The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: Volumes 1-5 were published by Night Shade Books during 2007-2010. These books were edited by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger, and cover images were painted by Jason Van Hollander.
Clark Ashton Smith was an American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He was a member of the Lovecraft circle, and Smith's literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft lasted from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937. His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.
With H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Clark Ashton Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
Click here to visit The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith.
Click here to visit the Wikipedia page about Clark Ashton Smith.
A REVIEW OF THE COLLECTED FANTASIES OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH: VOLUMES 1-5
I was asked to write a short review of The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: Volumes 1-5. This review is more of a short essay about these books and an introduction to the works of Clark Ashton Smith rather than an actual review about them.
Clark Ashton Smith probably needs no introduction to readers who are familiar with weird fiction, dark fantasy and horror. He's one of the best short story writers ever published, because he wrote beautiful and morbid prose, and his stories range all the way from fantasy to horror. His stories - along with the stories written by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Algernon Blackwood and William Hope Hodgson - have become the cornerstones of weird fiction, dark fantasy and horror. Modern weird fiction and horror genres owe a huge debt to these old stories.
Although Clark Ashton Smith is a well known and highly respected author among readers of weird fiction and dark fantasy, he's unfortunately less known among readers who tend to read epic fantasy and modern dark fantasy/horror. This is a shame, because his stories contain beautiful, detailed and decadent prose (he had a unique eye for details and words).
It may be a bit difficult to find The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: Volumes 1-5 now, because - if I'm not mistaken - they're currently out-of-print and haven't been republished. Fortunately certain volumes can still be found from second-hand bookshops and online bookshops.
Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have done an impressive job by gathering all the fantasy, science fiction and horror stories of Clark Ashton Smith into these five volumes. The stories in these volumes appeared in Weird Tales.
The story notes and alternate endings are interesting. The story notes offer insight to the stories and how they were created and published. It was interesting to read how the author had problems publishing certain stories, because they were considered to be - for one reason or another - unsuitable for the magazines that published strange tales and science fiction.
The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith consists of the following volumes:
1. The End of the Story
2. The Door to Saturn
3. A Vintage from Atlantis
4. The Maze of the Enchanter
5. The Last Hieroglyph
Because these volumes collect all the speculative fiction stories written by Clark Ashton Smith, they contain such stories well known and highly regarded stories as Genius Loci, The Abominations of Yondo, The Return of the Sorcerer, The Empire of the Necromancers, The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, The City of the Singing Flame and The Last Incantation. Each of these stories is a masterpiece and should be read by all readers who enjoy reading beautifully written speculative fiction.
The above mentioned stories with the rest of the stories offer readers fascinating and unforgettable glimpses into fantastical, hallucinatory and phastamagorical worlds. His imaginary stories contain visions of doom, alien worlds, and gothic and grotesque elements that are difficult to forget. I dare say that once you let Smith's fantastical and otherwordly visions enter your mind, you're hopelessly hooked and want to read all of his stories.
As fans of Clark Ashton Smith already know, most of his weird fiction falls into four series set variously in Hyperborea, Averoigne, Poseidonis and Zothique.
The Hyperborean cycle is a series of stories by Clark Ashton Smith that take place in the fictional prehistoric setting of Hyperborea. The Hyperborean stories represent the author's greatest contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos (the non-anthropomorphic god Tsathoggua is featured in many of them). These stories include such stories as The Door to Saturn, The Tales of Satampra Zeiros and The White Sybil.
Averoigne is a fictional counterpart of a historical province in France (it's based on the actual province of Auvergne). These stories include such stories as The Best of Averoigne, The End of the Story and Mother of Toads.
Poseidonis is a richly imagined last remnant of the lost continent of Atlantis. These stories include such stories as The Last Incantation, A Vintage from Atlantis and The Death of Malygris.
The stories in the Zothique cycle tell of an imagined future continent (to be exact, it belongs to the Dying Earth subgenre of speculative fiction). These stories include such stories as The Dark Eidolon, The Last Hieroglyph, Necromancy in Naat, The Empire of the Necromancers and The Charnel God.
Clarks Ashton Smith has also written Mars stories (The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, Vulthoom and The Dweller in the Gulf are the best known Mars stories) and Xiccarph stories (The Flower-Women and The Maze of Maal-Dweb).
All the readers who read Clark Ashton Smith's stories will immediately notice how gorgeous, morbid and evocative the author's descriptions of the places and the happenings are, and how horrifying and mesmerizing the atmosphere is in many of his stories. In my opinion Clark Ashton Smith is one of the few authors who have an ability to awake feelings of fear, wonder and admiration in his readers.
It's possible that it may take a while for certain readers to get used to Clark Ashton Smith's prose and his decriptions of the happenings, but once you get used to them, you'll become a devoted fan. If you've never read Clark Ashton Smith and aren't familiar with literary weird fiction, it might be good idea start reading his stories by taking a look at The Return of the Sorcerer and other similar stories, which are accessible and easy to read stories. If you've read H. P. Lovecraft, I can mention that you're in for a real treat when you begin to read Clark Ashton Smith's stories. Some of his stories are similar to Lovecraft's stories, but there are stylistic differences.
Clark Ashton Smith's exotic, horrifying and unique stories have stood the test of time surprisingly well. There's a charmingly old-fashioned feel to certain stories, but none of the stories are bad or badly written. There's slight fluctuation in quality between the stories, but all of them are excellent stories.
I'm aware that there are readers who regard Clark Ashton Smith as a better writer than H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. I'm personally as fond of Smith's stories as I'm fond of Lovecraft and Howard's stories. I know that it's possible to place one of these authors above the others, but there's no need to do so, because each of them has written excellent and memorable stories. I think it's imperative to mention that these authors shared a few ideas, but each of them had their own distinct writing style.
If there are readers out there who wonder why they should read these five volumes, I give these readers three good reasons to read these volumes:
1. Clark Ashton Smith is one of the best weird fiction writers and his stories should be read by as many readers as possible.
2. Many modern authors have been influenced by Clark Ashton Smith's stories. It's possible to say that Clark Ashton Smith - along with H. P. Lovecraft - has had a huge impact on the weird fiction, dark fantasy and horror genres.
3. If you call yourself a devoted fan of weird fiction, it's important to be familiar with all the stories written by Clark Ashton Smith.
I could write a lot about the stories in these volumes, but many things have already been written about them, so I won't repeat what has already been said by others. I'll end this short review/essay with the following paragraph:
If you've never read anything by Clark Ashton Smith, please do yourself a big favour and read his stories. These five volumes contain many stories, which have become classic stories and deserve to be read by old fans and newcomers. These five volumes are essential volumes for all readers who love weird fiction and dark fantasy.
Very highly recommended!