Review
I Wake from a Dream of a Drowned Star City
1992
Axolotl Press
Review by Peter Young in The Thai Literary Supplement #9 (June 2017).
Somtow’s 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. As a coming-of-age story there’s much Freudian symbolism at play here, and also a significant use of class and underclass within the cloned family themselves. The future Earth is unrecognisable yet the visual aspects to the story are strong – the society it depicts and the location it inhabits does indeed feel inward-looking and thoroughly ‘drowned’. Somtow’s prose doesn’t gloss over the sexual aspects of the way the story is rooted in adolescence and family ties; it makes for a weird read at times but the details are not dwelt upon. One thing I would have like to see more of is the bottled alien that acts as teacher; it adds a science fictional touch to something that more accurately resembles a good immersive fantasy.