELLENT. Would recommend. Ten out of ten. I picked up a paperback book from the 80s that no one had ever heard of and was not expecting it to be of this quality.
My only qualm is the front cover text, which advertises the book as being the next funniest thing to the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. First off, that is a really high expectation to place on your book. Second of all, it's totally not true. This book is not much of a comedy book. The locations and events are odd, and humorous, but not very funny. Most of the stories are dark and weird. Enjoyable, and light-hearted, but not very funny.
I'm going to break it down by story to the best of my memory.
#1-
Throughout each story, there's a small side narrative of these alien overlords who have kept Earth in a bubble and away from the rest of the galaxy, discussing if Earth is ready to be freed. The frame for each story is that they are looking into human minds from various points in the last number of years and evaluating them.
The first tale is about a girl from the bible belt, a chain of astroids that is fairly backward in that they still teach kids to read. They believe in this odd mix of about five real world religions. The narrator for this one- all the stories are in first person- is one of my favorites. She runs away to mallworld, a place that is described in fairly similar ways each chapter, so much so that I wonder if the chapters were published stand alone at some point.
There, she generally wanders and we see a lot of awesome exposition. I love mallworld. It's so ridiculous, between suicide parlors and automatic shopping bags, and all the other hundred of so things this book introduces you to. I don't want to give full plot for each of my summaries, but this is a cute first story.
#2-
Our second tale is a man reflecting on his youth. He's introduced as Julian barJulian, part of the richest family in the human universe. He owns mallworld. His whole family is a bit of a running theme in the book, showing up and playing parts or at least getting mentioned. Julian barJulian is my absolute favorite name, by the way, and I will treasure it forever.
Julian talks about strange people he used to see in mallworld, homeless kids who lived there. And he gets caught up with one of them, tracking her and trying to find out who she is. Compared to the previous, light-hearted tale, this one is seriously pretty dark. There's a nice resolution, but still- bad things exist, and they are not changed. Also, he plays a musical instrument that puts on laser light shows.
#3-
This is probably my favorite. A reporter, and his robot camera, try to investigate the stories of a vampire living in mallworld. The whole story is a mystery, with them running around and trying to solve it. It's fun, the mystery is fun, and again it's very high in drama and darkness.
This is also the first time we see the theme of stars show up. The rest of the stories usually have a bit to talk about them- when the humans were bubbled from the rest of the universe, all the stars were blocked out.
#4-
This one is the story of how stars were brought back to mallworld in one specific restaurant. The milky galaxy (or something like that) was a high end restaurant that serves alien cuisine and has windows that display fake stars. The main character is a waitress working there when an alien dish turns out to be alive and escapes into mallworld. Whatever it bites becomes rabid and attacks others. She and her boyfriend try and catch it.
This story brought out a very sudden reaction from me towards the end, where I sort of exclaimed out loud 'no'. Because, no. Wow. There was a twist that actually gathered a real reaction from me. That's a pretty good sign!
#5-
Moving back to the theme of the barJulian family, this is the life story of an artist who is tasked to create an icy tomb for one of the barJulians. Essentially, he has sex with her when he's a teen, and she challenges him to build a giant, ice stature of her on the outskirts of jupiter to serve as her tomb.
This one is a lot more of a life story, as said. He talks about trying for a few years, but never getting farther than her lips. And then he goes off and marries someone in mallworld and has twelve children, and is severely depressed with his life- until dimensions cross and he meets an alternate version of himself and visits that other universe.
This one was actually super great. The vampire one is my favorite, and this is probably right behind it. I love any family of insane rich people, and the barJulians are pretty great in that aspect. The actual story here is sweet too.
#6-
This one is.... weird. The next one is even weirder. A woman works as a boogeyman for the child genetics lab. Essentially, if you don't pay your bills for your child, a boogeyman picks the kid up and puts them on a used child lot and up for sale. That part of the story is not the odd part.
Our hero is tasked to collect from a sect of the barJulians, essentially the disliked cousins. They haven't been paying for their expensive, custom designed daughter who has eyes that honestly show Jupiter. They collect ugly art and the father has custom-limbed himself until he looks like a human centipede of limbs.
The girl travels with the boogeyman, and tries to convince her to take her to mallworld, where a gang called the 'mallkyries' have been contacting her.
This story isn't terrible, but it's weird as hell. Everything that happens, really. Also, a weird but semi-expected thing is that the age of consent is like 8 in this world, and the young girl casually asks the bogeyman if she'd like to have sex. I don't know. It can get uncomfortable. But the ending is still cute?
#7-
Wait, did I say the last one was weird? This is weirder. The main fact there is a place called 'copuland' should cue you in.
The main dude practices anti-grav surfing, and is interrupted by a barJulian and old friend who wants him to convince his family to open Copuland, a sexual themepark. Evidently, the council of mallworld thinks the place is too crass.
At one point, he tours Copuland and views all the odd sexual things. There's even a creature called a porcupine who- god. It's weird, okay? This chapter has a lot of sexual things in it, and it's very weird. My high praises for this book were not lies, and there's some great stuff going on. It's interesting. But god, it's weird as hell.
Porcupines are people covered in various sexual orifices, allowing for some weird orgies (you have to pay extra for a private session). Our main hero falls accidentally in love with one. Then Copuland starts flooding, and a giant shark is involved, and-
Okay. Let's end it there.
End notes:
Just read this book.
February 10, 2019
This blast from the past is a collection of short stories from the early 1980's. The scenario is this: Centuries from now, the human race will be visited by an advanced race called the Selespridar. They'll shunt the solar system into a parallel universe to keep us in quarantine as they (slowly) judge whether humanity has evolved enough to become part of the greater pan-galactic civilization. Considering the stories in this book center around 30-kilometer-long shopping mall in the vicinity of Jupiter, you can probably guess that we have a ways to go.
The tales of Mallworld are amusing, though they elicit more of a quick grin than any LOLs. (Of course, they were written before LOLs, so that might be a factor.) Many of those are anachronisms/malapropisms committed by characters in their references to our ancient era. The overall purpose of the collection seems to be to take pot-shots at the vapidness of American consumer society while telling tales of common people confronting the crushing pressures brought to bear by wealth and power and winning peace and contentment in the end. There's a lot of worse things you could be reading.
The tales of Mallworld are amusing, though they elicit more of a quick grin than any LOLs. (Of course, they were written before LOLs, so that might be a factor.) Many of those are anachronisms/malapropisms committed by characters in their references to our ancient era. The overall purpose of the collection seems to be to take pot-shots at the vapidness of American consumer society while telling tales of common people confronting the crushing pressures brought to bear by wealth and power and winning peace and contentment in the end. There's a lot of worse things you could be reading.
August 21, 2025
if Cyberiad and Hitchhikers Guide had a mostly entertaining baby, reading has brought me closer to ug'unnieth
March 18, 2025
For an explanation of why I read this book, click here.
I cannot for the life of me remember why I was so excited to get this book twenty years ago. Seriously. I remember being astonished at coming across this early edition, and then... yeah, it's a blank. I hadn't ever read anything by the author, so that's a mystery, too.
And now, having read the first two stories in the fix-up novel, I'm even more mystified. The concept is clever enough: aliens, having come across humanity and been unimpressed, have shunted most of our solar system into a pocket dimension until we can prove we're mature enough to join the grownups in the rest of the universe, but at least we still have Mallworld--a giant shopping mall that serves up everything from religious experiences to suicide parlors. Somtow Sucharitkul/S.P. Somtow has a frenetic style that suits the decadent concept, and this future history setting feels wild and Blade Runner-ish.
The thing is, I'm just not connecting with the stories. Maybe it's that I'm reading them too late, and I've seen all this done many times before--challenges to culture and morality, challenges to religion, etc. It's obviously not the author's fault I didn't read these when they were first published to maybe be more impressed by their mildly transgressive nature. Still, it is what it is, and I'm going to mark this unfinished and move on.
I cannot for the life of me remember why I was so excited to get this book twenty years ago. Seriously. I remember being astonished at coming across this early edition, and then... yeah, it's a blank. I hadn't ever read anything by the author, so that's a mystery, too.
And now, having read the first two stories in the fix-up novel, I'm even more mystified. The concept is clever enough: aliens, having come across humanity and been unimpressed, have shunted most of our solar system into a pocket dimension until we can prove we're mature enough to join the grownups in the rest of the universe, but at least we still have Mallworld--a giant shopping mall that serves up everything from religious experiences to suicide parlors. Somtow Sucharitkul/S.P. Somtow has a frenetic style that suits the decadent concept, and this future history setting feels wild and Blade Runner-ish.
The thing is, I'm just not connecting with the stories. Maybe it's that I'm reading them too late, and I've seen all this done many times before--challenges to culture and morality, challenges to religion, etc. It's obviously not the author's fault I didn't read these when they were first published to maybe be more impressed by their mildly transgressive nature. Still, it is what it is, and I'm going to mark this unfinished and move on.
October 1, 2023
This was an entertaining reread. Written during the 80s, it was quite a commentary on consumerism during that time period. There was quite a mall culture that is reflected here. Also entertaining was how the author mishmashed our history as seen through the prism of the future. What would happen if an alien culture, superior to ours, decided to take us under their wing? And what if they recognized that we weren’t quite ready to stand our own, and quarantined us until we were? That’s the theme that runs through these stories.
June 16, 2021
This was very entertaining.
September 3, 2023
On of my favorite books. This one never gets old.
July 6, 2022
Such an amazing, innovative, fun, and wise collection of 7 zany short stories based on the fictional intergalactic destination of Mallworld. I really enjoyed it and all the stories were super memorable.
June 27, 2012
3.5 stars. This book was an absolute surprise: I came in with minimal expectations and was rewarded with a deeply engaging experience. The short stories are uniformly good, all of which center around the eponymous Mallworld. The book dwells on profound issues such as freedom and the meaning of life. And it does it in a bizarre universe where proper classic attire is your birthday suit and virtually no one can read.
The tagline on the book cover references The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, which does both books a disservice. I found Mallworld to be absurdist, but not generally funny; in fact, the two books are really nothing alike. There's nothing wrong with that -- but it's merely as if the person who wrote the front blurb hadn't read Mallworld, which saddens me.
The tagline on the book cover references The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, which does both books a disservice. I found Mallworld to be absurdist, but not generally funny; in fact, the two books are really nothing alike. There's nothing wrong with that -- but it's merely as if the person who wrote the front blurb hadn't read Mallworld, which saddens me.
February 6, 2014
Another hard to find book. Given the title and the subject matter you would expect a book of humor, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. There is humor at times, but the stories can be rather grim and depressing also. That aside, the book is delightfully weird. At Mallword, a planet-sized shopping mall, you can find or do anything. Bored? Stop in at a suicide parlor, or join the Cult of the Month Club. Worth a read.
August 15, 2013
I've read this one a few times, and recalled it being some good short storytelling that ultimately deals with some deep issues in a satisfying way... and it is. What I didn't remember is that man, these stories are weird.
November 6, 2007
Very funny satire of the marketing-based economy in the U.S. fast-forwarded to the future.
July 3, 2010
I can't quite recall the connection now, but somehow my friend, Jeff had some social connection to this author, so I read a bunch of his books. I remember enjoying the premise of this one.
June 21, 2013
amusing
January 26, 2016
Read this years ago and just re-read it. As good as I remembered it. Raises interesting questions about the "worth" of humanity.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews