Book Review: The End of the Story, by Clark Ashton Smith
A collection of short stories from the golden age of pulp fantasy-horror.
Night Shade, 2006, 284 pages
Clark Ashton Smith’s unique take on science fiction, fantasy, and horror is given life by a chorus of voices, performing 25 of his earliest works, including "The Abominations of Yondo", "The Monster of the Prophecy", "The Last Incantation", and the title story. This first of five volumes of edited and curated "preferred texts" of Smith’s work serves as justification for a re-appreciation of this master of speculative fiction, the third member of the Weird Tales unholy horror trinity, the other two being H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Smith’s appreciation for human sexuality, fondness for ribald humor, and strong female characters are all on display in mind-engaging, goose bump-inspiring short and unsettling stories.
I've always loved the pulps, especially H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, but somehow I had never sampled until now the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, who was one of Lovecraft's friends and wrote some Mythos stories himself.
The End of the Story is a collection of CAS's short stories, all of which are available for free online.
These twenty-five stories will appeal to any fan of golden age sci-fi and fantasy, but be prepared for some turgid purple verbosity. I've read a lot of Lovecraft, and I can say that Lovecraft had nothing on Smith when it comes to purple prose and ten-dollar words.
I will not detail the indiscretions which had led me, a careless stranger from far-off lands, into the power of those dreadful magicians and mysteriarchs who serve the lion-headed Ong. These indiscretions, and the particulars of my arrest, are painful to remember; and least of all do I like to remember the racks of dragon-gut strewn with powdered adamant, on which men are stretched naked; or that unlit room with six-inch windows near the sill, where bloated corpse worms crawled in by hundreds from a neighboring catacomb. Sufficient to say that, after expending the resources of their frightful fantasy, my inquisitors had borne me blindfolded on camel-back for incomputable hours, to leave me at morning twilight in that sinister forest. I was free, they told me, to go whither I would; and in token of the clemency of Ong, they gave me a loaf of coarse bread and a leathern bottle of rank water by way of provision. It was at noon of the same day that I came to the desert of Yondo.
These stories span fantasy, science fiction, and horror. There are necromancers and liches, horrors from beyond the stars, H.G. Wells-inspired invasions from Venus, and adventures in Andromeda that might have inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs. There are vampire and ghost stories, and cringeworthy depictions of African "savages," but told with more sympathy and wry humor than the xenophobic disgust of Lovecraft.
Clark Ashton Smith primarily appeared in magazines like Weird Tales. The "purple prose" that is characteristic of such publications was very much a genre style, as writing from the 20s and 30s, and even fiction in other genres, generally did not emphasize such thesaurus abuse.
They were both very quiet now, as beseems a couple who have been slain in open adultery. And there was no movement, no sign of life, in the lonely forest where so few people ever came. Therefore, M. Le Comte was startled beyond all measure when he heard the wild, malign, unhuman and diabolical cachinnation which issued from the alder boughs.
Stories often end abruptly, though Smith didn't seem to favor the "twist" endings some of his contemporaries did. He wrote with poetic, vivid imagery and did not shy away from sensual themes (though everything remains firmly PG-rated). I enjoyed this collection, and another dive into Clark Ashton Smith's stories would make fine inspiration for anyone in the mood for some Lovecraftian horror with (a little) more sex and (a little) less racism.
My complete list of book reviews.
Night Shade, 2006, 284 pages
Clark Ashton Smith’s unique take on science fiction, fantasy, and horror is given life by a chorus of voices, performing 25 of his earliest works, including "The Abominations of Yondo", "The Monster of the Prophecy", "The Last Incantation", and the title story. This first of five volumes of edited and curated "preferred texts" of Smith’s work serves as justification for a re-appreciation of this master of speculative fiction, the third member of the Weird Tales unholy horror trinity, the other two being H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Smith’s appreciation for human sexuality, fondness for ribald humor, and strong female characters are all on display in mind-engaging, goose bump-inspiring short and unsettling stories.
I've always loved the pulps, especially H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, but somehow I had never sampled until now the writings of Clark Ashton Smith, who was one of Lovecraft's friends and wrote some Mythos stories himself.
The End of the Story is a collection of CAS's short stories, all of which are available for free online.
These twenty-five stories will appeal to any fan of golden age sci-fi and fantasy, but be prepared for some turgid purple verbosity. I've read a lot of Lovecraft, and I can say that Lovecraft had nothing on Smith when it comes to purple prose and ten-dollar words.
I will not detail the indiscretions which had led me, a careless stranger from far-off lands, into the power of those dreadful magicians and mysteriarchs who serve the lion-headed Ong. These indiscretions, and the particulars of my arrest, are painful to remember; and least of all do I like to remember the racks of dragon-gut strewn with powdered adamant, on which men are stretched naked; or that unlit room with six-inch windows near the sill, where bloated corpse worms crawled in by hundreds from a neighboring catacomb. Sufficient to say that, after expending the resources of their frightful fantasy, my inquisitors had borne me blindfolded on camel-back for incomputable hours, to leave me at morning twilight in that sinister forest. I was free, they told me, to go whither I would; and in token of the clemency of Ong, they gave me a loaf of coarse bread and a leathern bottle of rank water by way of provision. It was at noon of the same day that I came to the desert of Yondo.
These stories span fantasy, science fiction, and horror. There are necromancers and liches, horrors from beyond the stars, H.G. Wells-inspired invasions from Venus, and adventures in Andromeda that might have inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs. There are vampire and ghost stories, and cringeworthy depictions of African "savages," but told with more sympathy and wry humor than the xenophobic disgust of Lovecraft.
Clark Ashton Smith primarily appeared in magazines like Weird Tales. The "purple prose" that is characteristic of such publications was very much a genre style, as writing from the 20s and 30s, and even fiction in other genres, generally did not emphasize such thesaurus abuse.
They were both very quiet now, as beseems a couple who have been slain in open adultery. And there was no movement, no sign of life, in the lonely forest where so few people ever came. Therefore, M. Le Comte was startled beyond all measure when he heard the wild, malign, unhuman and diabolical cachinnation which issued from the alder boughs.
Stories often end abruptly, though Smith didn't seem to favor the "twist" endings some of his contemporaries did. He wrote with poetic, vivid imagery and did not shy away from sensual themes (though everything remains firmly PG-rated). I enjoyed this collection, and another dive into Clark Ashton Smith's stories would make fine inspiration for anyone in the mood for some Lovecraftian horror with (a little) more sex and (a little) less racism.
My complete list of book reviews.