Selected for the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 anthology, this urban contemporary fantasy novella by World Fantasy Award-winning author S.P. Somtow tells the story of Kris, a boy growing up in a Catholic orphanage in the slums of Bangkok, who learns that he is actually the final incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu and must battle the dragon Jade to keep the world green. The first in a series, Another Avatar tells how Kris blunders into discovering his identity after sneaking out to a midnight funeral, catching a god in the act of stealing bananas from the orphanage kitchen, and accidentally fixing the lottery. "Somtow is the J.D. Salinger of Siam!" — George Axelrod, screenwriter of Breakfast at Tiffany's Author of over seventy books like Jasmine Nights, Mallworld,and Vampire Junction, composer of a number of widely admired operas such as Dan no Ura, Helena Citrónová, and The Silent Prince, S.P. alternates between his homes in Los Angeles and Bangkok. In 2017, he became the first Asian to be awarded the European Cultural Achievement Award, given by the KulturForum in Berlin to one person each year, a nod to his many accomplishments in music and literature as a bridge between Asian and Western cultures.
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.
