daniel1976
Crab On The Rampage
hello all,
Posts: 39
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Post by daniel1976 on Oct 24, 2013 16:34:18 GMT
as i understand, the fact that volumes of smith's work arranged by cycle appeared only very rarely so far, may be attributed not to his antiquated prose, as was assumed often, but to legal issues with the holders of his estate. that's what i learned from the robert.e.howard forum where smith's work is often discussed. anyone who knows the excellent howard collections recently printed by del rey, for example, will agree that work of similar magnitude should be done in smith's case.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 25, 2013 16:53:19 GMT
as i understand, the fact that volumes of smith's work arranged by cycle appeared only very rarely so far, may be attributed not to his antiquated prose, as was assumed often, but to legal issues with the holders of his estate. that's what i learned from the robert.e.howard forum where smith's work is often discussed. anyone who knows the excellent howard collections recently printed by del rey, for example, will agree that work of similar magnitude should be done in smith's case. That may be, but would Smith done in cycles really be that interesting? There are already a lot of collections. Just take the Nightshade collection. 5 books, HC, all the stories in chronological orders, carefully edited. I guess a similar edition of Howard will never materialize thanks to the problems such a project will cause. Not to mention the huge commercial risk this would be for a publisher. It is a small wonder the Nightshade edition was completed.
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daniel1976
Crab On The Rampage
hello all,
Posts: 39
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Post by daniel1976 on Oct 25, 2013 19:55:34 GMT
all his stories in five volumes? or five volumes as a start? personally i prefer seeing related stories in a single volume dedicated to them. as for howard, since he wrote so much collecting all his works would probably call for the establishment of a publishing firm dedicated to the task,
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randy
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 17
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Post by randy on Nov 11, 2013 16:16:04 GMT
as i understand, the fact that volumes of smith's work arranged by cycle appeared only very rarely so far, may be attributed not to his antiquated prose, as was assumed often, but to legal issues with the holders of his estate. that's what i learned from the robert.e.howard forum where smith's work is often discussed. anyone who knows the excellent howard collections recently printed by del rey, for example, will agree that work of similar magnitude should be done in smith's case. That may be, but would Smith done in cycles really be that interesting? There are already a lot of collections. Just take the Nightshade collection. 5 books, HC, all the stories in chronological orders, carefully edited. I guess a similar edition of Howard will never materialize thanks to the problems such a project will cause. Not to mention the huge commercial risk this would be for a publisher. It is a small wonder the Nightshade edition was completed. Just saw this and my answer to that question would be, Yes! At least, that was my reaction with Zothique. In the late 1960s, early 1970s Ballantine Books in the U.S. published a good deal of older fantasy, edited by Lin Carter, in response to the popularity of Howard's Conan stories and, especially, the Tolkein craze. Included were a collection of Smith's Poseidonis and Hyperborea stories, neither of which I've seen, and Zothique, which I happened across years latter and finally read about 10 years ago. I had not been a fan of Smith, the few stories I'd read hadn't thrilled me. But I was almost immediately immersed in Zothique, it's stories still felt dark and dangerous, and the writing was excellent -- not always something I expect from Weird Tales work of that vintage. And Carter did a fine job of ordering the stories in a way that increased my interest and excitement -- no recurring characters as I recall, and there were differences in time and setting, but maybe a thread of themes or the way stories varied atmosphere, mood, or theme as the collection went on, kept me reading. Randy M.
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Post by David A. Riley on Nov 11, 2013 16:29:02 GMT
That may be, but would Smith done in cycles really be that interesting? There are already a lot of collections. Just take the Nightshade collection. 5 books, HC, all the stories in chronological orders, carefully edited. I guess a similar edition of Howard will never materialize thanks to the problems such a project will cause. Not to mention the huge commercial risk this would be for a publisher. It is a small wonder the Nightshade edition was completed. Just saw this and my answer to that question would be, Yes! At least, that was my reaction with Zothique. In the late 1960s, early 1970s Ballantine Books in the U.S. published a good deal of older fantasy, edited by Lin Carter, in response to the popularity of Howard's Conan stories and, especially, the Tolkein craze. Included were a collection of Smith's Poseidonis and Hyperborea stories, neither of which I've seen, and Zothique, which I happened across years latter and finally read about 10 years ago. I had not been a fan of Smith, the few stories I'd read hadn't thrilled me. But I was almost immediately immersed in Zothique, it's stories still felt dark and dangerous, and the writing was excellent -- not always something I expect from Weird Tales work of that vintage. And Carter did a fine job of ordering the stories in a way that increased my interest and excitement -- no recurring characters as I recall, and there were differences in time and setting, but maybe a thread of themes or the way stories varied atmosphere, mood, or theme as the collection went on, kept me reading. Randy M. That Zothique anthology from Ballantine is my favour Smith book. It's an absolutely amazing collection. And, in my view, one of the best fantasy collections ever published. It also has an incredibly good cover.
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randy
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 17
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Post by randy on Nov 11, 2013 18:31:54 GMT
That's the one. And it's a shame that it hasn't, to my knowledge, ever been reissued. It's one of the best fantasy collections I've ever read.
Randy M.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 11, 2013 21:57:04 GMT
Just saw this and my answer to that question would be, Yes! At least, that was my reaction with Zothique. In the late 1960s, early 1970s Ballantine Books in the U.S. published a good deal of older fantasy, edited by Lin Carter, in response to the popularity of Howard's Conan stories and, especially, the Tolkein craze. Included were a collection of Smith's Poseidonis and Hyperborea stories, neither of which I've seen, and Zothique, which I happened across years latter and finally read about 10 years ago. I had not been a fan of Smith, the few stories I'd read hadn't thrilled me. But I was almost immediately immersed in Zothique, it's stories still felt dark and dangerous, and the writing was excellent -- not always something I expect from Weird Tales work of that vintage. And Carter did a fine job of ordering the stories in a way that increased my interest and excitement -- no recurring characters as I recall, and there were differences in time and setting, but maybe a thread of themes or the way stories varied atmosphere, mood, or theme as the collection went on, kept me reading. Randy M. That Zothique anthology from Ballantine is my favour Smith book. It's an absolutely amazing collection. And, in my view, one of the best fantasy collections ever published. It also has an incredibly good cover. Straight on the wants list
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Post by mcannon on Nov 12, 2013 8:18:59 GMT
It also has an incredibly good cover. [/quote] Indeed, a lovely cover. My copy of the book is packed away somewhere, but from memory the art was by George Barr. There were four CAS collections published in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy line; “Zothique”, “Hyperborea”, “Poseidonis” and “Xiccarph”. I’ve no idea what the rationale for the last title was, given that Smith only wrote a couple of stories set on the planet of that name; a collection of the Averoigne stories would seem much more logical. However, perhaps a collection of tales set in Mediaeval France wasn’t considered “fantastic” enough for the line, or it may have been that it was felt that the sales of the other titles didn’t warrant it. Whatever the reason, it’s a pity that we were denied a mass-market paperback sporting a glossy cover painting of the Mother of Toads in all her glory!
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 12, 2013 8:28:34 GMT
I believe an Averoigne volume was in fact planned, but the series was cancelled before that could happen.
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 21, 2013 11:12:00 GMT
There was also the Necronomicon Press edition of Zothique, which is more complete than the Ballantine edition and have corrected texts. And with, to my mind, a fantastic cover drawing, by the great Jason C. Eckhardt.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 23, 2013 11:59:43 GMT
Anyone got a reading copy of Zothique - being searching around but it's a bastard of a price. Or could anyone tell me the Msaterwork, The Emperor of Dreams has all the stories in it?
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 24, 2013 9:39:24 GMT
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 24, 2013 10:48:36 GMT
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 24, 2013 14:48:28 GMT
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Post by nosferatu on Dec 3, 2013 15:27:52 GMT
Clark Ashton Smith - The Dweller in the Gulf, Necronomicon Press chapbook, June 1988. Cover art by Robert H. Knox. In the late 80's, Necronomicon produced half a dozen chapbooks called 'The Unexpurgated Clark Ashton Smith,' this is one of them. In their words: "... Smith's work frequently fell victim to the editor's pen, due to their length, their richly atmospheric prose, or, on occasion, their risque contents," therefore these chapbooks featured texts taken from the original manuscripts. "The Dweller in the Gulf" is one of my favourite of his S.F/horror stories, the ending being particularly stunning - it was that ending that was originally changed for magazine publication. I've just been back in the Attic, and found my books again. What a surprise that i've got a few of the Necronomicon Press CAS books. May be tempted to read them again.
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