Out of Space and Time: v. 1

Pretty fantastic and glad to have read and learned of CAS. The book is overwhelming in its scope and the size of this man's imagination. He draws each world, each story, each person with incredible depth. An amazing introduction can be found here as well of unusual words. And I think there are few writer's I've ever read that actually put a smell of something awful, the thing you turn your eyes from if you can, that boiling in one's stomach so fully described as to be experienced. His forerunner stories are the sort that always catch my attention (Andre Norton wrote some of my favorites). The deep ideas behind the layers of worlds, the thin veil between them, the unimagined ages and civilizations before ours. The idea of rooms which "exhale a medley of half-forgotten superstitions", poets "regarded as no less anomalous than double-headed snakes or five legged calves", the "vertigo ineffable before the vastness and diuturnity of the cycles of being" - all seem to tell a bit of CAS himself. Where early imaginative books like those of Verne have tried my patience, I found CAS's work to be an impressive collection and a door opened to a early age in this genre, full of "eldritch terrors and forebodings that still murmur in [t]his brain."

OK, I confess I do not have this book. Even maniacs like me can't afford everything. What I am doing is reproducing the table of contents so potential buyers can compare and see how this collection will fit into their plans. I cannot vouch for the editorial scholarship compared to the Nightshade Books edition. I just gave it 5 stars because, heck, it's CAS! CLARK ASHTON SMITH: MASTER OF FANTASY XV OUT OF SPACE AND TIME The End of the Story A Rendezvous in Averoigne A Night in Malneant The City of the Singing Flame The Uncharted Isle JUDGMENTS AND DOOMS The Second Interment The Double Shadow The Chain of Aforgomon The Dark Eidolon The Last Hieroglyph Sadastor The Death of Ilalotha The Return of the Sorcerer HYPERBOREAN GROTESQUES The Testament of Athammaus The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan Ubbo-Sathla INTERPLANETARIES The Monster of the Prophecy The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis From the Crypts of Memory The Shadows For comparison, here are the contents of A Rendezvous in Averoigne from Arkham House. Of course all the weird tales should be available in the Nightshade Books edition. The Holiness of Azédarac The Colossus of Ylourgne The End of the Story A Rendezvous in Averoigne The Last Incantation The Death of Malygris A Voyage to Sfanomoë The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan The Seven Geases The Tale of Satampra Zeiros The Coming of the White Worm The City of the Singing Flame The Dweller in the Gulf ["Dweller in Martian Depths"] The Chain of Aforgomon Genius Loci The Maze of Maal Dweb The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis The Uncharted Isle The Planet of the Dead Master of the Asteroid The Empire of the Necromancers The Charnel God Xeethra The Dark Eidolon The Death of Ilalotha The Last Hieroglyph Necromancy in Naat The Garden of Adompha The Isle of the Torturers Morthylla

Ijust glad someone brought this great fantasy writer back for others to enjoy.