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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Tales from Klarkash-Ton,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Out of Space and Time Volume 2 (Mass Market Paperback)
This selection collections some of Clark Ashton Smith's finest phantasies, and shews the wide range of is imagination. Ye Contents:
Clark Ashton Smith: Master of Fantasy, by August Derleth & Donald Wandrei JUDGMENTS AND DOOMS 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 Prophecy The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis From the Crypts of Memory The Shadows The Introduction is from the rare 1941 first edition from Arkham House. I've always found it perplexing, Smith's relationship with his publisher and friend, August Derleth. One would imagine that, having a publisher who is anxious to bring out your books, and have those books be such lovely editions, would encourage new works at least, and also a looking over of one's older fiction before it is preserved in book form. Smith could not be bothered, did not revise his older works for republication (Thomas Ligotti at least does that much) or plunge into the writing of new tales. He had his moment when he wanted to write fiction, and then the moment passed. But the tales that he gave us are excellent in every way, and their recent publication in five handsome hardcover volumes from Night Shade Books is certainly a cause for celebration. Some of the finest of those many tales are presented in this wee pb edition. Smith was unusual, with a unique vision and way of expressing it. Primarily a poet, his language is rich and evocative. His prose is often music from a distant era: "Anon, suddenly, the mists were riven, and a cataract of golden rays poured down from a high-seated sun. Near at hand, to the lee of the driving barge, a tall island hove with verdurous trees and light, shell-shaped domes and blossomy gardens hanging far up in the dazzlement of noon. There, with a sleepy purling, the surf was lulled on a low, grassy shore that had not known the anger of storm..." With this excellent collection we are presented with exotic fables and Lovecraftian horror. "The Return of the Sorcerer" is a story that CAS mentioned to H. P. Lovecraft in their correspondence, and it shews Lovecraft's influence, contains elements of what has come to be called the Cthulhu Mythos. "The Shadows" is a prose-poem of pure beauty and deep gloom. Smith wrote in an era when science fiction was yet a new and growing genre, and his experiments therein are exceptionally inventive. He had an amazing ability for creating alien landscapes and the freaks that inhabit them. And who else would write a tale set in Brooklyn about a bloke named Theophilus Alvor, a poet who is saved in a suicidal moment by a thing who lures him across gulfs to an alien world and its outlandish delights. Here we find tales of Tsathoggua and Ubbo-Sathla. An excellent collection of amazing and effective tales by a Master of Weird Fiction!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Cosmic Strangeness from the depths of Weird,
By AR "AR" (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Out of Space and Time, Volume II (Paperback)
Clark Ashton Smith is a poet, a real wizard of words, a necromancer of storytelling with a mind that is more far out than the frozen plains Pluto. Like others in his class, Lovecraft, & Lord Dunsany, he spins fantastic short stories, but in my opinion Clark's tales are the most psychedelic and piercing. They have an eerie dreamlike quality as if you're reading a passage from a past life. His descriptions of altered states and hyper surreal scenes are beautiful and deep. Rich imagery and hashish smoke roll off the pages of these stories. Highly recommended for those who seek mind expanding phantasmagoric fantasy. This volume contains some specially chosen by Smith , but other volumes and titles contain great jewels also.
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