My initial impressions were high when I started with this collection of tales from Clark Ashton Smith set in his imaginary dying earth like setting; tMy initial impressions were high when I started with this collection of tales from Clark Ashton Smith set in his imaginary dying earth like setting; the continent of Zothique. As I worked through the collection I must say that my impression of the collection dimmed.
The stories evoke some interesting images but are lacking in regards to story line, plot and character development. Further more whilst Smiths prose style is unique and ornate I actually felt his stories and characters end up submerged beneath the complicated sentences. I didn't like having to battle the prose to extract the story, other than the wording being flowery and dextrous most of the stories were fairly straight forward, in this way the prose creates the pretention of something greater than what is actually on offer here.
I am currently reading the Arabian Nights translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton and can clearly see the influence it has had on this collection. So much so that I don't think Smith has added anything new to the tradition of Nights like tales. I would suggest reading the Nights first to experience what inspired authors like Smith in the first place.
Emotionally and tonally this collection is very one note. The stories are all dark, languid and serious, it would have been interesting to see some tonal shifts and more humour.
Overall there were some enjoyable moments but many of the stories in this collection left me feeling cold and my overall impressions can be summarised with a resounding "meh"!...more
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