Jesse’s Reviews > The Door to Saturn > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 251 of 316
“The Letter From Mohaun Los”
This is an interstellar romp that’s disguised with the framework of a time travel story. It’s marred by the MC’s Chinese servant and his pidgin English, no doubt amusing to Smith at the time. The peak occurs at the confluence of three time machines: one the protagonists’, one incumbent on an alien world, and one pursuing a refugee that the protagonists picked up.
— Feb 16, 2024 04:54AM
This is an interstellar romp that’s disguised with the framework of a time travel story. It’s marred by the MC’s Chinese servant and his pidgin English, no doubt amusing to Smith at the time. The peak occurs at the confluence of three time machines: one the protagonists’, one incumbent on an alien world, and one pursuing a refugee that the protagonists picked up.
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Jesse
is on page 263 of 316
“The Hunters From Beyond”
A retelling of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model”, with the occult-adjacent author Hastane - from “The Singing Flame” - as the witness. “Pickman” built up to the reveal that the artist had been using actual monsters that he had seen, like ghouls, for his subjects. “Hunters” gives this up quite early, the drama becoming the fate of Cyprian and his model, lovely Marta.
— Feb 16, 2024 05:26AM
A retelling of Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model”, with the occult-adjacent author Hastane - from “The Singing Flame” - as the witness. “Pickman” built up to the reveal that the artist had been using actual monsters that he had seen, like ghouls, for his subjects. “Hunters” gives this up quite early, the drama becoming the fate of Cyprian and his model, lovely Marta.
Jesse
is on page 225 of 316
“A Captivity In Serpens”
Another spacefaring Captain Volmar story. In this case, two earthlings on an away mission are kidnapped by natives and sold to interstellar insectoid researchers. A lot of stuff happens before they get rescued. It’s pretty action-packed; the latter portion of the story is quintessential sci-fi pulp with the battle through alien hi-rises.
— Feb 15, 2024 08:27PM
Another spacefaring Captain Volmar story. In this case, two earthlings on an away mission are kidnapped by natives and sold to interstellar insectoid researchers. A lot of stuff happens before they get rescued. It’s pretty action-packed; the latter portion of the story is quintessential sci-fi pulp with the battle through alien hi-rises.
Jesse
is on page 191 of 316
“The Testament of Athammaus”
This is a prequel of sorts. Smith’s “Tale of Satampra” was a sword and sorcery story about two rogues and a cursed, abandoned city. One of them got eaten by a weird blob creature. This is the account of why the city was abandoned and how the creature came to the city. Zhaum and his nightmarish physiology and eating habits is easily the best part of the story.
— Feb 15, 2024 07:35PM
This is a prequel of sorts. Smith’s “Tale of Satampra” was a sword and sorcery story about two rogues and a cursed, abandoned city. One of them got eaten by a weird blob creature. This is the account of why the city was abandoned and how the creature came to the city. Zhaum and his nightmarish physiology and eating habits is easily the best part of the story.
Jesse
is on page 175 of 316
“A Good Embalmer”
Somewhere between a dark comedy and horror. Two undertakers are sniping at each other and one claims that he will rise from the dead rather than let the other embalm him. He dies first, of course, but when his coworker / rival tries to work on him, the corpse does indeed rise up and, after a fortuitous heart attack, embalms the newly dead man first. It’s patently ridiculous.
— Feb 15, 2024 09:46AM
Somewhere between a dark comedy and horror. Two undertakers are sniping at each other and one claims that he will rise from the dead rather than let the other embalm him. He dies first, of course, but when his coworker / rival tries to work on him, the corpse does indeed rise up and, after a fortuitous heart attack, embalms the newly dead man first. It’s patently ridiculous.
Jesse
is on page 171 of 316
“The City of the Singing Flame”
A bizarre story where a writer happens across a dimensional portal to a nexus where all kinds of intelligent beings are paying tribute to an immense fire that draws them onward like a siren’s song, moths to a flame. There are a lot of whys left unanswered, here, which makes it one of the creepier settings that he has done thus far.
— Feb 15, 2024 09:36AM
A bizarre story where a writer happens across a dimensional portal to a nexus where all kinds of intelligent beings are paying tribute to an immense fire that draws them onward like a siren’s song, moths to a flame. There are a lot of whys left unanswered, here, which makes it one of the creepier settings that he has done thus far.
Jesse
is on page 157 of 316
“The Return of the Sorcerer”
First mention of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, I think, and after reading Vathek it is clear why its writer was a “mad Arab”. The MC is hired to live with a weirdo and translate his Arabic copy of the Necronomicon. The weirdo has done something gruesome to a very naughty person, but not for any altruistic purposes, and his comeuppance is imminent.
— Feb 15, 2024 07:52AM
First mention of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, I think, and after reading Vathek it is clear why its writer was a “mad Arab”. The MC is hired to live with a weirdo and translate his Arabic copy of the Necronomicon. The weirdo has done something gruesome to a very naughty person, but not for any altruistic purposes, and his comeuppance is imminent.
Jesse
is on page 145 of 316
“The Justice of the Elephant”
Another “oriental” tale, but apparently when Smith was younger he was more drawn to India, where this story (and the ghost story from Gothic Tales) is set. This is a gruesome tale of revenge where the rajah’s lowest wife is executed by having her head crushed by an elephant and her lover exacts vengeance ten years later using the same method.
— Feb 15, 2024 04:29AM
Another “oriental” tale, but apparently when Smith was younger he was more drawn to India, where this story (and the ghost story from Gothic Tales) is set. This is a gruesome tale of revenge where the rajah’s lowest wife is executed by having her head crushed by an elephant and her lover exacts vengeance ten years later using the same method.
Jesse
is on page 141 of 316
“An Adventure In Futurity”
Nominally a story about time travel. All you need to know is that, in 15,000 AD, Smith imagined that the wildly advanced Earth men of the future would have slaves. But they would come from Venus, and the Martians would handle them while also conspiring to run the humans off of the planet. There are quite a few parallels with his previous “Metamorphosis of Earth”.
— Feb 14, 2024 08:42PM
Nominally a story about time travel. All you need to know is that, in 15,000 AD, Smith imagined that the wildly advanced Earth men of the future would have slaves. But they would come from Venus, and the Martians would handle them while also conspiring to run the humans off of the planet. There are quite a few parallels with his previous “Metamorphosis of Earth”.
Jesse
is on page 111 of 316
“The Kingdom of the Worm”
A bit of fan-fiction based on a 15th-century knight’s fantastic account of his travels. The description is excellent; Smith can paint the landscape of a cursed kingdom like no other. The protagonist is unsurprisingly passive, accounting for the author’s fatalism. I wonder whether Smith’s work and Robert E. Howard’s may be at polar opposites in action and character development.
— Feb 14, 2024 10:10AM
A bit of fan-fiction based on a 15th-century knight’s fantastic account of his travels. The description is excellent; Smith can paint the landscape of a cursed kingdom like no other. The protagonist is unsurprisingly passive, accounting for the author’s fatalism. I wonder whether Smith’s work and Robert E. Howard’s may be at polar opposites in action and character development.
Jesse
is on page 105 of 316
“The Ghoul”
Another Arabian story. A young man has made a horrible bargain to preserve the memory of his deceased beloved and is compelled to fulfill it, one way or another. It’s a nice little story, filtered through Smith’s haze of resignation / depression / fatality.
— Feb 14, 2024 09:48AM
Another Arabian story. A young man has made a horrible bargain to preserve the memory of his deceased beloved and is compelled to fulfill it, one way or another. It’s a nice little story, filtered through Smith’s haze of resignation / depression / fatality.
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 16, 2024 04:58AM
I can’t understate how much I enjoyed the confrontation between the time-travelling robot and the more or less inert machine that the protagonists have been riding in. I guffawed when the third machine appeared, in pursuit of the refugee that they had picked up on their first world. I’m kind of burnt out on Smith’s depictions of horrific plant-animals (more blasted alien landscapes, please!) but the climax of this story made it worthwhile.
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