Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: Volume 5: The Last Hieroglyph [Hardcover]

I heartily endorse this fifth and last volume of the series that collects Smith's fiction and present it in the order of composition. Fans of Smith and those who have the rest of the series will definitely want it.

Those who are not Smith fans, though, will want to pass this one up. A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith is a better introduction to Smith. This volume covers a much longer period of time than the others in the series. Its first story was finished in May 1933 and its last in July 1961. That period saw some of his best work but also a marked drop in the quantity and quality of his work after February 1935. Perhaps the demands of caring for his aging parents explain this decline or perhaps their death mitigated the need to sell fiction or the escape writing may have offered Smith.

Smith of beautiful, poetic prose is here as are entries in his Hyperborean and Zothique series. Because the quality varies so much after 1935 with some stories really only of interest to Smith completists, I won't review each story.

The stories, in order, are:

"The Dark Age" (1933), gloomy post-apocalypse story
"The Death of Malygris" (1933), good installment in his Atlantean series
"The Tomb-Spawn", (1933), stylish Zothique story
"The Witchcraft of Ulua", (1933), amusing, erotic Zothique story
"The Coming of the White Worm", (1933), haunting classic
"The Seven Geases", (1933), tale of cosmic indifference
"The Chain of Aforgomon", (1934), poetic story on the dangers of gaining a lost love
"The Primal City", (1934), Lovecraft admired this tale of archaeological exploration
"Xeethra", (1934), Zothique story of dissatisfaction
"The Last Hieroglyph", (1934), a fine story about a not so competent astrologer
"Necromancy in Naat", (1935), masterful, poetic Zothique story
"The Treader of the Dust", (1935), Smith's contribution to the collection of blasphemous tomes
"The Black Abbot of Puthuum", (1935), Zothique story of sexual predation
"The Death of Ilalotha", (1937), Zothique story of poisonous sexual obsession
"Mother of Toads", (1937), lewd and ghastly Averoigne story
"The Garden of Adompha", (1937), Zothique tale with Smith at his grotesque, decadent, poetic best
"The Great God Awto", (1937), Smith's faux-archaeological satire on the automobile
"Strange Shadows", (1940), Unpoetic tale of a man who sees shadows revealing people's true nature
"The Enchantress of Sylaire" (1940?), Smith's last Averoigne story
"Double Cosmos", (1940), one of Smith's not entirely successful science fiction stories about an odd drug
"Nemesis of the Unfinished", (1947), Smith's only true collaboration, about a writer confronting his unfinished stories
"The Master of the Crabs", (1947), Zothique story about two sorcerers competing for a pirate's treasure
"Morthylla", (1952), Zothique story about a man's love for a lamia
"Schizoid Creator", (1952), the Devil gets psychoanalyzed
"Monsters in the Night", (1953), one of Smith's most anthologized stories
"Phoenix", (1953), Smith's last great story, a science fiction piece
"The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles", (1957), last Hyperborean tale, a heist story
"Symposium of the Gorgon", (1957), somewhat jokey story of Greek gods, Medusa, and cannibals
"The Dart of Rasasfa", (1961), Smith's last and, unfortunately, not a very good story

The Last Hieroglyph (The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Vol. 5) (v. 5) is the last installment of the complete short stories of Clark Ashton Smith.

I found Smith's stories in the early 70s through the excellent anthologies put together by Lin Carter. Ballantine Books published three volumes, each focused on a different story cycle. I've read them all myriad times, but was disappointed that they didn't contain ALL of Smith's stories. This collection places the stories in chronological order of writing or publication. It isn't as easy to track a story cycle as a focused anthology, but this collection has ALL the stories. At least we don't have to ferret out old copies of Weird Tales magazines.

Smith wrote with a very dense elegant style. He was a true master of the English language with a very extensive vocabulary - perhaps he was a power-user of Roget's Thesaurus - who would never run long in his prose. He was also enormously inventive. His Xothique stories center on the last continent of Earth, which orbits a nearly burned-out red sun. Not a pleasant prospect, but the story lines are fabulous. "The Witchcraft of Ulua" and "Necromancy in Naat" are great exemplars of Smith's style.

His stories occasionally have a humorous or ironic passage that is so bone-dry it can only draw a chuckle from the reader in the well-constructed eeriness of the worlds he has constructed. These little surprises are one of the things that keep me coming back to re-read these stories.

I can't recommend this Collection Series highly enough. Even for readers who don't care for the macabre, Smith's stories can be a real treat; they are just that well written. The book itself is quality merchandise - nice print composition on very good paper. First-rate binding.

I have all five of the books in the Nightshade collection, and enjoyed each. This is the final installement and I think it shows Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) at his best. The book itself is well made and feels sturdy, just like the previous four. If you look at the previous four, you will notice the price on Amazon skyrocets after Nightshade stops publishing them. Get your copy while you can.

Like the series , this collection contains a mixbag of genres, including post apocalypse, mystic fantasy, and cosmic horror. According to the publisher these stories are arranged by publication date rather than by story content. CAS's style is definately not for everyone. These tales often have morbid and fatalistic themes, even the tales with a happy ending come with a dose of salt. I reccommend this book and the collection to anyone who likes H.P. Lovecraft, C.L. Moore, Henry Kutter, Robert Bloch, and Richard Matheson.

I could review each story, but I do not want to spoil the fun.

I find the details at the end of each of the colletions to be worthwile in themselves. They offer some insights to CAS's thought process and in a few cases alternate text to the published story. I only regreat that these stories spell the end of the collection.

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