The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith

February 19, 2007
One of the most popular writers to publish in Weird Tales
, Smith wrote unique tales of fantasy, horror and science fiction that call to mind the Symbolist and Decadent movements more than the pulp era. This volume, the first of five scheduled to bring all his short fiction back into print, captures Smith at the point where he back-burnered his career as a poet to concentrate on crafting stories in which the erotic mingles with death and decay and the physically grotesque is rendered in sensually lush imagery. Most of the 25 works collected have been unavailable for decades, and editors Connors and Hilger have done yeoman service restoring them for readers who may find their bold expressiveness and occasionally taboo themes surprisingly modern.

April 1, 2007
The colorfully exotic tales of Clark Ashton Smith belong to an era of speculative fiction when embellished, purple prose was de rigueur and Weird Tales was a fan-favorite magazine. Despite its ironic title, this inaugural volume in a plan to collect Smiths complete oeuvre begins with the first tale he published (in 1926), "The Abomination of Yondo," and proceeds in roughly chronological order. Smiths tales brim with such familiar gothic tropes as haunted woods, medieval castles, and nightmarish fates for their hapless protagonists. "The Ninth Skeleton," for instance, follows the grisly trail of a young romantic who stumbles on an ancient cemetery before meeting his beloved. Smiths imaginative palette also included primitive science fiction, such as "A Voyage to Sfanomo'," involving a space flight by two brothers fleeing a sinking Atlantis. While Smiths scenarios are at times laughably outdated, his lush, poetic style and vivid characters keep his fiction consistantly entertaining. Essential reading for horror fans and a welcome revival of an often overlooked gothic master.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)