You can tell this is a late 80s reprint from the fact that it has his shortened name on it instead of Somtow Sucharitkul. They knew how to put together a nice looking book cover in the 80s and this one is no exception.
The story has to score several points for originality. We're in the distant future (2022) and a plague is spreading across what's left of the world after the millennial wars. The story is split between Japan and Hawaii.
On Hawaii we meet Josh Nakamura and his little brother Didi who was born on the night that the moon was blasted out of the sky. People think Didi is simple but he has abilities that no one could guess. They're desperate to leave for Japan, the last vestige of civilisation on the planet.
Japan has more than its fair share of problems too. Mass suicides are in progress at the behest of a mysterious figure calling himself the death Lord. Ryoko Ishida, daughter of on of Japan's first ministers and blessed with the ability to talk to whales, has other plans.
This is a world ending apocalypse unlike any I've read before, and I doubt I will again. I think maybe if I knew more about Japanese culture I might have picked up on some details that I've missed.
Somtow's prose is lush and lyrical. He builds this bizarre end of times in broad strokes. Where some writers would have used 210 pages just to set up the premise, Somtow trusts his readers to follow him on this headtrip and not lose track and tells the whole story in those 210 pages. And it's a trip well worth following him on. There are world changing revelations about the nature of humanity and life itself. They're thrown at us as casually as most writers will have a character decide on what coat to wear.
Like everything else he's written, this is a damned good read. Highly recommended.
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