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Tales of Science and Sorcery
Ghoulish tales of weird fantasy and sheer horror by the master of the macabre
A universe of remote and paralysing fright - jungles of poisonous and iridescent blossoms, evil and grotesque temples in forgotten elder worlds, and dark morasses of spotted death-fungi in spectral countries beyond earth's rim. Smith's stories deal powerfully with other galaxies, worlds and dimensions. Who else has seen such gorgeous, luxuriant and feverishly distorted visions of infinite spheres and multiple dimensions and lived to tell the tale? - H.P. Lovecraft
Contents: Master of the Asteroid; The Seed from the Sepulcher; The Root of Ampoi; The Immortals of Mercury; Murder in the Fourth Dimension; Seedling of Mars; The Maker of Gargoyles; The Great God Awto; Mother of Toads; The Tomb Spawn
A universe of remote and paralysing fright - jungles of poisonous and iridescent blossoms, evil and grotesque temples in forgotten elder worlds, and dark morasses of spotted death-fungi in spectral countries beyond earth's rim. Smith's stories deal powerfully with other galaxies, worlds and dimensions. Who else has seen such gorgeous, luxuriant and feverishly distorted visions of infinite spheres and multiple dimensions and lived to tell the tale? - H.P. Lovecraft
Contents: Master of the Asteroid; The Seed from the Sepulcher; The Root of Ampoi; The Immortals of Mercury; Murder in the Fourth Dimension; Seedling of Mars; The Maker of Gargoyles; The Great God Awto; Mother of Toads; The Tomb Spawn
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
3 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Clark Ashton Smith
719 books997 followersClark Ashton Smith was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories, and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
His writings are posted at his official website.
His writings are posted at his official website.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 21, 2020
This collection is a mixture weighted more towards the author's science fictional tales with the addition of some of his supernatural stories set in medieval France, and a few satirical or other stories with a dark humour. The memoir at the beginning was interesting. This was by E Hoffman Price who told of a number of visits he made to Smith over the years and which reveal among other things the stereotypical views of women common at the time: on one visit, Price's wife accompanies him but of course ends up in the kitchen with Smith's mother, even though Smith's mother actually did a lot of the marketing of her son's early books and therefore surely had something to add to the conversation!
The science fiction is mainly of the Edgar Rice Burroughs type, in that people can actually live on Mars, Venus or even Mercury, and such planets are populated not only by plants, but often by sentient lifeforms of various types. The characters are not really characters, but really vehicles for the action, and the real interest is in the strange settings and peculiar forms of life which were Smith's speciality.
Some stories, such as 'The Great God Awto', a skit based on a future civilisation's mistaken ideas of the place of the motor car in 20th century life, are rather heavy handed in both moral and humour, and I preferred the lighter touch of 'The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles' where an aged thief looks back on one of his favourite heists which he and his now deceased love carried out. I especially liked this story for being one of the few where the female lead is not relegated figuratively or otherwise to the kitchen. A pity that the author never seems to have tackled other such stories featuring this pairing, but I have now read all the collections I possess of this author's so it seems to have been a one-off. By contrast, 'The Root of Ampoi' centres around a misogynistic character - who, if the women in the community he intrudes into had not been eight feet tall, would have knocked his wife about to bring her into line.
Like many Smith stories, there are a fair share where the protagonist is either passive or else doomed or both, and after so many of those, it becomes quite a monotonous refrain. So given the mixture of good and bad, and the presence of at least one or two stories I liked, I can only rate this at 3 stars.
The science fiction is mainly of the Edgar Rice Burroughs type, in that people can actually live on Mars, Venus or even Mercury, and such planets are populated not only by plants, but often by sentient lifeforms of various types. The characters are not really characters, but really vehicles for the action, and the real interest is in the strange settings and peculiar forms of life which were Smith's speciality.
Some stories, such as 'The Great God Awto', a skit based on a future civilisation's mistaken ideas of the place of the motor car in 20th century life, are rather heavy handed in both moral and humour, and I preferred the lighter touch of 'The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles' where an aged thief looks back on one of his favourite heists which he and his now deceased love carried out. I especially liked this story for being one of the few where the female lead is not relegated figuratively or otherwise to the kitchen. A pity that the author never seems to have tackled other such stories featuring this pairing, but I have now read all the collections I possess of this author's so it seems to have been a one-off. By contrast, 'The Root of Ampoi' centres around a misogynistic character - who, if the women in the community he intrudes into had not been eight feet tall, would have knocked his wife about to bring her into line.
Like many Smith stories, there are a fair share where the protagonist is either passive or else doomed or both, and after so many of those, it becomes quite a monotonous refrain. So given the mixture of good and bad, and the presence of at least one or two stories I liked, I can only rate this at 3 stars.
February 25, 2015
There's a couple of tales from Averoigne, my favourite of Smith's fictional settings, here including the excellent The Maker of Gargoyles. Trips also to Zothique and Hyperborea, so this volume could well serve as a good introduction to his worlds.
I've been reading Smith via the Panther Books series from the 70s and I think that's them all read now.
This collection arguably offers the most insight into Smith's character as a couple of the tales, Seedling of Mars & The Great God Awto, come close to satire and offer a brilliant, if somewhat fatalistic, view of humanity.
Symposium of the Gorgon is also the most humorous tale of Smith's, in my opinion.
This volume also contains the first tale of his I ever read; The Seed from the Sepulcher which was in a horror compilation and compelled me to read more of his work. A stone cold horror classic!
The flights of imagination are tremendously vivid and painted with such skill as to suspend disbelief. That Smith wrote with great pleasure comes through in every tale. Only reason it doesn't get top marks from me is that some stories aren't as good as others, although all still of very high quality.
One of my favourite writers of fiction, and one I will repeatedly turn to for years to come.
I've been reading Smith via the Panther Books series from the 70s and I think that's them all read now.
This collection arguably offers the most insight into Smith's character as a couple of the tales, Seedling of Mars & The Great God Awto, come close to satire and offer a brilliant, if somewhat fatalistic, view of humanity.
Symposium of the Gorgon is also the most humorous tale of Smith's, in my opinion.
This volume also contains the first tale of his I ever read; The Seed from the Sepulcher which was in a horror compilation and compelled me to read more of his work. A stone cold horror classic!
The flights of imagination are tremendously vivid and painted with such skill as to suspend disbelief. That Smith wrote with great pleasure comes through in every tale. Only reason it doesn't get top marks from me is that some stories aren't as good as others, although all still of very high quality.
One of my favourite writers of fiction, and one I will repeatedly turn to for years to come.
June 4, 2021
This anthology collects together 14 Ashton Smith tales written between 1932-58 and it varies widely from the Ray Bradbury-esque satire with the marvellous 'The Great God Awto' to hardcore SF horror with Immortals of Mercury and Master of the Asteroid. This is very much a mixed bag both in terms of genre (its a mix of SF, horror, fantasy and satire) and in terms of quality - we have two 5* killer plant tales here: The seed from the sepulcher (a bit reminiscent of The Ruins) and the seeding of Mars (It Conquers the world meets Bodysnatchers) to the rather ponderous straight gothic shorts The Tomb Spawn and Morthylla - which bizarrely (because I'm usually a massive fan of gothic) are the weakest tales here.
My two other highlights are:
Mother of Toads - filmed by Richard Stanley in the fun anthology film The Theatre Bizarre (2011) - If you're looking at Batrachian horror this tale is a must.
And Schizoid Creator - an insane psychiatrist believes that God and the Devil are one schizophrenic entity. He attempts to summon the devil in order to 'cure' him believing that he can thus eliminate all evil from the world. However he accidentally summons a lower demon instead and gets surprising results when he tries electro shock treatment! Original, funny and truly nuts, I loved this one.
If you're a fan of Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard or Bradbury, you'll find loads here to enjoy.
The one thing I will note is the dense writing style and extensive vocabulary. When Reading Ashton Smith I always need a dictionary on hand - My vocabulary is very good, but in this scant 223 page volume I came across 105 unfamiliar words (excluding proper nouns) that's quite some feat!
Bob Haberfield's fabulous fantasy art cover for this is disappointingly misleading. I'm presuming its one of the spectral images from 'The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles' though that is a bit of a stretch - Eastern demons don't feature in this anthology and there are so many wonderful scenes from the actual stories that could have represented the contents better. Still, it is a great and eye catching fantasy art cover, just not a great reflection of the contents.
My two other highlights are:
Mother of Toads - filmed by Richard Stanley in the fun anthology film The Theatre Bizarre (2011) - If you're looking at Batrachian horror this tale is a must.
And Schizoid Creator - an insane psychiatrist believes that God and the Devil are one schizophrenic entity. He attempts to summon the devil in order to 'cure' him believing that he can thus eliminate all evil from the world. However he accidentally summons a lower demon instead and gets surprising results when he tries electro shock treatment! Original, funny and truly nuts, I loved this one.
If you're a fan of Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard or Bradbury, you'll find loads here to enjoy.
The one thing I will note is the dense writing style and extensive vocabulary. When Reading Ashton Smith I always need a dictionary on hand - My vocabulary is very good, but in this scant 223 page volume I came across 105 unfamiliar words (excluding proper nouns) that's quite some feat!
Bob Haberfield's fabulous fantasy art cover for this is disappointingly misleading. I'm presuming its one of the spectral images from 'The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles' though that is a bit of a stretch - Eastern demons don't feature in this anthology and there are so many wonderful scenes from the actual stories that could have represented the contents better. Still, it is a great and eye catching fantasy art cover, just not a great reflection of the contents.
April 22, 2023
A veritable cornucopia of phantasmagorical delights from the fiendishly erudite imaginarium of, Clark Ashton Smith. 'Tales of Science and Sorcery' provides a suitably gonzoid primer for those fortunate souls who are about to take their initial plunge into the heady realms of furthest flung cosmic wyrd! This colourful collection excitingly represents a deliciously diverse cross-section of dazzling prosody, from pagan, blood-soaked bacchanals, crepuscular Gothic horror to incandescent pan-galactic strangeness. 'Tales of Science and Sorcery' remains an absolutely essential overview of Clark Ashton Smith, in my humble opinion, he remains the unparalleled master of otherworldly horror
March 31, 2014
‘GHOULISH TALES OF WEIRD FANTASY AND SHEER HORROR BY THE MASTER OF THE MACABRE
‘A universe of remote and paralysing fright – jungles of poisonous and iridescent blossoms on the moons of Saturn, evil and grotesque temples in forgotten elder world and dark morasses of spotted death-fungi in spectral countries beyond earth’s rim. Who else has seen such gorgeous luxuriant and feverishly distorted visions and lived to tell the tale?’ – HP Lovecraft’
The Blurb to the Panther 1976 edition
Although this collection was published in 1964, the earliest stories date from 1932, and cover a period of nearly thirty years. Sadly, there are no poisonous and iridescent blossoms on the moons of Saturn, though there is – in ‘The Seed From the Sepulcher’ and ‘The Tomb-Spawn’ - a forgotten evil and grotesque temple.
The stories comprise of :-
‘Master of the Asteroid’ (1932)
‘The Seed from the Sepulcher’ (1933)
‘The Root of Ampoi’ (1949)
‘The Immortals of Mercury’ (1932)
‘Murder in the Fourth Dimension’ (1930)
‘Seedling of Mars’ aka ‘The Planet Entity’ (1931)
‘The Maker of Gargoyles’ (1932)
‘The Great God Awto’ (1939)
‘Mother of Toads’ (1938)
‘The Tomb-Spawn’ (1934)
‘Schizoid Creator’ (1953)
‘Symposium of The Gorgon’ (1958)
‘The Theft of The Thirty-nine Girdles’ aka ‘The Power of Hyperborea’ (1958)
‘Morthylla’ (1953)
This is a very mixed bag, combining Smith’s early SF (of which ‘The Immortals of Mercury’ is the best example here) with his Lovecraft-esque horror (‘Seed from the Sepulchre’ and ‘The Tomb-Spawn’) as well as his 'Averoigne' fantasies of medieval France (‘Mother of Toads’ and ‘The Maker of Gargoyles’)
The pieces sit uneasily with each other, not only because of the difference in genre but the difference in quality. A lot of these are not by any means Smith’s best work, and are seen out of context of larger bodies of work set in the same fictional universe, such as his ‘Zothique’ ‘Averoigne’ and ‘Hyperborea’ sequences, which are represented here in isolated low-grade segments.
‘Seed from the Sepulchre’ is probably the best story in this collection, published in ‘Weird Tales’ in 1933.
‘A universe of remote and paralysing fright – jungles of poisonous and iridescent blossoms on the moons of Saturn, evil and grotesque temples in forgotten elder world and dark morasses of spotted death-fungi in spectral countries beyond earth’s rim. Who else has seen such gorgeous luxuriant and feverishly distorted visions and lived to tell the tale?’ – HP Lovecraft’
The Blurb to the Panther 1976 edition
Although this collection was published in 1964, the earliest stories date from 1932, and cover a period of nearly thirty years. Sadly, there are no poisonous and iridescent blossoms on the moons of Saturn, though there is – in ‘The Seed From the Sepulcher’ and ‘The Tomb-Spawn’ - a forgotten evil and grotesque temple.
The stories comprise of :-
‘Master of the Asteroid’ (1932)
‘The Seed from the Sepulcher’ (1933)
‘The Root of Ampoi’ (1949)
‘The Immortals of Mercury’ (1932)
‘Murder in the Fourth Dimension’ (1930)
‘Seedling of Mars’ aka ‘The Planet Entity’ (1931)
‘The Maker of Gargoyles’ (1932)
‘The Great God Awto’ (1939)
‘Mother of Toads’ (1938)
‘The Tomb-Spawn’ (1934)
‘Schizoid Creator’ (1953)
‘Symposium of The Gorgon’ (1958)
‘The Theft of The Thirty-nine Girdles’ aka ‘The Power of Hyperborea’ (1958)
‘Morthylla’ (1953)
This is a very mixed bag, combining Smith’s early SF (of which ‘The Immortals of Mercury’ is the best example here) with his Lovecraft-esque horror (‘Seed from the Sepulchre’ and ‘The Tomb-Spawn’) as well as his 'Averoigne' fantasies of medieval France (‘Mother of Toads’ and ‘The Maker of Gargoyles’)
The pieces sit uneasily with each other, not only because of the difference in genre but the difference in quality. A lot of these are not by any means Smith’s best work, and are seen out of context of larger bodies of work set in the same fictional universe, such as his ‘Zothique’ ‘Averoigne’ and ‘Hyperborea’ sequences, which are represented here in isolated low-grade segments.
‘Seed from the Sepulchre’ is probably the best story in this collection, published in ‘Weird Tales’ in 1933.
November 29, 2012
This book is the first book I've read in quite a number of years that actually gave me nightmares. I never really read many horror stories, while I like good ghost stories they tend to be of the Victorian or Edwardian variety so in some ways I found this to be quite disturbing. Men who were about to die living out their last moments, what was nice about these stories was that they seemed equally believable and disturbing whether they were set in a futuristic scifi colony on another planet, or set back in a middle ages town. There was always a strong atmosphere and an impending sense of dread and doom. Only a few times did the premise seem a little false (the immortals of mercury who required sentient sacrifices to make their clothing) but on the whole the stories were very atmospheric and I enjoyed them a great deal. While I've read other stories by Clark Ashton Smith in other collections this is the first I've read that's just by him and will definitely read more, in fact I've already bought a 2nd collection of stories and am looking forward to starting it soon.
December 4, 2023
Master of the Asteroid - 7/10
The Seed from the Sepulcher - 8/10
The Root of Ampoi - 6/10
The Immortals of Mercury - ***DNF***
Murder in the Fourth Dimension - 7/10
Seedling of Mars - 5/10 ***DNF***
The Maker of Gargoyles - 7/10
The Great God Awto - 4/10
Mother of Toads - 7/10
The Tomb Spawn - 7.5/10
Schizoid Creator - 6/10
Symposium of the gorgon - 5/10
The theft of 39 girdles - 6/10
Morthylla - 6.5/10
The Seed from the Sepulcher - 8/10
The Root of Ampoi - 6/10
The Immortals of Mercury - ***DNF***
Murder in the Fourth Dimension - 7/10
Seedling of Mars - 5/10 ***DNF***
The Maker of Gargoyles - 7/10
The Great God Awto - 4/10
Mother of Toads - 7/10
The Tomb Spawn - 7.5/10
Schizoid Creator - 6/10
Symposium of the gorgon - 5/10
The theft of 39 girdles - 6/10
Morthylla - 6.5/10
February 12, 2013
The first collection of Clark Ashton Smith tales I ever read, and although other volumes by him may contain more of his finest tales, this tome will always hold a special place in my heart. And in fairness, there's more than a few bona fide CAS classics in here too - the gothic horrors of The Tomb Spawn, the decadence of Morthylla, the medieval dark of the Maker of Gargoyles and the mythological comedy of Symposium of the Gorgon. Unlike many of this other collections which often comprise of tales detailing his various invented fantastical worlds and milieus, and while we have visits to to the likes of Zothique and Averoigne, in this volume get Smith spreading his wings a little more with satirical SF such as The Great God Awto and the contemporary black comedy of Schizoid Creator.
All in all, while many would say that Lost Worlds, or Out of Space and Time, are perhaps the quintessential Smith collections to read, I would contend that Tales of Science and Sorcery is perhaps the perfect introduction to this lesser known author of weird tales.
All in all, while many would say that Lost Worlds, or Out of Space and Time, are perhaps the quintessential Smith collections to read, I would contend that Tales of Science and Sorcery is perhaps the perfect introduction to this lesser known author of weird tales.
July 18, 2009
Like I've said before, I always wanted to like Smith better than I do. There's good stuff here, very atomspheric. I would prefer more adventure.
February 23, 2020
This collection was my first introduction to Smith having read both Lovecraft and Howard. There is much to praise in these short horrors, and those who are familiar with the weird scifi genre will be right at home. Smith's use of language is marginally modern compared to the likes of Lovecraft, making it a bit easier to read to our present day eyes.
There are a few stories here that fall outside the genre of horror, but somehow they work nonetheless. My major criticisms are unsurprisingly reserved for the failings of the social backdrop that artists such as the fathers of weird scifi were emmeshed. Expect overt racism to peoples of native decent or non western backgrounds. I also wouldn't recommend this most femminists, unless they can read sympathetically past the social morass of nigh a century ago. Despite these obvious shortcomings, I think most of these stories are fabulous and I'm excited to sample more of his work.
Recommended for those who feel decident alure of revenge after a delicious diner monte cristo.
PS Also, this cat (Clark Ashton Smith) lived in a region I know intimately, and included this area in the Murder In The Fourth Dimension. It's not everyday that Auburn is brought up in my circles of interest, so that was trick.
There are a few stories here that fall outside the genre of horror, but somehow they work nonetheless. My major criticisms are unsurprisingly reserved for the failings of the social backdrop that artists such as the fathers of weird scifi were emmeshed. Expect overt racism to peoples of native decent or non western backgrounds. I also wouldn't recommend this most femminists, unless they can read sympathetically past the social morass of nigh a century ago. Despite these obvious shortcomings, I think most of these stories are fabulous and I'm excited to sample more of his work.
Recommended for those who feel decident alure of revenge after a delicious diner monte cristo.
PS Also, this cat (Clark Ashton Smith) lived in a region I know intimately, and included this area in the Murder In The Fourth Dimension. It's not everyday that Auburn is brought up in my circles of interest, so that was trick.
May 29, 2024
Another collection of sublime stories. Aside from the obvious horror, some showing whimsical humor: Schizoid Creator and Symposium Of The Gorgon; one very short classic: Morthylla; and who, except a stone-brained zombie, cannot fail to see the genius in the first two hundred words of The Tomb-Spawn..? Utterly.... utter.
Utter...
..ly.
Utter...
..ly.
June 7, 2023
That's obvious trash. I stopped reading on p. 30 or so.
March 22, 2017
This is a tough book to rate. Some of the stories are 2's and there are a couple of 5's. It's funny that the end of the world starts at the Cal Bears' football stadium in one story; I've been there! There should be a plaque on the stadium wall.
July 18, 2017
The majority of tales here are Smith's science fiction work, at which, in my humble opinion, he never excelled. However, this collection does contain some absolute gems. On offer are two excellent Averoigne stories - 'Mother of Toads' and "The Maker of Gargoyles", two of his best from Zothique - "The Tomb-Spawn" and "Morthylla" (my absolute favorite of all Smiths stories), one of his best horror tales, "The Seed from the Sepulchre" and an entertaining Hyperborean - "The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles". So, whilst this is not the best collection for a new comer to appreciate the greatness of C.A.S, it is essential for fans of his work. The prose portrait of Smith by his friend E. Hoffman Price is wonderful too.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews