a flowery collection of Decadent fairy tales; the capital D means that these flowers are evil and they aren't even flowers, nor are these fairy tales a flowery collection of Decadent fairy tales; the capital D means that these flowers are evil and they aren't even flowers, nor are these fairy tales actual fairy tales. they are gemstones, precisely cut into floral shapes, entrancing to the eye, beautiful but dead; they are contes cruel, anti-fairy tales full of magic and awe, yet cold, ruthless, heartless. the intrepid young knight is no courtly rescuer, he is a savage raised to hate his father or women or both; his adventure is a waste of his life. the princess isn't human, she's made of silk and pearls; she shall be literally undone by a malevolent mouse. the fairy has kept her paramours enchanted; when another callous young knight appears, champion of Jesus, her lovers shall waken into putrescence, melting horribly into the ground. we never meet Snow White or her dwarven rescuers; the wicked Queen is halted on her mission of vengeance by the passing of Christ's Magi, and is soon torn apart by wolves. these are lovely, slight, and often nihilistic tales, with only one happy ending in sight. it did feel a bit out of place to see the lovers reunited, the girl's journey rewarded, the boy's heart unfrozen... but good for them. and good for decadent Jean Lorrain, journalist, Marcel Proust's old foe: he let one happy ending slip through, at least....more
there is a little country called Dorimare, a village-country, small and tidy and neat. it has a terrible, wonderful history, of fey and autocratic rulers who would kill a court jester by breaking his heart, of magic and mayhem and wild unpredictability, of a neighboring Fairyland whose influence on Dorimare was not so small. Dorimare had a history. that history has since been transformed, or ignored, or made small and tidy and neat, its citizens now a small and tidy and neat little bourgeoisie, their customs quaint and adorable, all the fear of living in such a place long gone, all of the wonder gone too. such a genteel little village it has become.
change has come to Dorimare's capital, called Lud-in-the-Mist, and to its countryside. there is a strange man in red, he appears at your windows, smiling. the girls at the proper little boarding school have a new dance master, he has enchanted the school's mistress, he will enchant the girls as well, the mayor's daughter among them. they shall eat his apples and off to the border with Fairyland they shall run, the newly crazed things. the mayor's household will have a new stableboy, and he will give the mayor's son an apple, fairy fruit that will drive him mad or happy or sick or newly alive, or some such state. he shall be rushed to convalesce on a farm in the countryside, right on the border with Fairyland. there is a murder that once happened, years ago, was it even a murder? there is something buried on the farm in the countryside, strange motivations to be unearthed, Fairyland's agents revealed, so many mysteries to be solved.
the little mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist dreams: of what, he knows not. perhaps it was a tune from his youth, a strange melody not quite forgotten, a sweet and enticing little song. the mayor tries to wake up, he tries and fails and tries again, until he realizes he has been awake all along, a sleeping dreaming wakefulness. it is only through dreaming that these mysteries will be solved. this stableboy, this dancing master, who is he? these apples, these lures and temptations, what are they? where are his son and his daughter, what dreams have taken them? into Fairyland the mayor must go, across the border, into dreamland. a lesson will be learned, by the mayor and by Lud-in-the-Mist and by all of Dorimare: to repress our imagination, to hide from our pasts, to pretend that darkness does not exist, is to not live at all. fairy fruit is delicious!
Clark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'mClark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'm not going to say "whimper" because I'm not going to insult him. He closes out his career with a whisper. A whisper of his former skills, I suppose, rather than the more full-throated confidence and command of effects that he had in his heyday. There are certainly some of the worst stories I've ever read by him in here. Happily, there are plenty of perfectly fine stories, and handful of excellent ones that are just as wonderfully written and magically malevolent as his prior classics.
I loved his return to the Atlantean land of Poseidonis: "The Death of Malygris" features a cabal of understandably anxious second-level wizards who seek to plunder the fortunes of their apparently-dead superior. They should have known better.
CAS revisits his classic (and shared) setting of sword & sorcery, Hyperborea, in three treats. One about the robbery of a temple, another about an arrogant king bespelled by a grouchy enchanter to offer himself up to a range of underworld monstrosities, all who find the offering rather lacking (the delightful and macabre "The Seven Geases"), and a somewhat Lovecraftian story of an alien being intent on bringing death by ice to the world (the atypically somber "The Coming of the White Worm").
The Vancean far-future continent of Zothique is featured the most heavily in this collection. I was disappointed by a number of these stories, but there were some standouts. (All of my favorites are bolded below.) The best tales of Zothique, as with Poseidonis, are the ones suffused with a bleak melancholy. Just as Poseidonis is doomed to drown, Zothique exists at the end of days. "Morthylla" and "Necromancy in Naat" in particular exude the kind of luscious romanticism and literally necrophilic love affairs that are perfect for undead readers like myself.
It's sort of funny to describe these different worlds of Poseidonis and Zothique and Hyperborea, because they often feel like very similar places. Same goes for his setting in the provincial French countryside, Averoigne. All include dark wizardry, dying or dead civilizations, horribly ironic endings, and all portrayed with the deepest shades of purple prose.
A standout that felt quite different is the scabrous and unusually graphic "Schizo Creator" - starting with that fun title. The jumping points are Manichaeism and Gnosticism: the binary of a Good God of Order and the Dark God of Chaos, the right-hand path and the left. But what if, wonders a very modern psychoanalyst with some surprising sorcerous skills, there is only one being, and this God is schizophrenic. I mean seriously, LOL! And so our resourceful brain-panner manages to trap a high-level demon that he mistakes for Satan and then provides that very modern treatment, electroshock therapy. The results are pretty amusing, to the reader and to the high-level demon. And the whole experiment - dutifully reported back by that demon - is certainly of interest to the High Devil himself. Or should it be... Himself? No spoilers! Or blasphemy!
☥
INANE SYNOPSES
The Dark Age - post-apocalyptic caveboy learns that last living elitists still elitist The Chain of Aforgomon - fuck around with Father Time and find out The Primal City - cloud monsters don't like climbers Treader of the Dust - ashy book leads to ashy skin leads to ashy death The Great God Awto - hear them sing their paeans to this god Strange Shadows - drunk dude sees clearly Double Cosmos - druggie dude sees other self and other self is an asshole Nemesis of the Unfinished - writer needs to write more and drink less Symposium of the Gorgon - drunkard meets Gorgon, Pegasus, cannibals Schizoid Creator - psychiatrist needs to rethink his thesis Monsters in the Night - werewolf feeding time Phoenix - boyfriend not returning from trip to reignite sun The Dart of Rasafa - makes me sad that this was author's last story cause it sucked
Poseidonis
The Death of Malygris - oh he ain't that dead
Averoigne
Mother of Toads - nasty, horny sorceress + toads = bad news for handsome apprentice The Enchantress of Sylaire - who cares how she really looks, she fucks
Hyperborea
The Coming of the White Worm - disgusting slug sorcerer wants the world to just chill Seven Geases - hypnotized human sacrifice: "Eat me, I'm yours." 7 entities: "Sorry, just not into you." Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles - Ocean's 11 - 3 + fake ghosts
Zothique
The Tomb-Spawn - escape from cannibals leads to discovery of something pretty gross The Witchcraft of Ulua - entitled temptress mad she can't get it on with new cup-bearer Xeethra - Ozymandias called, wants kingdom and name back The Last Hieroglyph - astrologer gets on Fate's last nerve Necromancy in Naat - dead people make great servants but not great lovers The Black Abbot of Puthuum - racist travelers don't want to provide lonely, hungry monk with sustenance or sex The Death of Ilalotha - after the funeral orgies, it's jealous queen vs. living dead girl The Garden of Alompha - bored king not so bored anymore when being torn apart by vengeful veggies The Master of the Crabs - crabs make unreliable friends Morthylla - "After his death, he forgot that he had died..."...more
Fecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary neFecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary necromantic, and to me at least, salubrious Clark Ashton Smith! He's a lot!
There is also a lot of fabulous Zothique, dire and sorcerous world of our future, in this dense collection. Cause for celebration. All of the Zothique stories are wonderful. I particularly appreciated the strange, sad adventure of a poor prince of a dead kingdom, stranded on "The Isle of the Torturers" (trigger warning: torture, lol) and the evil wit in "Voyage of King Euvoron" especially the King of Birds' collection of human taxidermy, and most of all the fantastic showdown between evil wizard and evil king - plus an evil concubine turned into a sacrifice, and also an evil god of hell just biding his time - of the enchanting "Dark Eidolon" - swoon! So much evil and they all get what's coming to them. Except for the evil god of hell of course, he always wins.
The very disdainful, very bored, and - wait for it - very evil sorcerer supreme Maal Dweb is featured in the two stories about a weird world called Xiccarph that exists in a weird solar system with a bunch of other weird planets and in which weird adventures are apparently occurring around the clock. After dispatching some dull, lovelorn interlopers on some kind of rescue mission who dare to intrude on his peace of mind in "The Maze of the Enchanter" (I totally sympathized with his irritation), he decides to have some adventures of his own in "The Flower-Women" and those adventures are very, very weird. Both stories delighted.
Two more standouts are the rousing and rather less decadent adventure stories set in the deep caverns of Mars. One was exceedingly creepy (as eyeless undead slug people who want you to be One Of Us are always fated to be, the poor things) and the other was just a lot of fast-paced fun, as it features two losers who have to match their rather dull wits against an ambitious, sweet-voiced, manipulative god of - wait for it - evil who wants to branch out and conquer another planet... our planet Earth, egads!! The latter story also includes a holographic PR rep who floats around dispensing a lot of inane bullshit, which felt like this story was set in 2021.
Also quite pleased that a teen favorite has remained a favorite: "Genius Loci" which is about, well, an evil meadow. I remember excitedly reading this one to my girlfriend at the time, on a road trip. I also remember her wondering if maybe she and I were really the right fit for each other. :(
I think this period of CAS's writing career may be his peak, but I do still have 1 more volume of his stories to go. I want I want I want to give this one 5 stars because he's a favorite author but I'm miserly and am just going to hold out until I finish them all. Not all of the stories gave that pure-pleasure feeling, but if you like his overripe & overheated & often overly-written style, each and every story here is a winner.
STUPID SYNOPSES AHEAD
A Star-Change - grass is always greener on the other planet Dimensions of Chance - Americans rescued by racist aliens 3rd Episode of Vathek - CAS finishes Beckford's ode to twincest Genius Loci - "the presiding spirit of a place" Secret of the Cairn - eating a pear from an alien Tree of Life
Averoigne The Mandrakes - bury the wife & dig up the mini-wives Beast of Averoigne - hark! the demon comet approaches! Disinterment of Venus - sexy statue inspires priapic monks
Hyperborea The White Sybil - like a moth to a white flame goes the poet The Ice-Demon - don't mess with a malevolent glacier
Zothique Isle of the Torturers - out of the frying pan and into... The Charnel God - only dead offerings allowed Dark Eidolon - evil, evil everywhere & so many souls to drink Voyage of King Euvoran - both fool & fowl shall the king become The Weaver in the Vaults - lil' floating globe seeks nourishment
Mars Dweller in the Gulf - "Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?" Vulthoom - the lovely Martian god of evil wants to visit Earth
Xiccarph Maze of the Enchanter - change or stasis await all who enter The Flower-Women - bored sorcerer befriends vampire veggies...more
'Tis the night before Christmas and the wolves are running!
'Tis the night before Christmas and the children have been stolen!
'Tis the night before Chr'Tis the night before Christmas and the wolves are running!
'Tis the night before Christmas and the children have been stolen!
'Tis the night before Christmas and the guardian has been stolen!
'Tis the night before Christmas and the clergy have all been stolen too!
'Tis the night before Christmas and Herne the Hunter and the Lady of the Ring and the King & Queen of Fairies will all come a'calling!
'Tis the night before Christmas and little Kay shall become as small and as fast as a bird! and he shall encounter wolves & wizards & witches & thieves! and he shall visit strange places and he shall enter the past and he shall protect his precious Box of Delights and he shall visit a friendly mouse! and he will deal with all of this with a certain nonchalance because it's not like he hasn't done this sort of thing before!
'Tis the night before Christmas and the author is having an adventure too, with language and history and legends and dreamscapes and so much more, and all of this done with a certain nonchalance because it's not like he hasn't done this sort of thing before!
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house All the creatures were stirring, including a mouse. Would the villains be hung by their necks in their lair? So hoped little Kay, with a bloodthirsty glare. The children weren't nestled nor snug in their beds; Their visions of vengeance danced in their heads. And I heard them exclaim as they ran through the night: "Happy Christmas to all who change wrong into right!"...more
Review: a perfect children's adventure. This is apparently a sourcebook for Tolkien's Hobbit. I can see that. I also was reminded of certain books by Review: a perfect children's adventure. This is apparently a sourcebook for Tolkien's Hobbit. I can see that. I also was reminded of certain books by L. Frank Baum, and many other children's fantasies that resonate, that never take a misstep. Although it features two pretty incorrigible kid protagonists (my favorite kind), the real hero of the tale is a friendly Snerg who slowly changes from moronic to heroic over the course of the story. The book is sometimes quite dark, often quite sweet, and completely adorable.
The rest of this is pretty much me going on and on about 5 star books, so unless you're in the mood for some elaborate navel-gazing and some highly caffeinated ramblings from someone you barely know, my recommendation is that you just go ahead and skip what follows.
✪ ★ ✯ ✰ ☻
I angst way too much over my precious 5th star. Get a life, me. But I'm a dedicated list creator and compartmentalizer and so this is my Total Virgo lifestyle. Lucky are the friends and family who have to deal with such an extreme tier-maker! And so it is with Goodreads and the 5 star rating, which I only award to "favorites". Perfectly worthy books that are beautifully written, challenging, and original will get 4 stars if they don't strike that chord that feels like Favorite. What does that chord sound like though? As always with me, it can be within several categories, several chords.
Funny little cat takes funny little boy on all sorts of funny adventures. This is a funny dream of book. And this is a funny, dreamy cat named Digsy: Funny little cat takes funny little boy on all sorts of funny adventures. This is a funny dream of book. And this is a funny, dreamy cat named Digsy: [image]
She doesn't look very dreamy there. But I promise you that she's spends most of her life dreaming!
OK THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE
This book has a great cat character named Nibbins, a little black cat who reminded me of my own. Nibbins introduces our protagonist Kay to adventures that begin at the stroke of midnight. The book features a huge manor house with many secret places, flying, invisibility, ghosts, visiting the lively world undersea (my favorite part), a great fox character, two villainous cats named Blackmalkin & Greymalkin (and Blackmalkin is really the worst, such a suck-up), a profane and delightful old lady who shouldn't drink so much champagne while boasting about her hoodwinkin' piratin' past doing all sorts of unseemly things. Most of all, it is about a treasure hunt! And also righting some old wrongs and outwitting some dastardly witches & wizards.
Masefield doesn't put any distance between Kay, his surreal adventures, and the reader. They just happen, don't question it. Don't overthink it either: channel your Inner Rich Orphan and indulge in some dream logic. There aren't even any chapters to break it all up, so when you're in, you're in.
The prose for this middle grade book is surprisingly sophisticated, the humor rather sneaky, and the dialogue ironic and strange. I loved it! But I wonder if many middle graders would actually love it....more
"Faust's Grandson" - you may want to offer your soul to Satan, but He may think such a paltry offering is... rather droll.
"The Mystery Woman" - you ma"Faust's Grandson" - you may want to offer your soul to Satan, but He may think such a paltry offering is... rather droll.
"The Mystery Woman" - you may idolize that girl and put her atop a pedestal, but She may just want to be... a merry tramp.
"Fantastic Tram" - you may think you're chasing her across time and space, but You are actually just.. sleeping off a binge.
"The Incredulous Parrot" - you may delight in the choir of lovely young maidens, but It compares them to... a load of camels.
"Pierrot and His Conscience" - you may mix with throngs, give all of yourself to a girl, but Your Conscience is... unimpressed.
"The Emerald Princess" - you may long for that strange and serpentine beauty, but Fate will turn fierce love to fiercer... hate... and then back to love again... to everything, turn turn turn, there is a season...
⚜
Four wispy delights; I've already forgotten them. But I do remember liking them! Like four little chocolate truffles.
One novella: "The Emerald Princess". A decadent extravaganza about a handsome pearl fisherman, his brave brother, a surreal journey through a series of nightmarescapes, and a Princess with the tongue of a deadly snake. 'Tis a bitter kiss that awaits the would-be ardent lovers she picks from the peasant crowds: what follows is short-lived bliss in her luxurious palace, some brief erotic grappling, and then an agonizing death. Champsaur must have written this one in the throes of a delirium, or perhaps was rhapsodical after overindulging in an absinthe binge. The prose is gorgeous, as befits a tale that reads like a particularly adult story from A Thousand and One Nights. Unfortunately for me, I found Champsour's lack of interest in explaining exactly why the painful deaths of countless charmed young men and especially one very brave servant girl were actually even necessary. Why Princess why? That lack of motivation really set my teeth on edge. Well, I guess that's decadence for you: an ornate style covering a beautiful but heartless body. (view spoiler)[ Bonus irritation points for overuse of the word "nacreous" (which I blame on the author) and a misunderstanding of what the word "cupidity" actually means (I blame it on the translator). Cupidity is about money not love, for chrissakes consult a dictionary! (hide spoiler)]
There is one pure gem in the mix, "Pierrot and His Conscience". One evening, Pierrot rises from his grave to visit the Parisienne nightlife, to see if much has changed in the half-century since his death. And next to him rises a lovely damsel, his Conscience: always by his side, always respected but ignored, and clad in charming counterpoint to his vestments of pearl-white with ebony flair: she saunters about dressed all in black from head to toe, save for the occasional flash of white. Together they stroll through the crowds of gay Paree. And together they are disappointed about how tawdry things have become, sensuality replaced by a cheap lack of style and above all, a depressing cupidity. Things go from bad to worse when amorous Pierrot is fooled by a cruel, cunning woman who at least has style to burn. It ends in sighs, as the depressed pair return to their graveyard home. Alack & Alas for the remorseless wheel of time and the inevitable degradation of Parisienne party people!
This story was perfect from beginning to end. The style is sinuous and the characters plaintive, but best of all were the vivacious descriptions of the corrupted night life and the visions of how much more superior was the society of yesteryear. Of course one can't help but roll eyes at the idea of Old Man Felicien moaning and groaning about how things are just so tacky nowadays unlike the good old days when everything was so much more real and full of passion and and and boo hoo hoo. But I can't fault him, I sure do the same thing. Things were definitely cooler back when I was cool! Kids these days just don't know what they're missing etc etc etc....more
"Francis Stevens" was Gertrude Barrows, one of the very few female writers of strange fiction to catch the public's eye in the early 20th century. Kud"Francis Stevens" was Gertrude Barrows, one of the very few female writers of strange fiction to catch the public's eye in the early 20th century. Kudos, Ms. Barrows!
This was a lot of fun. The author weaves in elements of various genres that I haven't previously seen put together: bold adventures in a lost world, the unknowable forces of weird fiction, Aztec mythology, off-kilter suburban horror, a gothic landscape right outside of that suburbia, and a rather Götterdämmerung-esque scene of gods at battle. Definitely some points awarded for the sheer creativity on display. I didn't love one of the heroines (too submissive) but she redeems herself with a display of forthright bloodthirstiness. The other heroine was great - strong and clever and quite capable of forcing a conservative husband to finally do something active besides get on the phone to complain to the police. And the protagonist is one of those oversized lunks with a brash, naive manner but of course a heart of gold, which is one of my favorite archetypes. Best of all is a key horror set that appears twice, first in a strange forgotten land and then in the outskirts of a bedroom community: a foggy, murky marsh full of horrible beasts that somehow exists indoors. Like in a building and accessed through a doorway! Fascinating imagery.
I see that reviewers have complained about the abrupt shift from King Solomon's Mines type adventures to creeping dread in a middle class environment. I get it, it was pretty damn abrupt. But purposely so. I liked it - the shift made the whole experience all the more disorienting and original.
I love that sneaky smile. She knows something you don't.
UPDATE: according to a recent blog post on Wormwoodiana, the above photo is actually not the author. I love that photo, so that makes me a wee bit sad. However, I have to say that I love the photo included in the Wormwoodiana article of "the real Francis Stevens" just as much:
What is she looking at? Certainly not at you or me or any other insignificant human. Perhaps she has spied a portal between worlds, and the etheric beings floating through that can only be seen by her third eye. Or some such faintly interesting vista....more
I liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird mI liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird master's idiosyncratic style has reached its peak. two more collections to go, so hopefully this peak will be a plateau. the occasional amateurishness that marred some prior stories is nowhere to be found in this book. same goes, mainly, for the love stories; he's just not that into them at this point. this is CAS at his most polished, although "polished" does little to describe his marvelous combination of disdainful irony and bleak humor, hysteria and grotesquerie, bizarre flights of fancy, dense walls of prose delivered in an extravagantly purple style, and of course the fulsome harvest of obscure words in each and every story. nobody does it better.
I had a bunch of favorites. the frequently anthologized Seed from the Sepulcher was wonderfully grim and disgusting and did body horror decades before anyone else. Plutonium Drug puts forth a nifty twist on seeing the future and also details a range of interesting new drugs and poisons imported from various planets. Empire of the Necromancers is the first in the Zothique story cycle - stories which feel like they were written by a death-mad Jack Vance from another dimension. Double Shadow is about the doom that befell two sorcerers and their pet mummy due to some poorly thought-out trips to the very distant past - to crib the spells of a long-vanished serpent race, of all things. also featuring astral trips to archaic times, Ubbo-Sathla is a mindbending take on reincarnation. mindbending to this reader and unfortunately for the protagonist(s) as well. always remember: you can't go home again, especially if that first home is an oozing primordial mother-mass that is probably from outer space. The Holiness of Azédarac, set in that always interesting (and made-up) French province of Averoigne, starts off the collection on a fun note and spryly pivots from being about the murderous mage of the title to a tale of a well-meaning monk and an equally well-meaning enchantress falling quickly in lust and love. And The Demon of the Flower is as gorgeous, strange, and vicious as its titular monster; that CAS purple prose is at its most opulent.
my favorite of faves was Colossus of Ylourgne. this fabulous adventure is CAS at his most ripe, full of ghoulishness and aiming to please with an exciting narrative. basically it is about a sorcerer who has constructed a giant out of corpses; he'll inhabit that giant and use it to lay bloody waste on the various villages, churches, and judgmental monks of unlucky Averoigne. nice. maybe clerical types should stop finger-pointing so much. fortunately for them, there is a helpful young novice wizard who'll try and save the day. this story was super fun from beginning to end.
and now for some ridiculous synopses:
Averoigne "Holiness of Azédarac" forget that wizard - a witch loves you! "The Maker of Gargoyles" resentment & desire come alive! "The Colossus of Ylourgne" attack on undead titan!
Poseidonis "A Vintage from Atlantis" pirates shouldn't drink so much! "Double Shadow" some serpent-spells shouldn't be cast!
Hyperborea "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqqquan" don't be a greedy pig! "Ubbo-Sathla" AKA Shub-Niggurath? maybe!
Zothique "Empire of the Necromancers" the dead make poor servants!
science fantasy "The Demon of the Flower" don't assassinate a plant-god!
science fiction sequel: "Beyond the Singing Flame" alas for the end of things! "Seedling of Mars" Martian vegetable wants to help you evolve! "The Eternal World" don't mess with the Gods of the Galaxy! "The Invisible City" don't go looking for things you can't see! "Immortals of Mercury" human protoplasm is required! "The Plutonian Drug" future is now - unless you're dead! "The God of the Asteroid" Mars is hell but asteroids are worse!
science fiction horror "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" that black turban ain't no turban!
horror "The Nameless Offspring" nobody loves a step-ghoul! "Seed from the Sepulcher" that head's a flower-pot! "The Second Interment" uh oh, premature burial! "The Supernumerary Corpse" two bodies for the price of one!...more
Let's be specific here because enquiring minds want to know:
- White bread - Tinned meat with a pinch of salt - And what exactly is this "Food of Death"?
Let's be specific here because enquiring minds want to know:
- White bread - Tinned meat with a pinch of salt - Cheap Indian tea - Champagne - Food "recommended for invalids" - Milk & borax!
Thus fed, Death arose ravening, strong, and strode again through the cities.
Er... yay? Maybe 'tis not for the best to feed Death. Also, besides the champagne, I can't say I'm a big fan of the Death Diet. Sounds like a recipe for staying hungry.
So these fifty-one tales are prose poems by one of England's great classic writers, the fabulous Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. He died in 1957 and more than 90 of his books were published in his lifetime. He held the second-oldest title in Irish peerage, lived in Ireland's longest-inhabited castle - Dunsany Castle, of course - and was married to the same lovely lady for the entirety of his life, Beatrice Child Villiers (and thank you very much for all of that, Wikipedia). Here are photos of the charming couple:
Back to the work under inspection. Unfortunately I was usually bored. Perhaps it is the very nature of prose poems that bores me? I dunno. I have loved Lord Dunsany in the past: a big fan in college and, much later, I was fascinated by The King of Elfland's Daughter. He is a gorgeous stylist, his sardonic detachment spices up his dreamy nature, and he spins yarns full of mythic fantasy and ambiguous horror... all of which should make him automatically up my alley. But these fifty-one tales didn't surprise me and often caused eye-rolling. They are mainly little parables about Death walking about, grumpy, and the North Wind winding down, even grumpier, and Pan dying then waking up, probably horny, and various poets mooning over various things, and other similar sorts of fables. The whole collection felt so twee and so obvious. Yes, Man will fall. Yes, Nature is beautiful. Yes, industrialized civilizations are awfully dirty and societies will inevitably turn to dust, as shall we all. Yes, yes, and yes. Got it. Despite the loveliness of his writing style, the obviousness killed me. Fortunately it did not kill my interest in the good Lord, who I will be reading again. One strike does not equal an out.
There were a couple pieces that I rather enjoyed. "Furrow Maker" has two birds discussing the fortunes of that notorious furrow-maker, Man (and his companion, that "nasty fellow" named Dog). And "True History of the Hare and the Tortoise" exhibits a fun mean streak from the author: after being quite impressed that the Tortoise beat the Hare in a footrace, his fellow woodland creatures decide that the speedy Tortoise is best-suited to warn a forest's residents that a terrible fire is approaching. Oops. Not a great call, woodland creatures....more
There is a broken sword and there is a broken thing, a changeling, the story's villain. There is a man and a woman and both shall be broken as well; lThere is a broken sword and there is a broken thing, a changeling, the story's villain. There is a man and a woman and both shall be broken as well; love shall bind them and love shall break them. There are elves that rape their prisoners and trolls that mourn their lost daughters; Odin disguised as Lucifer and Lucifer coming to mock and offer no succor, even to those who swear fealty. There is a White God, bringing change: all shall fear Him. There is a wintry saga, cold and bleak: The Broken Sword.
A witch smiles in joy at her rat familiar, gleeful at the breaking they have wrought. A woman mourns the devastation of her family, longing for death and finding it. A story brings together all the legends and myths and races and gods, and breaks them, binds them, breaks them again. An author writes of grim destiny in words calm and clear and remorseless, finding the poetry in broken things and the breaking then reshaping of the world. A reader read a broken paperback, and marveled at the sublime despair. A book sang, from tattered pages came such sad and terrible songs. Alas!...more
a bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with tha bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with this second stage in his career, story-wise it appears that CAS became less interested in yearning tales of love, alien and otherwise, and refocused on contes cruel. the majority of the pieces in this collection are short ones describing unfortunate and disturbing endings for a range of deserving or undeserving characters. unfortunately, that particular offshoot of short horror fiction has little interest for me. they usually lack the depth, resonance, and ambiguity that I often crave in my Weird Fiction. alas!
however that handful of excellent stories truly shined. "Door to Saturn" is a lot of droll fun as two enemy wizards find themselves within the bizarre landscape of Saturn, and at the mercy of its various bizarre residents. "The Testament of Athammaus" features an absorbingly repulsive villain/monster. both have the feel of classic sword & sorcery high fantasy, except with a thick red vein of CAS darkness. "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" takes place in one of the author's more underrated locales: the imaginary French countrysides and castles of Averoigne, circa the 12th century, I assume. this one features two lovers and their servants encountering a dismal castle in the countryside, and its hungry residents. "The Letter from Mohaun Los" is an amusing science fictional tale of space travel to a couple very off-kilter and threatening planets. featuring a giant tentacled robot, of all things! and the bonafide classic of the the collection, "City of the Singing Flame" details the haunting lure of a flame of extermination, captivating all sorts of alien creatures - as well as our protagonist and his buddy - to their potential doom.
CAS' prose throughout all of the stories is lushly descriptive and gorgeously purple, per usual.
Hyperborea The Door to Saturn The Testament of Athammaus
Averoigne A Rendezvous in Averoigne
- love - Told in the Desert The Willow Landscape
- death - The Gorgon An Offering to the Moon The Kiss of Zoraida The Face by the River The Ghoul The Kingdom of the Worm The Justice of the Elephant The Return of the Sorcerer A Good Embalmer
- strange adventures - The Red World of Polaris & A Captivity in Serpens An Adventure in Futurity The City of the Singing Flame The Letter from Mohaun Los
- drek - The Hunters from Beyond (although it did introduce me to the word "nympholepsy" for which I suppose I'm grateful?)...more
click clack, he has a knack his talent's in his words glips and glops, his story pops eerie and absurd
frip frap, a pretty death cap fairy tales must be daclick clack, he has a knack his talent's in his words glips and glops, his story pops eerie and absurd
frip frap, a pretty death cap fairy tales must be dark snip and snart, and as for the art it's vivid yet quite stark
tick tack, the prince comes back but will it all end well? mips and mopes, just as I'd hoped The 13 Clocks was swell!...more
in his wonderful Oz series, Baum usually does a good job at keeping his more precious & cutesy-poo tendencies in check. his bracingly no-nonsense littin his wonderful Oz series, Baum usually does a good job at keeping his more precious & cutesy-poo tendencies in check. his bracingly no-nonsense little heroines and often delightfully bizarre imagination help to keep things treacle-free. unfortunately no such barriers have been put in place for this story of the early life of Santa Claus; the result is much strained mawkishness and, egads, baby talk. sugar overload! however I did enjoy the entirely pagan origins of Jolly Saint Nick - a foundling taken under the protection of assorted sprites, nymphs, and fairies of an ancient forest. Baum is at his best here when naming and describing all of the varied immortal princes and princesses, and the inhumans they rule over. plus there is a (very brief) Battle Between the Forces of Good and Evil, and that's always fun....more
rather pretty, rather simple. unfortunately each time i picked this up i found myself on the first train to snoozeville. i wanted to like it so much mrather pretty, rather simple. unfortunately each time i picked this up i found myself on the first train to snoozeville. i wanted to like it so much more, but perhaps norton was intimidated by the original subject material, because the novel never really came alive for me.
still, I do have to say that this was a particularly pleasant book to fall asleep to in the park. several nice naps occurred over the course of several nice days. which reminds me, San Francisco weather sure has been pleasant lately. yay, global warming?...more
Howard Pyle was a renowned author who made his mark in the 19th century with a number of books for young adults on such figures as Robin Hood and KingHoward Pyle was a renowned author who made his mark in the 19th century with a number of books for young adults on such figures as Robin Hood and King Arthur. In 1889 his son Sellers died unexpectedly. In 1895 he wrote a children's fantasy called The Garden Behind the Moon. The book is about what awaits children beyond this mortal coil.
Young simpleton David lives in a fishing village and spends his days caring for his infant sister and listening to the stories of a fellow simpleton, a cobbler named Hans. Hans tells David tales of the path to the moon, the gardens behind the moon, and the Master Cobbler - also known as the Moon-Angel, also known as the Angel of Death. David finds his way there, spends some time polishing stars for the Man in the Moon, meets the frightening but kindly Moon-Angel, and takes vacations from his work by visiting those gardens behind the moon - a place where children romp and play, forever young.
The book is a light fantasy with a melancholy tone and some dark themes. It is a sweet book as well.There have been few things so moving in literature for me to contemplate than thinking about Pyle writing this book for his lost son, imagining a place beyond where his child could live and play, have adventures and learn a purpose, find a girl and eventually be united with her. So wistful and yet so hopeful. I find that I'm tearing up even as I write this, thinking about Pyle. Well I can be a sentimental chap at times.
The darkness is ever present as well. The opening chapter describes a good queen finally getting her heart's desire - a daughter. The Moon-Angel is happy to give her this gift, but he takes something in return - the queen's life.
Later, while living in the house of the Man in the Moon, David comes across some windows where he can look at the world below. He sees many things, including a slave ship where a dead mother and her still living infant are tossed into the ocean as so much dead weight. It is a horrible scene for the boy to witness, and the reader as well. But there is yet a place for the mother and her child, behind the moon.
"Ah! yes, little child. For there is as much joy and gladness over one poor black woman who enters into that place as there is over the whitest empress who ever walked the earth..."
David on the moon and in the gardens is only the first half of the book. The second half involves a quest, and this is where the book gets even stranger. David learns that the Moon-Angel is not just the Angel of Death - he is also Lucifer the light bringer, day-star, son of the morning. To find a child he met in the garden - the daughter of the first chapter's queen - David must go to a place few have been: behind the wings of the Angel of Death. And there he will find a black-winged horse and two kindly old women and a fearsome Iron Man, and from there he must bring back the Wonder Box and the Know-All Book. Adam and Eve once opened the Wonder Box and fled from what emerged, fled before they could even open the Know-All Book.
One of the many things that fascinated me within this novel is how Pyle transforms Adam and Eve's apple into the Box and the Book, and how he changes their fall from grace into something else entirely, something more complex. It was a good deed when Lucifer brought them them both Box and Book. Opening the Wonder Box, eating that apple, Pandora and her box as well... such things are necessary. Such things are not bad things.
And what knowledge lies within the Know-All Book?
"when we grow up we shall be married; when we are married we shall grow up; when we are married there shall be joy; hence there shall be joy when we are married." Thus it was from the beginning to the end of all there was in the book.
The prose and imagery are sublime. The book manages to be almost heartbreakingly sentimental while also being - in the words of another reviewer - deliciously creepy. It was an enchanting experience for me.
Howard Pyle was also an innovative illustrator lauded by many, including Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh wrote that Pyle's work "struck me dumb with admiration".
come join Conan the Cimmerian as he romps about in two bold and bloody adventures! well, one sorta-kinda adventure and the other a short mystery (althcome join Conan the Cimmerian as he romps about in two bold and bloody adventures! well, one sorta-kinda adventure and the other a short mystery (although really not much of a mystery). in the first, young Conan encounters unpleasant natural & supernatural threats while attempting to steal a precious jewel; in the second, young Conan encounters unpleasant guardsmen & a rather obvious secret monster while attempting to steal a precious jewel. I always forget how much of a thief our boy Conan can be; I guess it wasn't until his later adventures that he turned more towards mercenary work.
this may not be the best intro to the fab short stories of Robert E. Howard, but I don't have a lot to complain about. the purple prose pulp pop of Howard's style is evocative and fun. plus the first tale actually has Conan feeling bad about someone's suffering rather than scorning their weakness. I guess Conan has a soft spot for imprisoned supernatural beings with the bodies of men and the heads of weepy elephants. such a softie, Conan!
this edition is SUPER LARGE PRINT for some reason. it also includes nine nifty paintings by Richard Robertson. Heavy Metal type fantasy illustrations of course, nothing I'd hang on my wall, but still quite a delight to this nerd's eyes. nerd candy!
Clark Ashton Smith is one of my comfort food authors. An odd sort of comfort, I know: ornate, overripe, extravagantly archaic prose; bizarre and oftenClark Ashton Smith is one of my comfort food authors. An odd sort of comfort, I know: ornate, overripe, extravagantly archaic prose; bizarre and often nightmarish dreamscapes; love and death, hand in hand; sardonic malevolence and fulsome melancholy and sinister, ambiguous threats and a longing for vistas far, far away. Well I suppose we all take our comforts where we feel the most comfortable. As an author and an influence on many other authors, CAS needs no defense – he is one of the originals of fantastic fiction and the shadow his legacy casts is a long one.
Rereading the stories collected in this volume brought something new to my appreciation of this brilliant writer: he is an author in love with the idea of love. Many of his stories are surprisingly romantic. I had already seen him as a perverse version of a Romantic author, “Romantic” in the classic sense... Romanticism that 'validated intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe — especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities' (and if you think I wrote that last phrase, let me introduce you to my best friend Wikipedia). Reading these stories of alien wonders and lonely deaths in alternate dimensions and dreamers dreaming themselves to faraway planets made it clear to me that the concept of Love, particularly its transcendent and sometimes obliterating qualities, is often centralized in his tales.
The End of the Story is Volume 1 in Night Shade Books' collection of the complete works of CAS. It is an admirable effort: lost stories are carefully resurrected, whenever possible the original is used over an edited version, there are a couple alternate endings included, and the footnotes are encyclopedic. Excellent work, publisher. Because the order of the stories is chronological, this first volume does have its share of works that feel incomplete or minor or even unnecessary. Nonetheless there are many brilliant gems within that were even more pleasurable to read so many years after I first read them.
CAS often set his stories within a handful of imaginary places. I've bolded what I consider to be the strongest pieces in this collection.
There are two stories set in the medieval French province of Averoigne: the brief, dark “The Satyr” and “The End of the Story”. The latter details the fateful encounters of a young traveler as he is invited into one castle and explores a second, enters another plane of existence, and meets the serpentine girl of his dreams.
There is one story set in Hyperborea – his prehistoric land of adventure, magic, and doom: a gleefully malicious and exceedingly fun tale of thieves stumbling upon an amoebic old god. “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” is awesome.
Two stories are set on the doomed last isle of Atlantis called Posiedonis: “The Last Incantation” is about a dying sorcerer trying to recapture the essence of his greatest love; “Voyage to Sfanamoë” details a bizarrely transcendent flight to Venus.
Unfortunately, this volume does not include any of the wonderful science fantasy stories set in the far-flung future of Zothique, a place that would soon come to dominate the author’s storytelling. Ah well, there are future volumes that await me.
Many stories are not set in any of these places. My favorites:
“Sadastor” tells of the brief flirtation between the demon Charnadis and the siren Lyspial. Forlorn Lyspial lives alone on a dying world, longing for the glory days when she sang sailors from their ships and into watery graves.
Alas! The kisses that I laid on their cold and hueless lips, on their sealed marmorean eyelids!”
Poor Lyspial! A siren without sailors is a lonely siren indeed.
“Venus of Azombeii” is about an adventurer in Africa, the true love he found within a secretive tribe, and an appallingly jealous shaman’s poison. I hate jealous shamans.
“The Abominations of Yondo” is a creepy catalogue of eerie night terrors that a newly-exiled wastrel encounters in his journey through a ruinous desert.
“The Necromantic Tale” concerns itself with the undying love between two evil enchanters, and a strange possession that may or may not be occurring to our narrator, their descendant.
“The Uncharted Isle” starts off as an almost traditional adventure tale of a shipwrecked sailor finding a very odd island village, and then slowly transforms into an oblique meditation on the uselessness of trying to combat The End of All Things.
“The Immeasurable Horror” introduces a Planet of Terrible Terrors whose most eyebrow-raising inhabitant is a vomit-pink, miles-long, slug-like mass of carnivorous jelly. Nice! In the depiction of this feral world, I was reminded of the equally marvelous novel Red Claw.
”The Monster of the Prophecy” is my favorite story in this collection. A pathetic, suicidal young writer meets a chilly mysterious stranger who invites him to have adventures in a place far, far away. Things are not as they seem and the poor fellow soon realizes that he is the monster of the title. I hate spoilers, but I just have to add that this tale ends in a really lovely bit of romantic wish fulfillment as our hero gradually falls in love with a bizarre alien (I mean really alien, think extra limbs and eyes and other alien bits) who shares his love of poetry and melancholy. Aw, sweet!
Clark Ashton Smith is not for everyone, including genre lovers. His byzantine prose is no doubt off-putting to the reader in search of rambunctious, straightforward tales of derring-do. But I adore him. No other wordsmith has captured what I really want to see in fantasy, in science fiction, in horror. And the pictures he paints, the vibrant, lustrous colors he uses to paint them... swoon!
Tell me many tales, O benign maleficent daemon, but tell me none that I have ever heard or have even dreamt of otherwise than obscurely or infrequently…
oh, Edward Eager, you really seem like a swell guy. a family man but not one of those mawkish mewling types who always seem to be about to burst into oh, Edward Eager, you really seem like a swell guy. a family man but not one of those mawkish mewling types who always seem to be about to burst into tears when they talk about their fam. you get kids and you don't bring a lot of sentimentality to the table either; you capture the cheerfulness & the mood swings & the sweetness & a little bit of the sour as well. you root your adventures in prosaic reality but you manage to make prosaic reality not bad, not bad at all, its own sort of adventure.
written in 1957 but set several decades earlier, this fun little trifle is Eager all over. 4 siblings spend a summer at a lake, A MAGIC LAKE, the magic courtesy of a grouchy magic turtle. they get various wishes and go on various adventures including seeing pirates, cannibals, Antarctica, and what it's like to be a few years older and going on a date with a couple pretentious twits. the bloodthirsty youngest girl was my predictable favorite of the four, but I also wouldn't mind having fearless and slightly condescending oldest-sister Jane as a child either. well, all four of them are actually pretty peachy. they spend the last adventure trying to figure out how to help their stepdad's ailing business, and that's just adorable.
favorite part was when they stumble across another group of kids on their own magical adventure with their own magical rules that must be followed. surreal and surprising and kinda awesome.
loved one of the last lines, it really spoke to me:
"You mean it's really over?" said Katherine. "I don't believe it. It wouldn't all end like this. What would be the point? Why, we didn't learn a moral lesson, or anything!"
well isn't that just the truth, kids. welcome to the world!...more
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