Customer Reviews

The End of the Story (The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Vol. 1)

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As established here and reinforced by the second volume, all five books in this series are essential to anyone interested in Smith's work and literate fantasy as a whole. Connors and Hilger have followed earlier textual studies by Donald Sidney-Fryer, Steve Behrends, and others with extensive studies of their own to restore as much of the glory to Smith's texts as is currently possible - and what glory! Smith is one of the few fantasists capable not only of creating multiple fantasy cultures, but with investing each of those worlds with its own distinct atmosphere, tone, and use of language. Many earlier versions of these texts toned down the richness, eroticism, and grotesquerie of these stories in order to appeal to what Smith's editors deemed was acceptable to the lowest-common-denominator among its readership. Scores of deletions, simplifications, bowdlerizations, and other alterations which have served to remove the sheen from these works have here been corrected through painstaking attention to all available manuscripts and correpondence. Here, at long last, is Smith in all his mordant, coruscating splendor. If one considers all of this, along with intelligent introductory material; alternate endings; unpedantic notes to each story detailing its composition, publication history, and its place within the larger context of Smith's work; as well as Jason Van Hollander's inspired integration of Smith and his sculptures into the macabre and affectionate cover art; Night Shade and these editors have presented to all lovers of fantasy an edition of the master's prose fiction which will serve as the benchmark for many years to come.

What happened to Lovecraft with S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, or to Robert E. Howard with Patrice Louinet, has just happened to Clark Ashton Smith. Two long devoted scholars, Scott Connors and Ron Hilger, have spent years editing this definitive edition of the collected tales and short stories (some of them being in fact extended prose poems of an incredibly bewitching quality as the CAS scholar Donald Sidney-Fryer has often pointed out) of Clark Ashton Smith. This is what any serious CAS fan has been waiting for.

One cannot imagine a better representation of the fantastic fiction of the late Clark Ashton Smith than that to be found in this and the forthcoming volumes in this collection. Connors and Hilger have tirelessly restored Smith's stories to their original form after comparing the texts of holographic manuscripts, published versions, and even bits and pieces from Smith's personal correspondence. The stories are being published herein in chronological order with notes for each tale and more (including an alternate ending for one tale that was deemed too "racy" at the time it was written).

The sturdy and handsome library binding, excellent typesetting, and beautiful dustcover top off this first of what cannot help but be the definitive Smith collection.

Fans of Smith's fantasmagorical tales, this collection tops all others.

Resellers on the secondhand market are currently trying to get outrages prices for this out-of-print book. According to editor Scott Connors this book will see a reprint soon so do not throw your money away folks. Keeps your eye out for the reprint so this time you can get a copy before the scumbag resellers buy them all up.

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, and numerous 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.

This first volume in what promises to be the definitive collection of short fiction by Clark Ashton Smith is nothing short of a literary treasure. For those who have previously had to satisfy their craving for Klarkashtonia by seeking it out in scattered and hard-to-obtain tomes, The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith is a blessing nonpareil. Do yourself a favor and get it while it lasts.

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.

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.

Clark Ashton Smith is a writer most similar to Poe, Lovecraft, and Dunsany -- and yet, like each of them, he is also unique. Not afraid to be gloomy, his work is poetic, visual, both dreamlike and nightmarish. His stories are short, as many were in the pulp era -- but I find the fast pacing a welcome contrast to long-winded styles of other eras. He gets right to the point, with the artistic economy found only in poets.

Superbly printed and bound the words of CAS here receive literary justice. This first volume of a planned set of five looks to be the definitive edition. Highly recommended.