OT: Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique
As we all know, unfortunately Imdb is ending the message boards soon and leaving us unable to use their site for continued discussion of movies and other media. As such, I soon will be unable to post these off topic posts I enjoy putting up here.
To that end, I felt it would be appropriate to end my favored types of posts with two series dedicated to the end of all things: Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Since Smith created his series first, I will begin with it. I feel a bit sad knowing I will soon be unable to use these forums to discuss stories I hope to present my thoughts on to others.
With that, I shall now begin discussing Zothique.
In the Dying Earth tradition of H. G. Wells' Time Machine and William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderland and Night Land comes Zothique, an eschatological series set at the end of Earth's life when science has given way to magic and the dead outnumber the living on the last known continent of a blighted Earth laboring under a fading sun. Appropriately humanity's last remnants are a hedonistic lot cruel to each other and almost always concerned only with their own pleasures as Death in the form of one diabolical entity or another waits inevitably to devour them.
Appearing in the middle of Smith's most productive period of writing from 1929 to 1936, The Empire of the Necromancers kicks off the series and sets its tenor. In this story, two renegade necromancers stumble upon the devastated remnants of a fallen empire and resurrect its inhabitants to create a twisted empire to serve their own hedonistic desires. The reanimated liches and zombies toil mindlessly for the titular necomrancers, even in some cases serving as their lemans, till finally two descendants of the former ruling house of Cincor decide to end the cruel reign of the outcast wizards from Naat.
Although very short, Empire is a powerful story characterized by Smith's trademark lush writing and dreamlike storytelling. It tells us just enough to get our imaginations working while leaving enough implied to avoid ruining the effect with overdescription. It's an exceptionally well written story and a brilliant start to Smith's finest series.
Next up is The Isle of the Torturers. In this story, King Fulbra of Yoros has seen a hideous plague called the Silver Death overtake and wipe out his kingdom just before the story's open. Protected by a ring he never dare remove, Fulbra travels to the Island of Uccastrog, where yellow-skinned torturers murder his crew and condemn him to hideous torment until Fulbra realizes the only way to end the island's evils.
This is a much more intense story than its predecessor and takes Zothique's reputation for savagery and cruelty to a whole new level. We genuinely empathize with the unfortunate king and feel strongly for him as the Torturers have their way with him. The ending is also poignant and fitting for the story.
Third in the series is The Charnel God, a rare Zothiquean story featuring a happy ending. In it, Elaith, beloved of a man named Pharion, has fallen into a catatonic state in the city of Zul-Bha-Sair, where the Charnel God, Mordiggian, is worshiped. As is the case with all dead in the city, Mordiggian claims the hero's sweetheart. At the same time, a renegade sorcerer plans to infiltrate Mordiggian's temple to steal and resurrect a woman intended for the god. These two plotlines intersect well at the end, and for a moment Good triumps over Evil in Zothique, though our protagonists are forever changed by the story's events.
Next is The Dark Eidolon, probably the best story in the series. Here, the wizard Namirrha sets up shop in the city of Ummaos, capital of the decadent empire Xylac, to gain revenge on the current emperor, Zotulla, for a slight many years ago. The Zothiquean God of Death, Thasaidon, makes his first appearance in the series, warning Namirrha against his actions because the consequences will be dire. Naturally Namirrha refuses to listen.
The Dark Eidolon is a densely plotted story whose superficial revenge plotline gives way to deeper resonances as it goes along. It stands as the prototypical story in the series alongside The Empire of the Necromancers and is a pure delight to read.
After Eidolon, Smith wrote The Voyage of King Eurovan. Initially Smith intended this story as part of his Hyperborea cycle. However, for unclear reasons, he transplanted the story to Zothique. This makes it an oddball. Essentially King Eurovan faces off with an unnamed wizard who resurrects the king's crown--an extinct bird known as a gazolba--and forces Eurovan to travel well away from his kingdom to recover the bird. After many adventures recalling to my mind the vignettes in The Odyssey, Eurovan finds a kingdom ruled by birds (yes) and may or may not achieve his goal.
After this fairly lighthearted story, Smith continued the series with The Weaver in the Vault, in which a king commissions a group of men to recover the remnants of a long-dead king in a far off tomb. Unfortunately the weaver of the title awaits and guards the king's remains.
The next story, The Tomb-Spawn, begins as the Zothiquean equivalent of an urban legend. Apparently King Ossaru had had a familiar named Nioth Korghai who had advised him and remained in the king's tomb after his death. Two jewel thieves hear of the tomb and plan to enter it. To give away more would ruin the impact of this short but powerful story.
In The Witchcraft of Ulua, the witch of the title seduces a king whose equivalent of Aristotle works against her intentions. It's a decently written but slight story.
Next is Xeethra. Here through a time paradox caused by Thasaidon, a young boy relives a past life as ruler of a now-dead kingdom. Memory with all its painful implications comes back to haunt the protagonist.
In The Book of Vergama is the introduction to Smith's originally intended final story of Zothique, appropriately named Last Hieroglyph. Here, Nushain, an astrologer, along with his companions, a loyal servant and dog, go on a somewhat forced voyage to meet the title character. Once in Vergama's presence, they learn to their detriment the meaning of the story's title.
This is a haunting story and would have been a perfect end to the series. Fortunately Smith continued to chronicle Zothique.
Shapes of Adamant is a short fragment not very significant to the cycle. After it though, Smith wrote one of the more powerful later Zothique stories.
For the first time in the series, Smith brings the land of Naat onstage in Necromancy in Naat. This is a rather unusual love story featuring zombies. A bare bones description makes it sound cheesy, but it is far from that. Unfortunately I can't really describe it in much greater detail without giving away a host of critical plot points. As such, I will simply say this is a rare Zothique story with a somewhat happy ending.
Next is The Black Abbot of Puthuum. I must admit I have mixed feelings about this one. It's decently written and has some worthwhile characters but lacks for me the impact of the best Zothique stories. The plot is that two men are escorting a young girl to a king's seraglio before encountering the diabolical abbot of the title. The origin of the abbot and the nature of his magic are both extremely effectively portrayed.
In The Death of Ilalotha, a succubus seduces a man with dire consequences for all involved.
The Garden of Adompha has something of a science fiction-based plot as the eponymous Adompha grafts the body parts of his victims onto plants in his garden until the dead have their revenge.
Zothique is a short, powerful poem epitomizing the whole series it shares a name with.
Master of the Crabs details the encounter of the titular wizard with another wizard and the latter's apprentice. It is a creepy story in line with the best horror of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.
Mandor's Enemy is another fragment.
In Morthylla, a young man bored with life seeks the pleasure of the company of the lamia Morthylla. He finds her only to discover she is another bored decadent amusing herself with role playing as the lamia. Then again, that may not be the case.
The Dead Will Cuckold You is the last full-length part of the Zothique canon. It is a one-act play about a king who has a male friend of his wife executed for fear of an affair between the queen and the young man. We don't know if the king is justified in his fears or paranoid, but he clearly creates a number of problems for himself with the ordered execution.
In his famous diary detailing his stories and in various letters, Smith mentions hte germs of ideas for other stories of Zothique. Most notable of these is The Scarlet Succubus, a planned short novel dealing openly with sex in Zothique. It's unlikely Smith ever actually wrote the novel, but if he did, it was lost forever because of a fire in 1957. A few fragments of poems and possible tales related to Zothique do survive and indeed have been reprinted in the 1995 collection Tales of Zothique. What I have detailed above is the known extent of Smith's work on the cycle though.
Zothique is an appealing bleak, dying world filled with death and debauchery. It is a somewhat obscure but nonetheless brilliant fantasy cycle that has influenced many other works in the series. Jack Vance in his Dying Earth series, Leigh Brackett in her Skaith novels, Gene Wolfe in his Book of the New Sun series, and Darrell Schweitzer in his Shattered Goddess sequence all owe debts to Smith and Zothique.
Appropriately I will close this and my next OT post with the possible final words Clark Ashton Smith wrote about his greatest fictional creation:
...this far shalt thou go, but no farther go...
Requiescat in pace, Krystle Papile. I'll always miss you. Justice was finally served.