Product Description
Selected carefully by well-respected editor Robert Weinberg and with an introduction by award-winning author Gene Wolfe, The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith offers both readers and scholars a definitive collection of short fiction and short novels, by an overlooked master of fantasy, horror and science-fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

They Don't Write `Em Like This Anymore....
Purple-grassed dimensions of wonder... burnt-out post-apocalyptic worlds of sorcery... dismal fog infested towns of misery... nightmarish kingdoms of necromancy... France... these are some of the surreal and mind-bendingly weird realms that you will journey to in this book, with Clark Ashton Smith as your guide.Smith was indeed a wordsmith like no other, as the other reviews on this page will attest. In a typical CAS story, plot and characterization are almost secondary to beauty of language and sheer, raw emotion and imagination.This makes him very different from most modern writers and a refreshing change of pace for the reader (like me) who has become bored with bland prose and authors with only a rudimentary grasp of the English Language. It is a shame that he is virtually unknown to the average horror or fantasy reader.Hopefully this collection can help change that.

"Return of the Sorcerer" is presented as a definitive collection of Smith's best short stories, but I have some qualms about this.Some of the weird tales herein are, I believe, amongst the best Smith ever wrote ("The Dark Eidolon" is my personal favorite).Some however - such as "The Disinterment of Venus" - are slight in comparison and puzzle me as to the reason for their inclusion.In the end, I think that "Return of the Sorcerer" works better as a general introduction than a true "best of" collection.The stories here are good reading for the first time Smith reader and will give them a good idea of what the author is all about.

Another quibble I have with this book is that a few typos made it past the editors before printing - "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" containing the most examples.First, the header for every page in the story says "The *Vaunts* of Yoh-Vombis."Oops.Much more egregious though is the error made on page 85 with "We heard a measured and recurrent clangor as we neared the place" presented as "Weheardameasuredandrecurrentclangoraswenearedtheplace."I had no idea that Clark Ashton Smith preferred to write sentences in the ancient Roman style.I half expected to find u's written as v's.

Minor grumbling aside, this is a good introduction to Clark Ashton Smith.Even though it is missing some of my favorite stories (where's "The Abominations of Yondo?") and there are typos,most of the tales are winners and Smith's language shines through well enough. If you enjoy horror, dark fantasy or science fiction you should pick this up.If the thought of being transported to fantastic worlds both delightful and horrifying appeals to you, definitely pick this up - no one could invent worlds like Clark Ashton Smith.

Going For Baroque
Oh, boy, kiddies. This is a good one. Any "best of" collection of Clark Ashton Smith's writing that's deserving of the title (and this one is, very much so) is going to be a veritable embarassment of riches for those who are predisposed to enjoy his work, so it's difficult to know where to start. Perhaps it's best to give the potential reader a small sample of Smith's prose, if for no other reason to than to make it clear (to name another great literary Californian) that we're not hanging out with John Steinbeck in Salinas here. To that end, here's a brief excerpt from "The Dark Eidolon" (one of my favorite stories in the collection), in which the wizard Namirrha casts a spell of apocalyptic doom on the country of Xylac:

"Instantly, it seemed that great ebon clouds of thunder beetled against the sun. Lining the horizon, the clouds took the form of colossal monsters with heads and members somewhat resembling those of stallions. Rearing terribly, they trod down the sun like an extinguished ember; and racing as if in some hippodrome of Titans, they rose higher and vaster, coming towards Ummaos. Deep, calamitous rumblings preceded them, and the earth shook visibly, till Zotulla saw that these were not immaterial clouds, but actual living forms that had come forth to tread the world in macrocosmic vastness. Throwing their shadows for many leagues before them, the coursers charged as if devil-ridden into Xylac, and their feet descended like falling mountain crags upon far oases and towns of the outer wastes."

You probably had one of two reactions upon reading the above passage. If your favorite reading matter is the short stories published in The New Yorker, I'm guessing your reaction was something along the lines of, "Ugh! I'll have to mark HIM down as a must to avoid!" However, if you're like me and are open to styles that are, shall we say, a bit more gothic and/or baroque than those preferred by your average John Updike fan (I mean no disrespect, by the way - I like his work, too), you might very well say, as I did, "Wow! This is it. This is the guy I've been looking for my whole life."

(Incidentally, I think that's how it often is with a writer like Smith. He's certainly not a writer who appeals to all tastes - unsuprisingly, as this was hardly his intention.)

Anyway, if you fall into the latter group and you get your hands on this volume, you are, as they say, in for a real treat. This is a really great collection that will give you hours of delight. (It'll also give you a chance to give your favorite dictionary a run for its money - Smith had an enormous vocabulary of esoteric words that he was unafraid to employ at will.) I sincerely hope you find the kind of joy in Smith's weird literary wizardry that I have.

A Tremendous story collection by a near-forgotten author
Clark Ashton Smith, along with Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, was considered one of the three great authors who wrote for Weird Tales in the 1930's.This collection reprints 18 of Smith's best stories for that magazine and other publications of the period. While Howard and Lovecraft have been reprinted innumerable times, Smith has been mostly forgotten or published in expensive hardcover collections aimed at the hard-core collector.This edition from Prime Books contains a great sampling of Smith's work and an introduction by noted SF/fantasy author, Gene Wolfe. It's edited by life-long Smith fan and weird fiction expert, Robert Weinberg (me).And it's priced right, available from Amazon.com for little more than $10.00.

It's hard to single out any one story as being the star of this collection as all of the stories in the book are top notch.Still, "The City of the Singing Flame" is hard to match as a science-fantasy classic.This novelet is one of Smith's masterpieces and is one of the finest and most imaginative stories ever written.I read "City" fifty years ago, when I was thirteen years old, and I still remember every detail of the story today.Having read thousands of fantasy and science fiction stories, and having edited over a hundred books in the field, I consider "The City of the Singing Flame" one of the four or five best science-fantasy stories I ever had the pleasure of reading.

Nearly entertaining, but evoking an entirely different mood, is "The Isle of the Torturers."The last line of this finely written story is worth the price of the book alone.Smith was a writer with a diabolical sense of humor and a taste for the ironic and this story delivers.

This book is a treasure.If you never have read Clark Ashton Smith, this collection will serve as a good introduction to a great fantasy author.Buy it.Read it.You won't be disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description
Clark Ashton Smith was a famous contributor the pulp magazine, Weird Tales. He was a friend of H.P. Lovecraft and wrote many short stories. His stories were often weird and fantastical. They echoed Lovecraft's writing and gained a small notoriety. Smith has a small cult following today. These are some of his short stories formatted with a table of contents.

Contains:

* The Ghost of Mohammed Din (1910)
* The Mahout (1911)
* Prince Alcouz and the Magician (1910-12)
* The Raja and the Tiger (1912)
* The Flirt (1921)
* Something New (1924),
* The Maker of Gargoyles (1932)
* The Empire of the Necromancers (1932)
* The Planet of the Dead (1932)
* The Demon of the Flower (1933)December 1933
* The Double Shadow (1933)
* The Isle of the Torturers (1933)
* The Chain of Aforgomon (1935)
* The Garden of Adompha (1938)
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

UNDERRATED MASTER OF HORROR! LOVECRAFT FANS WILL LOVE THIS!
This is a stunning collection of sophisticated horror tales that EVERY serious horror fan should own. If you love the eerie unique stories of H.P. Lovecraft I strongly suggest you inspect the works of Clark Ashton Smith. His work was unjustly overlooked when the horror / fantasy boom of the 60s paperback collections/reprints brought Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and other 'Weird Tales' writers back into prominence. Anyone reading Smith's stories will immediately notice something very special in his writings. Some of the strongest elements that can be found in Lovecraft's style (his mastery of the English language and his uncanny use of archaic adjectives to fully illustrate his tales of dread) can also be found in Smith's writings as well. In fact after reading several Clark Ashton Smith stories I came to the astounding realization that he is just as adept at spinning incredibly detailed horror / science fiction stories as Lovecraft himself! Anyone who has read Lovecraft knows that this is no small feat. In fact I can think of NO other writer (except Clark Ashton Smith) who has displayed such an exquisite style of horror prose. See for yourself. Those brave enough (and intelligent enough) to enter Smith's dark and dreadful realm are certainly in for a rare treat! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Table of contents
For potential buyers I am listing the table of contents.The two books from Bison represent an alternative to A Rendezvous in Averoigne as a good basic Smith collection.

"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
"The Door to Saturn"
"The Seven Geases"
"The Coming of the White Worm"
"The Last Incantation"
"A Voyage to Sfanomoë"
"The Death of Malygris"
"The Holiness of Azédarac"
"The Beast of Averoigne"
"The Empire of the Necromancers"
"The Isle of the Torturers"
"Necromancy in Naat"
"Xeethra"
"The Maze of Maal Dweb"
"The Flower-Women"
"The Demon of the Flower"
"The Plutonian Drug"
"The Planet of the Dead"
"The Gorgon"
"The Letter from Mohaun Los"
"The Light from Beyond"
"The Hunters from Beyond"
"The Treader of the Dust

Clark Ashton Smith
I'm glad someone finally brought this great fantasy writer back so others can enjoy his fantastic journeys.Thanks!

Excellent Fantasy From an Early 20th Century Master
This is an extraordinary collection of fantasy (and sometimes horror) masterpieces by a much-neglected, but very influential author. Smith published mostly in WEIRD TALES in the Twenties and Thirties but also published in the occasional science fiction pulp magazine as well. This is fantasy before Tolkein and has nothing of the Arthurian mold to it.Smith writes of weird worlds, strange sorcerers, men who set out to explore the ruins of a dead city of antiquity only to unleash some horror on the world. Lovecraft is the one author who lurks in the background, but Smith is really a writer all of his own.The other factor that is important here is Smith's use of language. It's very poetic and rich, perhaps over the top at times. But this is the attraction of this kind of literature; the very language itself is what evokes these weird worlds and strange landscapes. I can highly recommend this book, especially if you are a fan of fantasy. But be forewarned:This isn't the sword-and-sorcery of Robert Jordan or David Eddings. These stories are dark are the kind that gave WEIRD TALES its power and uniqueness. The editors at Bison should be commended for bringing these stories back out into the open.
... Read more

Product Description
Clark Ashton Smith -- widely regarded as the third of the "Big Three" to emerge from the early days of the pulp magazine Weird Tales (after H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard) published dozens of weird fantasy tales. "The Abominations of Yondo" is one of his finest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Misleading Title and reviews
The reviews here are for the anthology of stories called "The Abomination of Yondo". This book is not the anthology - just the single short story. The holders of the sacred rights to Mr Smith's works have found a clever way to stretch the monetization of the asset it would seem. Roll on, death of Copyright for long dead authors...

Alembics athanors dolmens dolomites emmets and pismires.
Smith's vocabulary is something else again! He is showing off and no two ways about it, but Tennyson was not above similar exhibitionism. If you are a virtuoso with the language why not demonstrate it? I lap up this kind of horror-fantasy provided it is well enough written. For me it is escapist fun-reading. I can't take it 'seriously', I can't join in any cult of it and I can't say it frightens me the least little bit. The benchmark writer for the genre appears to be Lovecraft whose stuff I enjoy in much the way I enjoy Smith's, but it seems to me honestly that Smith is both a far better writer and a far better storyteller. He has more self-discipline and he is more of an artist than Lovecraft. Some of the effects are a bit cheap, but what would you expect? The pleasant thing for me about Smith is that he doesn't take himself as seriously as Lovecraft takes himself, especially with his tedious demonology of Cthulhu, Nyerlothatep, the Elder Gods and that boring lot. There is a fair amount of self-parody in Smith, but his imagination is strong, genuine and original and there is unmistakeably a dark side to it all.

American aficionados of Smith and Lovecraft are also recommended the stories of M R James -- not exactly the same kind of writer but likely to appeal to the same kind of reader, and in my opinion even more effective than either of these authors.

Fantasy, dark humor and terror
The Abominations of Yondo is a collection of short stories written by the late Clark Ashton Smith. It includes a variety of stories from the various worlds he created, such as Hyperborea, Zothique, and Averoigne. The stories tend to be very descriptive, and at times leave the reader wanting for more plot. On the other hand, the richness of the descriptions shows just what a master Smith was of the English language. There are turns of phrase that are beautifully unique and indicative of a creative master. In addition, these tales often reveal Smith's dark and sometimes bitter sense of humor. While most of the stories take place in a "fantasy" setting, "The Dweller in the Gulf" is truly terrifying, and worthy of the praise heaped upon Smith by the great H.P. Lovecraft. Overall, a disappointment if you're looking for horror (though the above mentioned story is thrilling), but for fans of Smith or descriptive fantasy, this is one worth owning. ... Read more

Product Description
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work. This third volume of the series brings together 21 of his fantasy stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Timeless tales from the pulps
This is the third volume (out of 5) of Night Shade Book's collected works of Clark Ashton Smith (CAS).CAS wrote only short fiction - and often the shortest stories were the best of all.This volume contains stories set in Averoigne, Hyperborea, and other unnamed weird worlds, including our own.These stories are...well, not horror, but thrilling.In Stephen King's terms, CAS never went for the gross-out.

The stories are weird tales, or speculative fiction - a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, adventure, all told in a unique style.A number of stories in this volume are superb, but the names mean nothing, and there are too many to list the plots of each.The best stories are "fantasy" rather then "sci-fi" as a rule, but everything here is worth reading.

CAS creates superb imagery and his stories roil with life: even when little is objectively happening, how it is told is wonderful.Every word is evocative, carefully chosen, and has a cumulative effect when reading that creates immersion in the story for the reader.

"The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan" for example is only 8 or so pages long, but is a beatifully crafted little tale that has a wonderful, powerful ending.Even knowing the story will not end well, its a surprise and a shock.

This book is not for everyone, in the sense that it is an expensive hardback full of dense prose - it's a luxury good, of sorts.Having said that, everyone should read it, or at least the stories that CAS wrote.

What ye Hell....?
I just accidentally review'd A VINTAGE FROM ATLANTIS at THE DOOR TO SATURN listing.I've included a full Table of Contents.I am tempted to now review THE DOOR TO SATURN here, but that would be silly and annoying.

THE DOOR TO SATURN -- A Review
The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 2

Contents:
Introduction by Time Powers
A Note on the Texts
The Door to Saturn
The Red World of Polaris
Told in the Desert
The Willow Landscape
A Rendezvous in Averoinge
The Gorgon
An Offering to the Moon
The Kiss of Zoraida
The Face by the River
The Ghoul
The Kingdom of the Worm
An Adventure in Futurity
The Justice of the Elephant
The Return of the Sorcerer
The City of the Singing Flame
A Good Embalmer
The Testament of Athammaus
A Captivity in Serpens
The Letter from Mohaun Los
The Hunters from Beyond
APPENDIXES
Story Notes
Alterate Ending to "The Return of the Sorcerer"
Bibliography

A VINTAGE FROM ATLANTIS is a better book -- & it has a far finer cover illustration.

an old fashioned pleasure trip
Part of a series of classic and wonderful fantasy stories.Something that takes one back to the days of curling up on the sofa and reading for the shear pleasure of it.The whole series is great.

The Best Yet in this Amazing Collection
This third installment of a five-volume series is the best yet; luckily there are still two more (and the definitive biography of Smith) yet to come. Connors and Hilger have gone over Smith's original manuscripts with great care whenever available, producing the most meticulously corrected versions of the stories ever published or likely to be. This volume includes many of my favorite Smith tales, notes on each tale, and "The Flower-Devil," which is "The poem that "The Demon of the Flower" was based upon." Once again, Jason van Hollander's bizarrely dark and beautiful artwork graces the book's cover. Smith fans will love all 331 pages of it!
... Read more

Product Description
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work. This first volume of the series, brings together 25 of his fantasy stories, written between 1925 and 1930, including such classics as "The Abominations of Yondo," "The Monster of the Prophecy," "The Last Incantation" and the title story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Not an end, but rather a beginning
The End of the Story is the first in a hardbound collection of 5 volumes of the complete fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (CAS).Originally making his literary mark as a poet, CAS turned to writing short weird tales to pay the rent.Published in the pulp magazines of the 20's and 30's, they are now restored to original form.

There are more than 20 short stories here, all worth reading.CAS had a style that remains beautiful to read - words flow into sentences and sentences into paragraphs.It benefits from reading aloud - although these are not stories to read to children.There is fantasy, horror, sci-fi and more here, set in the past, present and future, on Earth and in space, in fantasy worlds that never were (but should have been).

To read CAS is to delve into language, and it is an unalloyed pleasure to do so.This is a fine collection, with evocative cover art and informative notes on the texts.

Incredibly Amazing!!!A Wonderful Read!
Though Ive long considered myself a fan of pulp era fiction, Ive increasingly realized how limited my experience among the true pulp masters really was.Somehow I had never heard of Clark Ashton Smith untill just a few months ago when I first noticed this series.I was so impressed at the scholarship, time and quality that went into producing it, much like the recent Robert E Howard collections, that I was sure the stories within must be worthwhile."Worthwhile" was a complete underestimation of Smith's fiction.I devoured this volume in two days, and will no doubt have re read it fully by the time Volume 2 arrives.I have the rest of this series on order and I can not wait to become even more lost in Mr Smith's wierd fantastical immagination.

A MUST READ for anyone seeking quality short fiction
I've been an avid CAS reader for over 30 years. I happened on the Ballantine Books "Fantasy Series" paperback edition ZOTHIQUE when it was first released in the 70s, and have long wished for a compendium of his work.

CAS's style is very dense, and reflects very careful construction of prose as well as plot. His style is as evolved as Lord Dunsany, Morris, and Tolkien, and is entertaining in it's own right. Don't let this scare you off - his stories are all eminently accessible to casual readers, andnumerous wry turns of phrase indicate a well-honed (but bone dry) sense of humor.

When compared to his better-known contemporaries, H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulu) and Robert E. Howard (Conan) I find CAS to be more a "readers writer." CAS is a master of phrasing surpassing HPL - his stories are less eerie than HPL, and don't slather on the dread as heavily. CAS is (usually) less swash-buckling blood-and-gore than REH, but doesn't shrink from characters hacking each other to bits when the story requires.

The only fault I can find with this series is that stories are ordered by date of publication. (Perhaps this was required by the copyrights issued to the three Ballantine collections assembled by Lin Carter.) My preference, though less academic, would be to collect the tales by story cycle to facilitate READING rather than STUDYING. Nevertheless, these volumes are without question well worth the investment - like a collection of Poe, you will find yourself returning to them many times.

The Emperor of Dreams
I love the writings of Clark Ashton Smith. He was the quintessenstial poet. BOW DOWN, I AM THE EMPEROR OF DREAMS. I Crown me with the million-colored suns of secret worlds incredible and take their trailing skies
for vestment. His fiction is also clothed in words that are poetry. Hisonly peer is Lord Dunsany.I corresponded a little with Smith and owned one of his strange sculptures.I welcome this renaissance of interest in Smith (if that is what it is).I wrote a short story influenced by his writings which he critiqued and added one sentence. I lost it, if you ever come across it, the title is THE COMING OF THE BLACK NEBULA.

1st in series of short story collections
`The End of the Story' is the first of five volumes of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories. The stories are arranged chronologically by composition. The stories in this volume were written between 1925 and 1930. The stories are:

The Abomination of Yondo
Sadastor
The Ninth Skeleton
The Last Incantation
The End of the Story
The Phantoms of the Fire
A Night in Malneant
The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake
Thirteen Phantasms
The Venus of Azombeii
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
The Monster of the Prophecy
The Metamorphosis of the World
The Epiphany of Death
A Murder in the Fourth Dimension
The Devotee of Evil
The Satyr
The Planet of the Dead
The Uncharted Isle
Marooned in Andromeda
The Root of Ampoi
The Necromatic Tale
The Immeasurable Horror
A Voyage to Sfanomoe

Most of the stories are of the `weird tale' sort, but some veer to straight Horror and some can be classified as Science Fiction (although always with a horror angle). Smith was a very flowery writer, and some of the stories can be tough going, but that's the beauty of short stories, they're short.
... Read more

Product Description
On Zothique, the last continent on Earth, the sun no longer shone with the whiteness of its prime, but was dim and tarnished as if with a vapor of blood. New stars without number had declared themselves in the heavens, and the shadows of the infinite had fallen closer. And out of the shadows, the older gods had returned to man: the gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names but the same attributes. And the elder demons had also returned, battening on the fumes of evil sacrifice, and fostering again the primordial sorceries... ... Read more

Product Description
This series presents Clark Ashton Smith's fiction chronologically, based on composition rather than publication. Editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith's notes and letters, in order to prepare a definitive set of texts. The Maze of the Enchanter includes, in chronological order, all of his stories from "The Mandrakes" (February, 1933) to "The Flower-Women" (May, 1935). This volume also features an introduction, and extensive notes on each story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

These stories never seem to end well for the protagonist...
Maze of the Enchanter is the 4th of 5 hardcovers planned to collect all of the weird prose of Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) from the days of pulp magazine publishing.The collection includes 15 or so short stories - CAS did not deal in novels - showing a range from fantasy adventure to interplanetary sci-fi (then called "scientifiction") to weird horror.CAS was a real wordsmith, and it shows: his vocabulary is impressive, his phrasing distinctively impeccable.The mood created in each tale is as much a function of adjectival description as plot.

This volume covers the period early 1933 to mid-1935, presenting the stories in the order they were composed, rather than published.Some of the gems here include the titular "Maze", Genius Loci, and The Dark Eidolon.The only thing to note is that these versions of the stories are "director's cuts" so they may be a little different to a previous reading of a particular story.Those changes are always noted in the text, and there are alternate endings provided on occasion.

The final (somewhat delayed) addition to the collection, The Last Hieroglyph, is due out in November 2010, and the complete collection will be a fitting monument to CAS' work.

The Best Volume in the Series so Far!
This 4th volume in the series contains some of my favorite tales by Smith, the Zothique stories! This is the best so far, and I really look forward to the fifth and final book in the series as we will then have a complete collection of Smith's fantasy tales in beautiful hardcover form.

The artwork for the dustcover is excellent, as is the artwork on the previous volumes.

But above all else, Smith's Zothique tales show the heights Smith could reach when his writing fully expressed the bizarre and outlandishly frightening heights that became his trademark. My favorite tale is "The Dark Eidolon," a wonderful piece now restored to its original form for the first time.

As usual, editors Connors and Hilger have done an outstanding job in restoring as many of the tales as possible to their original form as Smith intended them to be. There is also an alternative ending, added material deleted from the original publication, and a great deal of fascinating background material and history for each entry.

All the volumes in this series are vital to a complete collection of the master of both horrific and beautiful fantasy!

Exceptionally Magickal
CONTENTS:
Introduction by Gahan Wilson
A Note on the Texts
The Mandrakes
The Beast of Averoigne
A Star-Change
The Disinterment of Venus
The White Sybil
The Ice-Demon
The Isle of the Torturers
The Dimension of Chance
The Dweller in the Gulf
The Maze of the Enchanter
The Third Episode of VATHEK: The Story of the Princess Zulkais and the Prince Kalilah
Genius Loci
The Secret of the Cairn
The Charnel God
The Dark Eidolon
The Voyage of King Euvoran
Vulthoom
The Weaver in the Vaults
The Flower-Women
APPENDICES
Story Notes
The White Sybil: Alternate Conclusion
The Muse of Hyperborea
The Dweller in the Martian Depths: Added Material
Bibliography

This 4th volume of The Collected Fantasies has some of Clark Ashton Smith's finest tales."Genius Loci" remains one of my favorite weird tales ever.The story casts a potent spell of dread that most such fictions usually lack.Whenever I read this tale, I am transported.The scene seems very real, authentic.One is swept away by the intensity of the narrative.Smith was indeed a wizard, who conjured with language.His alien landscapes impress one as strange yet realistic.His language is evocative, as we see in this paragraph from "The Dweller in the Gulf":

"None of the three adventurers was overly imaginative or prone to nervousness.But all were beset by certain odd impressions.Behind the arras of cryptic silence, time and again, they seemed to hear a faint whisper, like the sign of sunken seas far down at some hemispheric depth. The air was tinged with a slight and doubtful dankness, and they felt the stirring of an almost imperceptible draft upon their faces.Oddest of all was the hint of a nameless odor, reminding them both of animal dens and the peculiar smell of Martian dwellings."

One of the wonders of these books from the magnificent Night Shade Books are the remarkable jackets, with amazing illustrations by Jason Van Hollander and design by Claudia Noble.They are among the finest examples of jacket art and design I have ever seen, an utter delight and ecstasy.
Exotic, erotic, enchanting -- the dark phantasy tales of Clark Ashton Smith has it all.

A Dream come true
This is volume 4 of a 5 piece set and I have purchased them all as they became available.I promised myself 30 years ago that I would someday own Clark Ashton Smith's work in hardcover.This comprehensive and wonderful collection is making that dream come true. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

WHAT AN IMAGINATION
C.A.S. HYPERBOREA STORIES FAIRLY GLEAM . . FOR THOSE WITH THE WIT, YOU WILL 'SEE' HIS STORIES UNFOLD BEFORE YOU IN MANIFOLD COLOR, HIS WORDS SPILL BEFORE YOU LIKE THE INCANTATIONS OF A WARLOCK. A RARE AND VASTLY UNDER RATED TALENT ! ... Read more

Product Description
Evagh the warlock, dwelling beside the boreal sea, was aware of many strange and untimely portents in mid-summer. Frorely burned the sun above Mhu Thulan from a welkin clear and wannish as ice. At eve the aurora was hung from zenith to earth, like an arras in a high chamber of gods. Wan and rare were the poppies and small the anemones in the cliff-sequestered vales lying behind the house of Evagh; and the fruits in his walled garden were pale of rind and green at the core. Also, he beheld by day the unseasonable flight of great multitudes of fowl, going southward from the hidden isles beyond Mhu Thulan; and by night he heard the distressful clamor of other passing multitudes. And always, in the loud wind and crying surf, he harkened to the weird whisper of voices from realms of perennial winter...
... Read more

Product Description
Pulp author Clark Ashton Smith composed many poems in his day. A close friend of H.P. Lovecraft, Smith also wrote fantastical poetry and prose. Reminiscent of Lovecraft's "Fungi From Yuggoth," his influence can be seen in many of Smith's poems.
Includes:

The Absence of the Muse (1921)
The Abyss Triumphant (1912)
Alexandrines (1918)
Antepast (1922)
Arabesque (1922)
Artemis (1922)
Ashes of Sunset (1922)
At Sunrise (1922)
Atlantis (1912)
Autumnal (1922)
Autumn’s Pall (1910)
Ave Atque Vale (1918)
Averted Malefice (1912)
The Balance (1912)bv
Beauty Implacable (1922)
Before Sunrise (1910)
Belated Love (1918)
Brumal (1923)
The Butterfly (1912)
Chant of Autumn (1922)
Chant to Sirius (1912)
The Cherry-Snows (1912)
The City in the Desert (1922)
A City of the Titans (1915)
Cleopatra (1922)
The Cloud Islands (1912)
Coldness (1922)
Copan (1912)
Crepuscle (1922)
The Crucifixion of Eros (1918)
A Dead City (1912)
Desire of Vastness (1922)
Desolation (1922)
Dissonance (1919)
The Dream-Bridge (1912)
A Dream of Beauty (1911)
Dream Mystery (1915)
Echo of Memnon (1922)
Ecstasy (1922)
Eidolon (1922)
The Eldritch Dark (1912)
The Exile (1942)
Exotique (1918)
Fairy Lanterns (1912)
Finis (1912)
Flamingos(1919)
Forgetfulness (1919)
The Fugitives (1912)
The Ghoul and the Seraph (1922)
The Harlot of the World (1915)

Prose Poetry:
A Phantasy(1916)
The Black Lake (1922)
The Caravan (1922)
The Demon, the Angel, and the Beauty (1922)
A Dream of Lethe (1922)
Ennui (1918)
The Flower-Devil (1922)
From a Letter (1922)
From the Crypts of Memory (1917)
The Garden and the Tomb (1915)
In Cocaigne (1922)
The Lake of Enchanted Silence (1922)
The Litany of the Seven Kisses (1922)
The Memnons of the Night (1917)
The Princess Almeena (1920)
Remoteness (1922)
The Shadows (1922)
The Statue of Silence (1922)
To the Daemon (1922)
The Traveller (1922)




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Customer Reviews (3)

"In the proper style, at the proper time..."
Pretty fantastic and glad to have read and learned of CAS.The book is overwhelming in its scope and the size of this man's imagination.He draws each world, each story, each person with incredible depth.An amazing introduction can be found here as well of unusual words.And I think there are few writer's I've ever read that actually put a smell of something awful, the thing you turn your eyes from if you can, that boiling in one's stomach so fully described as to be experienced.His forerunner stories are the sort that always catch my attention (Andre Norton wrote some of my favorites).The deep ideas behind the layers of worlds, the thin veil between them, the unimagined ages and civilizations before ours.The idea of rooms which "exhale a medley of half-forgotten superstitions", poets "regarded as no less anomalous than double-headed snakes or five legged calves", the "vertigo ineffable before the vastness and diuturnity of the cycles of being" - all seem to tell a bit of CAS himself.Where early imaginative books like those of Verne have tried my patience, I found CAS's work to be an impressive collection and a door opened to a early age in this genre, full of "eldritch terrors and forebodings that still murmur in [t]his brain."

Table of contents
OK, I confess I do not have this book.Even maniacs like me can't afford everything.What I am doing is reproducing the table of contents so potential buyers can compare and see how this collection will fit into their plans.I cannot vouch for the editorial scholarship compared to the Nightshade Books edition.I just gave it 5 stars because, heck, it's CAS!

CLARK ASHTON SMITH: MASTER OF FANTASYXV

OUT OF SPACE AND TIME
The End of the Story
A Rendezvous in Averoigne
A Night in Malneant
The City of the Singing Flame
The Uncharted Isle

JUDGMENTS AND DOOMS
The Second Interment
The Double Shadow
The Chain of Aforgomon
The Dark Eidolon
The Last Hieroglyph
Sadastor
The Death of Ilalotha
The Return of the Sorcerer

HYPERBOREAN GROTESQUES
The Testament of Athammaus
The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan
Ubbo-Sathla

INTERPLANETARIES
The Monster of the Prophecy
The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis
From the Crypts of Memory
The Shadows

For comparison, here are the contents of A Rendezvous in Averoigne from Arkham House.Of course all the weird tales should be available in the Nightshade Books edition.

The Holiness of Azédarac
The Colossus of Ylourgne
The End of the Story
A Rendezvous in Averoigne
The Last Incantation
The Death of Malygris
A Voyage to Sfanomoë
The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan
The Seven Geases
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
The Coming of the White Worm
The City of the Singing Flame
The Dweller in the Gulf ["Dweller in Martian Depths"]
The Chain of Aforgomon
Genius Loci
The Maze of Maal Dweb
The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis
The Uncharted Isle
The Planet of the Dead
Master of the Asteroid
The Empire of the Necromancers
The Charnel God
Xeethra
The Dark Eidolon
The Death of Ilalotha
The Last Hieroglyph
Necromancy in Naat
The Garden of Adompha
The Isle of the Torturers
Morthylla

Clark Ashton Smith
Ijust glad someone brought this great fantasy writer back for others to enjoy. ... Read more

Product Description
At the age of fourteen, Clark Ashton Smith wrote anArabian Nights adventure novel called The Black Diamonds. Atnearly 90,000 words, it is the longest work of fiction he would everwrite in his long career. The thrilling and fast-paced story ofseventeenth-century Bagdad deals with two mysterious black diamondsand the conflict they engender between an Arab family and the powerfulthief who seeks to regain them. Kidnapping, piracy, and even apossibly supernatural “Lake of Fire” are all involved in thisvibrant and well-crafted narrative. Although a work of Smith’s youth,The Black Diamonds can withstand comparison with any of hislater tales of Zothique, Hyperborea, and Atlantis for compellingreadability. This never-before published novel has beenmeticulously edited by leading fantasy scholar S. T. Joshi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

an exciting swashbuckler
Considering that Smith was 14 when he wrote this, it is amazingly good.Although it doesn't have the atmosphere or otherworldly quality of his later work, it is full of vivid action and very well plotted.I found it hard to put down.

Words from an old friend
As one of the last people alive who knew Clark Ashton personally, it gives me great pleasure to see his juvenile work in print at last.That a boy of fourteen could write like this suggests that such a book might be a powerful teaching tool in
the public schools - Even at this early age, he was able to construct a coherent story which carries the reader necessarily to the conclusion.Also, the elevated and extraordinary vocabulary he manifested in his later works is evident here.The early glimmerings of his matchless capacity to create mood and environment is also present here.Thoroughly delightful, and should lead readers to explore his amazing later works and astonishing poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
Zobal the archer and Cushara the pikebearer had poured many a libation to their friendship in the sanguine liquors of Yoros and the blood of the kingdom's enemies. In that long and lusty amity, broken only by such passing quarrels as concerned the division of a wine-skin or the apportioning of a wench, they had served amid the soldiery of King Hoaraph for a strenuous decade. Savage warfare and wild, fantastic hazard had been their lot. The renown of their valor had drawn upon them, ultimately, the honor of Hoaraph's attention, and he had assigned them for duty among the picked warriors that guarded his palace in Faraad. And sometimes the twain were sent together on such missions as required no common hardihood and no disputable fealty to the king... ... Read more

Product Description
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S. Hilger excavated the still-existing manuscripts, letters and various published versions of the stories, creating a definitive "preferred text" for Smith's entire body of work. This second volume of the series brings together 20 of his fantasy stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Prose poetry from ages of wonder
I read this book right after reading Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth, and that may have helped a little: Vance is a beautiful user of language, and so is CAS, perhaps to an even greater degree.He was a poet who turned to pulp writing to support aged parents, and never stopped writing poetry in creating his pulp fiction.

A Door to Saturn is volume 2 of the 5 volume Night Shade complete collected works, so I guess its not for everyone in that there are cheaper collections of CAS's best work out there.But oh! the moments of beauty in every tale in the book, even in those "weaker" tales.

The best stories in the book are the titular "The Door to Saturn", with a superb opening sentence that not only packs a punch, but also contains so much information, despite a potential over-use of commas: "When Morghi, the high priest of the goddess Yhoundeh, together with twelve of his most ferocious and efficient underlings, came at morning twilight to seek the infamous heretic, Eibon, in his house of black gneiss on a headland above the northern main, they were surprised as well as disappointed to find him absent."And it only gets better from there, full of dark humour and dire consequences for all involved.

"A Rendezvous in Averoigne" is a chilling little vampire tale from when vampires were evil, and scary, and would dominate your will and drink your blood."The Ghoul" is unforgettable, as is "The Good Embalmer": both are short tales with a big impact.

CAS tells a wonderfully descriptive parable in "The City of the Singing Flame".The possible meanings vary from reader to reader - is it about religion, money, drugs, obsession, or something else altogether.

"The Return of the Sorcerer" is a horror story full of boding dread and impending doom.

There are a host of other stories - 20 in all - all with endnotes containing discussion of the stories, usually by way of correspondence between CAS and HP Lovecraft.Sometimes this is perhaps a little too much of a glimpse at the man behind the curtain, but in a definitive collection of work I can certainly understand its place.

This is a superb collection of works, and should be more widely read.

O Gawd!I've Review'd Ye Wrong Book!
CONTENTS:
Introduction by Michael Dirda
A Note on the Texts
The Holiness of Azedarac
The Maker of Gargoyles
Beyond the Singing Flame
Seedling of Mars
The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis
The Eternal World
The Demon of the Flower
The Nameless Offspring
A Vintage from Atlantis
The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan
The Invisible City
The Immortals of Mercury
The Empire of Necromancers
The Seed from the Sepulcher
The Second Interment
Ubbo-Sathla
The Double Shadow
The Plutonian Drug
The Supernumerary Corpse
The Colossus of Ylourgne
The God of the Asteroid
APPENDIXES
Story Notes
The Flower-Devil
Bibliography

Each of these stories lives up to its title -- and some of those titles are quite remarkable.Smith's language is so wonderful that I never find him dull and often remember that he was an outstanding poet.Here is the opening of "The Plutonian Drug":

"It is remarkable," said Dr. Manners, "how the scope of our pharmacopoeia has been widened by interplanetary exploration.In the past thirty years, hundreds of hitherto unknown substances, employable as drugs or medical agents, have been found in the other worlds of out own system.It will be interesting to see what the Allan Farquar expedition will bring back from the planets of ALPHA CENTAURI when --or if-- it succeeds in reaching them and returning to Earth.I doubt, though, if anything more valuable than selenine will be discovered.Selenine, derived from a fossil lichen found by the first rocket-expedition to the moon in 1975, has, as you know, practically wiped out the old-time curse of cancer.In solution, it forms the base of an infallible serum, equally useful for cure or prevention."
"I fear I haven't kept up on a lot of new discoveries," said Rupert Balcoth the sculptor.Manners' guest, a little apologetically."Of course, everyone has heard of selenine.And I've seen frequent mention, recently, of a mineral water from Ganymede whose effects are like those of the mythical Fountain of Youth."
"You mean CLITHNI, as the stuff is called by the Ganymedians.It is a clear, emerald liquid, rising in lofty geysers from the craters of quiescent volcanoes.Scientists believe that the drinking of CLITHNI is the secret of the almost fabulous longevity of the Ganymedians; and they think that it may prove to be a similar elixir for humanity."
"Some of the extraplanetary drugs haven't been so beneficial to mankind, have they?" queried Balcoth."I seem to have heard of a Martian poison that has greatly facilitated the gentle art of murder.And I am told that MNOPHKA, the Venerian narcotic, is far worse in its effects on the human system than any terrestrial alkaloid."

There are many remarkable things about that opening, penned in 1932, not least of which was a prediction of "...the first rocket-expedition to the moon in 1975..." -- which in fact occurred but six years earlier, in 1969!This opening could have gone in several directions.The idea of interplanetary drugs is a huge and captivating concept.Because I love portrayals of the "artistic type" in weird fiction I was immediately alerted by one of the characters being a sculptor, which I hoped would weigh some of the tale's direction.(It does!)

One of the really cool features of this seriesare the Story Notes at the end of each volume -- they are informative and fascinating.The cover illustration by JasonVan Hollander is stunning -- and one likes fancy that the distinctive colours on the front are symbolic of amethyst wine and jade absinthe -- but that, most likely, is one's imagination running away...

A remarkable collection, appealing and satisfying in every way.

Has a masterpiece story
I just wanted to also recommend this book because it contains the remarkable story "City of the Singing Flame". The other reviewer was right on the money talking about this story. All of Ashton Smith's work is interesting although at times strange and sometimes bizarre, but this story is a stand out in both originality and uniqueness.

This is one of the most memorable short stories I have ever read, and I still think about it to this day. A friend, who is not a sci fi fan, read this story because I told him how good it was and he also was blown away by it and has reminded me of the story a few times in casual conversation even years later, he stills remembers it as well. To put it succinctly, this story is a masterpiece and one of the finest ever written.


There is a cheaper source if you want this particular story in another book sold by Amazon,"Out of Space and Time" also contains this story.

I have the book "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" which is how I discovered it. You can only get a used copy now but its worth it because it has many of Ashton Smith's best work.

Some great stories, but mostly filler
This is the second volume in the "Collected Fantasies" series from Night Shade Books.

It collects some of his most popular stories, but beyond those, and a handful of other good stories, it's mostly dominated by somewhat lackluster science fiction efforts. About a quarter of the book is devoted to two space opera tales of the starship Alycone, and another quarter to two tales about people who travel into the future.

Unlike fantasy, these sort of tales really don't hold up very well, I feel. Having basically half the book taken up with them, feels like quite a bit of a waste, especially since this book isn't exactly cheap. $29 for 265 pages of public domain stories isn't a very good value, but worth paying to get the definitive texts in a very nice format. But when only half the book is worth reading more than once, well, it's a terrible value.

That said, it does contain some very good stories. The title story, which relates a surprisingly amusing adventure of the wizard Eibon. "A Rendezvous in Averoigne", one of the most picturesque vampire tales ever written. "The Testament of Athammaus" which is almost a fantasy version of The Dunwich Horror. And "The Return of the Sorcerer", which was badly adapted on an episode of Night Gallery. "The City of Singing Flame", another very picturesque and haunting tale, this one about dimensional travel.

Outside of those famous ones, there are a couple of other gems. "The Ghoul" and "Told in the Desert" I really liked. But that's about it. They really should have kept the Alcyone stories out of this series, since they apparently already offer those stories in a separate volume.

A Second Home Run!
Editors Connors and Hilger have succeeded once again in producing more of the ultimate Clark Ashton Smith collection of fantastic prose.As in volume one, they have corrected the tales using Smith's original manuscripts, published here in chronological order according to when they were written, not by subject or date of publication. At times the changes are minor, but in some instances the publisher forced Smith to butcher his own work or, even worse, altered the text without Smith's permission.Now they are restored to original form, the way the author meant them to be!

The editors have also provided histories of the writing and publishing of all of the stories, a Smith bibliography and an alternate ending to "The Return of the Sorcerer."

I eagerly await the next installment in this 5-part collection, as this is the definitive Smith, in many cases unseen since the author first wrote the tales herein! ... Read more