Customer Reviews

The Door to Saturn (The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Vol. 2)

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although not all of clark ashton smith's weird tales are classics, almost all of them are worth reading. his best stories are terrific. this volume contains two of his very best; "THE CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME" and "THE TESTAMENT OF ATHAMMAUS". both stories rank with (smith's good friend) h.p. lovecraft's finest. "THE CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME" in particular is one of the most devastating short stories i've ever read. it will knock you out. many such stories (in volumes like this) promise weirdness, this one really delivers. it may also say something (by implication) about the source of weird tales in general. "THE TESTAMENT OF ATHAMMAUS" on the other hand, is a hilarious account of an executed criminal who won't stay dead. many of the other tales in this volume are quite good as well. CLARK ASHTON SMITH at his best is one of the greatest writers of weird tales that ever lived. this volume contains some of his very best. don't miss it.

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!

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.

Well...It seems the 2nd Volume of Clark Ashton Smith's collected stories entitled, "The Door to Saturn" is now "out-of print". But be patient,,, It will return. In fact, let me share some comments that I included in the AMAZON.COM critique of the now unavailable 1st volume, "The End of the Story". To begin, I contacted Nightshade Books today and was assured that a 2nd print would be forthcoming in about a year more or less (depending on the economy). Let me repeat: THIS BOOK WILL BE REPRINTED IN THE NEAR AND FORESEEABLE FUTURE!!!!! So be patient! Stay vigilant! And please..... DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT PAYING THE RIDICULOUS AND OUTRAGEOUS PRICES being demanded by the bloodsucking parasites and vultures advertising copies for hundreds of dollars on AMAZON.COM and E-BAY and GOD-ONLY-KNOWS-WHERE-ELSE (Buy.com, Alibris.com, Half.com, etc.). I know this is a free economy and free marketplace but a question does come to mind.....Is this price gouging? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!! It sickens me to see this book and other examples of out-of-print/discontinued items being snapped-up by these secondary market opportunists and reappearing on AMAZON.COM and other websites at hyper-inflated "pay-day loan" prices. Only a desperate collector who needs a "fix" to ensure his collection is complete would succumb to this sleaziness. That, or these sellers feel that Donald Trump and his peer group surf AMAZON.COM. As for me, on those rare occassions of where I might want such an item, I simply learn to live without it if for no other reason than just plain general principle. I usually find a "reasonable" seller on the internet out there somewhere. Make no mistake, I have the money but....I just won't do it.... No %$#&* way......I will not subsidize blatant greed and profiteering. I certainly do not begrudge anyone a profit but the prices being asked by these leeches are mostly absurd and unrealistic. To you resellers out there who engage in this practice: Shame on all of you!!! I and others have long memories....When I am in the market for a "normal" priced item, I can assure you that sellers like you are automatically disqualified from my consideration. I am not sure how alienating your market base increases sales but maybe you know some theory of marketing and sales that I am unfamilar with....

The Door to Saturn (The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Vol. 2)

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 series are the Story Notes at the end of each volume -- they are informative and fascinating. The cover illustration by Jason Van 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.

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.

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.