A Vintage From Atlantis: Volume Three of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (2007); edited by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger.
Clark Ashton Smith was a contemporary of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. With those two, he formed what became known as "The Three Musketeers of Weird Tales" in the late 1920's and 1930's. None of them was the most popular writer for Weird Tales -- that was Seabury Quinn. But in time they would become known as the three finest and most influential American fantasists of their era.
Smith is the least well-known because he didn't create a fictional universe that others would adopt after him, as Lovecraft did with the Cthulhu Mythos and as Howard did with the world of Conan the Barbarian. His style and subject matter, however, have an incalculable influence and worth. His poetic prose (and Smith was a very good, published poet long before his short story years) testifies to horror, lushness, irony, and moments of grace.
OK, sometimes it seems like he ate a thesaurus. Maybe three of them. But that's a part of the charm, especially as even Smith's diction can be ironic or satiric, especially when he's just making up words.
Truly remarkable too is that the bulk of Smith's stories were written in a five-year period. It's a burst of creativity almost unrivalled in fantasy literature. Most of the stories he wrote after that burst were based on story ideas he recorded at the time in his Commonplace Book.
In this third volume of The Collected Fantasies from Night Shade Press, Smith has reached the peak of his considerable powers as a prose writer, giving birth to all-time classics that include the horrifying "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" and "The Seed from the Sepulchre" and the brilliant, droll Averoigne novella "The Colossus of Ylourgne." "The Colossus of Ylourgne" and "The Empire of the Necromancers" are two prime examples of Smith's ability to combine horror, irony, humour, and melancholy into one short package.
- Note on bracketed categories:
- Averoigne: Fictional, demon-haunted French province during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
- Zothique: The "last continent" of Earth, uncounted millions or billions of years in the future.
- Hyperborea: The ancient civilized kingdoms of humanity prior to the last Ice Age.
- Poseidonis: Last city of sinking Atlantis.
- Cthulhu Mythos: A number of Smith's stories could be set within H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, especially those set during the time of Hyperborea and those featuring the dark god Tsathoggua. Well, and those mentioning Eibon or The Book of Eibon. Or Ubbo-Sathla. However, only those stories that are definitely Cthulhu Mythos stories are indicated.
- Mars: Science fiction story set on or around Smith's generally terrifying version of Mars.
Contains the following stories and essays (All dates are publication, not composition -- the five volumes are arranged in order of publication)
- Introduction by Michael Dirda
- A Note on the Texts
- The Holiness of Azedarac [Averoigne] (1933): Ironic, erotic. ESSENTIAL.
- The Maker of Gargoyles [Averoigne] (1932): Creepy gargoyles do terrible things. ESSENTIAL.
- Beyond the Singing Flame (1931) Smith returns to the world of the Singing Flame (See Volume 2) in a work of cosmic ecstasy and mystery. ESSENTIAL.
- Seedling of Mars [Mars] (1931) (with E. M. Johnston): Another of Smith's subtle parodies of planetary romances and science fiction of his time, leading to a strange and apocalyptic climax. is this catastrophe or eucatastrophe?
- The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis [Mars] (1932) Absolutely first-rate science-fiction horror set on Smith's dying, dusty, ancient Mars. It's like the prototype for every Alien-style movie and written horror to come. ESSENTIAL.
- The Eternal World (1932) : Odd, engaging bit of cosmic speculation and Sublime play with time and space.
- The Demon of the Flower (1933) : Disturbing tale of metamorphosis and evil plants.
- The Nameless Offspring (1932) : Disturbing contemporary tale of ghouls and implied, quasi-necrophiliac rape.
- A Vintage from Atlantis [Poseidonis] (1933) : Moody prose poem.
- The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan [Hyperborea] (1932) : Strangely hilarious (in almost a Bugs Bunny sort of way) of how a greedy loan shark gets his just desserts.
- The Invisible City (1932) : Fun, odd, contemporary 'Hidden City' adventure.
- The Immortals of Mercury (1932) : Another of Smith's subtle digs at his contemporary science-fiction writers and their planetary romances.
- The Empire of the Necromancers [Zothique] (1932) : Brilliant, affecting, funny tale of a couple of malign necromancers on the world's last continent. ESSENTIAL.
- The Seed from the Sepulcher (1933) Horrifying, creepy tale of an evil plant. An orchid, in this case. ESSENTIAL.
- The Second Interment (1933) : Minor horror.
- Ubbo-Sathla [Hyperborea/ Cthulhu Mythos] (1933): Time-bending tale of metamorphosis and fate. ESSENTIAL.
- The Double Shadow [Poseidonis] (1933) : Witty tale of magics gone wrong. ESSENTIAL.
- The Plutonian Drug (1934) : Minor time-travel piece.
- The Supernumerary Corpse (1932) : Very minor scifi murder.
- The Colossus of Ylourgne (1934) A brilliant novella involving necromancy in medieval French Averoigne. Stands among other things as the lurking precedent for Clive Barker's much-praised "In the Hills, the Cities." ESSENTIAL.
- The God of the Asteroid (1932): Minor, bleak science fiction story.
- Story Notes
- The Flower-Devil (1922) : poem by Clark Ashton Smith
- Bibliography
The End Of The Story: Volume One of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith (2006); edited by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger.
Clark Ashton Smith was a contemporary of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. With those two, he formed what became known as "The Three Musketeers of Weird Tales" in the late 1920's and 1930's. None of them was the most popular writer for Weird Tales -- that was Seabury Quinn. But in time they would become known as the three finest and most influential American fantasists of their era.
Smith is the least well-known because he didn't create a fictional universe that others would adopt after him, as Lovecraft did with the Cthulhu Mythos and as Howard did with the world of Conan the Barbarian. His style and subject matter, however, have an incalculable influence and worth. His poetic prose (and Smith was a very good, published poet long before his short story years) testifies to horror, lushness, irony, and moments of grace.
OK, sometimes it seems like he ate a thesaurus. Maybe three of them. But that's a part of the charm, especially as even Smith's diction can be ironic or satiric, especially when he's just making up words.
Truly remarkable too is that the bulk of Smith's stories were written in a five-year period. It's a burst of creativity almost unrivaled in fantasy literature. Most of the stories he wrote after that burst were based on story ideas he recorded at the time in his Commonplace Book.
In this first volume of The Collected Fantasies from Night Shade Press, we see Smith emerge almost fully formed as a writer of weird prose. He's definitely still finding his voice and his way (and a market), but his first published story ("The Abominations of Yondo" (1926)) and second story composed is a small masterpiece of weird horror and an unnervingly altered future Earth. If Earth it truly is...
Contains the following stories and essays. All dates are publication, not composition -- the five volumes are arranged in order of composition:
Introduction by Ramsey Campbell
A Note on the Texts by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger
- To the Daemon (1943): Slight but telling prose poem.
- The Abominations of Yondo (1926): In this memorable story influenced by Lord Dunsany, Smith crafts his first essential tale, a weird and unsettling story set in some strange distant future.
- Sadastor (1930) : Slight but telling prose poem.
- The Ninth Skeleton (1928): Slight meditation on time.
- The Last Incantation [Malygris] (1930): Short, pithy fantasy set in one of Smith's strange fictional realms not of our Earth (but certainly of his) introduces a mage who will return, Malygris. ESSENTIAL.
- The End of the Story [Averoigne] (1930): Bleak tale of vampirism and desire is the first set in Smith's medieval French province of Averoigne. ESSENTIAL.
- The Phantoms of the Fire (1930): Slight contemporary ghost story.
- A Night in Malnéant (1933): A tale of mourning seemingly set in a nightmare almost seems like a dry run for a lot of Thomas Ligotti's work half-a-century later.
- The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake (1931): Sight contemporary horror story.
- Thirteen Phantasms (1936): Slight meditation on time and identity.
- The Venus of Azombeii (1931) : Slight African adventure of a Lost City/Tribe with some unfortunate racial elements and little fantastic content (really, none).
- The Tale of Satampra Zeiros : [Satampra Zeiros/ Hyperborea] (1931): First tale of the prehistoric world of Hyperborea and the charming thief and raconteur Satampra Zeiros is also a sequel to a later Smith story, The Testament of Athammaus. ESSENTIAL.
- The Monster of the Prophecy (1932): Colourful, slyly satiric planetary romance, the latter almost literally by the end. ESSENTIAL.
- The Metamorphosis of the World (1951): One of Smith's satiric broadsides at his contemporary science-fiction writers also reads as a straightforward apocalyptic piece of science fiction anticipating some of our own fears of climate change.
- The Epiphany of Death (1934): Moody horror tale is also a nod to H.P. Lovecraft.
- A Murder in the Fourth Dimension (1930): Slight but fun bit of contemporary science fiction.
- The Devotee of Evil (1933): Contemporary horror plays with pseudoscience in its explanation for the existence of EVIL. ESSENTIAL.
- The Satyr [Averoigne] (1931): Disturbing dark fantasy from monster-haunted Averoigne. ESSENTIAL.
- The Planet of the Dead (1932): Melancholy science fantasy about a man who feels estranged from his own place and time, a recurring theme in Smith's stories.
- The Uncharted Isle (1930): Clever piece of dimension-hopping science fiction. ESSENTIAL.
- Marooned in Andromeda [Captain Volmar : 1] (1930): First of Smith's three complete stories and one fragment about his oddball crew of space-faring adventurers and mutineers. The satire of his contemporary space opera writers is subtle until it suddenly isn't. First Smith story to feature dangerous plants.
- The Root of Ampoi (1949): Slight contemporary Lost City/Tribe story.
- The Necromantic Tale (1931) : Slight dark fantasy tale of reincarnation and swapped minds.
- The Immeasurable Horror (1931): Disturbing, horrifying science-fiction adventure set on and above Smith's nightmarishly lush Venus. ESSENTIAL.
- A Voyage to Sfanomoë [Poseidonis] (1931): Science fantasy set as Atlantis falls takes us back to the nightmarishly lush Venus of "The Immeasurable Horror." Also, dangerous plants! ESSENTIAL.
Story Notes by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger
"The Satyr": Alternate Conclusion [Averoigne] (1931): The alternate ending to "The Satyr" is even more disturbing than the chosen ending.
From the Crypts of Memory : (1917) : poem by Clark Ashton Smith
Bibliography by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger
