@RUTGERS.ARPA,@MIT-MC:INGRIA@MIT-OZ (01/31/85)
From: INGRIA%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
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Date: Friday, 11 January 1985 17:26-EST
From: Michael Eisenberg <DUCK>
I'm looking for the title and author of a book of SF short stories
that I saw about 10 years ago... Can anyone out there help? I only
read a couple of the stories; both, I think, took place on Mars.
One involved some explorers who get trapped in a large cavern
containing a monster that plucks out the eyes of its victims (pretty
gruesome, huh?). Another involves a man who (along with a party of
others) finds a sort of "ghost town" in which the people were killed
by weird creatures that enfold themselves about the heads of their
prey. (Also pretty gruesome.)
The author was Clark Ashton Smith. The first story is ``The Dweller
in the Depths''; the second, ``The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis''. The
details are as you describe them and both stories do indeed take place
on Mars. The collection I have them in is called @i[Xiccarph], and it
was published by Ballantine. I'm not sure this particular collection
is still in print, but various collections of Smith's short stories
are, so you should be able to find some collection(s) of his with
these stories in them. Smith was one of the ``Lovecraft circle'' and
four paperback collections of his short stories were issued by
Ballantine between 1970 and 1973, hard on the heels of their paperback
Lovecraft collections. The other three were @i[Zothique],
@i[Hyberborea], and @i[Poseidonis]. If you like ``The Dweller in the
Gulf'', you'll probably also like ``The Weaver in the Vault'', in
@i[Zothique].
I know this is all rather vague; I'm not even positive about the
information presented above (it's been a long time). But I do
remember that the book was terrifically written... Does this ring a
bell, anyone?
Yes, Smith is an excellent craftsman. (He also drew and made
sculptures.) There's something about Smith's stories that really
stick with you. His universe is probably the most malevolent I've
come across in fiction, but his stories are so hauntingly told, that
their images stay in your memory.
-30-
Bob (``Facilis descensus Avernus'') Ingriahsut@ee.UUCP (02/01/85)
I've seen some recent reissues of Clark Ashton Smith's stuff,
but haven't look at them for publisher, titles etc. since I have all
(sorry, most) of Smith's story collections at home in Granada paperbacks
with lovely covers. Couldn't resist posting a response; I didn't think
anybody read C.A. Smith anymore but us eccentrics who survived morbid
childhoods...
Seriously though, I really enjoyed Smith's Averoigne stories
for the tongue-in-cheek humor and sneaky references to Lovecraft.
"The Dark Eidolon" is a very entertaining pastiche of Beckford's Vathek
and Arabian Nights type fiction. Mail me something for further info...
Bill Hsu
pur-ee!hsut