The Last Hieroglyph is the fifth and final volume in Night Shade Books’ brilliant collection of Clark Ashton Smith’s short fiction. I’ve enjoyed all four previous volumes and have looked forward to this last book with a mixture of anticipation and regret. Some of Clark Ashton’s Smith’s best stories are included here: “The Death of Malygris,” “The Last Hieroglyph,” and “Strange Shadows.” These are amazing stories! Dick Lupoff provides an insightful “Introduction.” If you haven’t read Clark Ashton Smith, this is the perfect place to start.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
* The Dark Age
* The Death of Malygris
* The Tomb-Spawn
* The Witchcraft of Ulua
* The Coming of the White Worm
* The Seven Geases
* The Chain of Aforgomon
* The Primal City
* Xeethra
* The Last Hieroglyph
* Necromancy in Naat
* The Treader of the Dust
* The Black Abbott of Puthuum
* The Death of Ilalotha
* Mother of Toads
* The Garden of Adompha
* The Great God Awto
* Strange Shadows
* The Enchantress of Sylaire
* Double Cosmos
* Nemesis of the Unfinished
* The Master of the Crabs
* Morthylla
* Schizoid Creator
* Monsters in the Night
* Phoenix
* The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles
* Symposium of the Gorgon
* The Dart of Rasasfa
(This completes the November 2010 portion of my Short Story Reading Challenge. I will read and review one short story collection per month in 2010. To find out more about the Short Story Reading Challenge, be sure to click: “http://theshortstorychallenge.blogspot.com/”>Short Story Reading Challenge.
My copy of this arrived Wednesday and I e4agerly await the experiences of reading and re-reading these stories.
You’re in for a treat, Scott. I’m just sorry this is the end of the series and Clark Ashton Smith’s wonderful stories.
An excellent choice, George.
You can’t go wrong with Clark Ashton Smith, Drongo. The man was a master stylist.
Great creepy cover.
I read a bunch of his stories in the Lovecraft days of the 1970’s (that is – when I was reading a lot of Lovecraft).
I prefer Clark Ashton Smith’s stories over Lovecraft’s, Jeff. Smith’s writing is much, much better and his plots are stronger.
Smith’s writing is much, much better and his plots are stronger.
–To say the least.
I consider Clark Ashton Smith to be a superb stylist, Todd. Once Smith hit his stride, the quality of his stories was uniformly high.
…and Jack Vance, for obvious example, would heartily agree with you. I like Vance better, but Smith was the best of the Farnsworth Wright crew, as I think of them, even though Wright also introduced Robert Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, and Fritz Leiber to the magazine…all flowered during Dorothy McIlwraith’s editorship, though. Though that’s not to ignore nor slight the work of Edmond Hamilton, August Derleth, or the others who were at least as well-established elsewhere…including Smith, but not with his WT sort of work…
Jack Vance admits the influence of Clark Ashton Smith on his style, Todd. I can’t help but believe ANYONE would become a better writer after reading Smith’s lucid prose.