Re: Where to start?
Posted by:
Scott Connors (IP Logged)
Date: 3 July, 2007 01:21AM
They also omit "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan" and "The Last Hieroglyph," to name two of my favorites, or even "The Seed from the Sepulcher." But that's the point, I guess, Jim--when we're talking about favorites, the criteria are by definition subjective, and that means that some startling results are highly probably: like they say, Your Mileage May Vary. I'm sure that somewhere out there is a Smith fan whose favorite tales include "An Adventure in Futurity," "The Supernumerary Corpse," and "Seedling of Mars." (I just hope that he or she is getting the professional help they so desperately need!)
The important thing about The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith is that the brick and mortar stores have preordered several thousand copies on the strength of the cover painting. It has the potential of introducing scores of new readers to Smith, and could very well be as critical in furthering his acceptance as the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was. Robert Weinberg is a very canny editor: say what you will about "The Return of the Sorcerer," it is one of Smith's most anthologized stories (I can't recall offhand if "The Seed from the Sepulcher" has been anthologized more often, but with the myriad editions of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos I think that "Sorcerer" still has the edge). He is using the original magazine texts, except in the case of "The City of the Singing Flame," where he is using the text collected by CAS himself even if he didn't write the bridging narrative himself. (I don't agree with that reasoning, I just understant it.) Weinberg is also using stories whose language is perhaps more accessible to the reader than, say, the original version of "The Coming of the White Worm." I personally feel that this doesn't give the reader a true taste of Klarkash-Ton, but hey! it's worth a shot.
Am finishing up volume three of the Night Shade at present. One of these days I hope to be allowed to edit an annotated "best of" volume myself. It would contain "The City of the Singing Flame," "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis," "A Star-Change," "Master of the Asteroid," "The Dark Eidolon," "The Last Hieroglyph," "Xeethra," "Necromancy in Naat," "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan," "The Coming of the White Worm," "The Seven Geases," "The End of the Story," "The Beast of Averoigne," "The Maze of the Enchanter," "The Double Shadow," "The Death of Malygris," "Genius Loci," "The Seed from the Sepulcher," "A Night in Malneant," "The Chain of Aforgomen," and "The Willow Landscape." I am sure that other Smith fans can suggest other stories more worthy in their opinion than these, but this is what my tastes suggest.
Best,
Scott