His first novel, Starship and Haiku ( 1981), which won a Locus Award, is typical of much of his work: the tale takes place in a crowded but fluid Asian venue, with culture shocks leading to ornate resolutions in this case, the citizens of a Ruined Earth version of Japan are committing Suicide, but whales contact survivors (with whom they share a genetic heritage) and the novel closes as a new hybrid species sets off for the stars. He won the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1981. His first publication of any genre interest was a poem, "Kith of Infinity", which appeared in the Bangkok Press in 1967 and was assembled – along with early stories like "Sunsteps" (Summer 1977 Unearth) – in Fire from the Wine Dark Sea (coll 1983). After university education in the UK and a period in the USA, Somtow began more recently to spend about half his time in Thailand and half in America.
Working name of Thai composer/conductor and author Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul (1952- ), who has had a full double career, his first professional appearance as a conductor being at the age of nineteen he used his actual surname from the beginning of his career to 1985, when he switched to S P Somtow, announcing that any book previously signed Sucharitkul would be signed Somtow on reprinting (although some children's books continued to appear under the earlier form of his name ).
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