On the last continent of Earth, under a decrepit yet still despotic sun, necromancy thrives, the god of death rules the living, mummies rebel against those who revived them, and the wizard's vengeance is nothing compared to the gods' retribution. On the prehistoric continent of Earth, a mysterious white Sibyl foretells disasters, and cruel demons hide within the glaciers. In medieval France, a gourmand monster arrives from a comet, an ancient statue leads monks astray, and a wife-killing sorcerer and a wise enchantress receive their due. In modern Earth, a collector of the strange is irretrievably plunged into the times that preceded the primal, a traveler burns in extraterrestrial fire that emerged from deep antiquity, and demons of unwritten stories take revenge on a self-critical writer... Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) is one of the three pillars of 'weird fiction' of the 1930s (along with Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, and, of course, the creator of the 'Cthulhu Mythos' H.P. Lovecraft, in whose stories Smith's fables frequently guest-star), a follower of Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce. He melted fiction in the last fire of romantic poetry and reached new heights of genuine horror - thus the world learned what endless horizons can be opened before us by both fantasy and horror, and Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker, and Stephen King owe much to Smith. This collection features works from 1932–1935, the period of Smith's turbulent rise as a storyteller, as well as his less numerous later texts; most of the stories here are published in new translations.
