Short Stories/Novellas
A story from the renowned tales of "Xiccarph": Before Tiglari, many brave souls had the same noble dream of scaling and crossing through the forbidding palace of Maal Dweb. So far, none who attempted this feat has ever returned or have been seen again. But Tiglari, the jungle hunter skilled in destroying dangerous beasts, was undeterred by the hideous odds that lay before him!
A story from the renowned tales of "Xiccarph": The sorcerer Maal Dweb approached the flower women with caution, for he knew that they were vampires. These half-woman, half-flower monsters were as venomous as they were beautiful. His presence was now detected. Could their hypnotic singing lure yet another victim, or would Maal Dweb's own magic save him from the wailing power of the enchanting flower women?
Included in this volume are four tales by Clark Ashton Smith: "The Empire of the Necromancers," "The Enchantress of Sylaire," "The Invisible City," and "The Mother of Toads."
Life in the future centuries is touch upon this story with the depiction of the strange and prophetical effects upon the human intellect of a strange chemical imported from, what may be, the most distant of planets. Excerpt "It is remarkable," said Dr. Manners," how the scope of our pharmacopoeia has been widened by interplanetary exploration. In the past thirty years, hundreds of hitherto unknown substances, employable as drugs or medical agents, have been found in the other worlds of our own system. It will be interesting to see what the Allan Farquar expedition will bring back from the planets of Alpha Centaurt when--or if—it succeeds in reaching then and returning to earth. I doubt, though, if anything more valuable than selenine will be discovered. Selenine, derived from a fossil lichen found by the first rocket-expedition to the moon in 1975, has, as you know, practically wiped out the old-time curse of cancer. In solution, it forms the base of an infallible serum, equally useful for cure or prevention." "I fear I haven't kept up on a lot of the new discoveries," said Rupert Balcoth the sculptor, Manners' guest, a little apologetically. "Of course, everyone has heard of selenine. And I've seen frequent mention, recently, of a mineral water from Ganymede whose effects are like those of the mythical Fountain of Youth."
They had come up to watch the rising of the sun: that sun which they had never seen except as an orb of blackness, occluding the zodiacal stars in its course from horizon to horizon.
A Clark Ashton Smith Single Genius Loci, the spirit of a place… Amberville attempts to capture the genius loci of a strange and haunting place… note: very short