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snurriBooks 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. The Elephant's Secret Sense by Caitlin O'Connell.
72. Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness by Berke Breathed.
73. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs.
74. The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 1 by Clark Ashton Smith. I think my favorite thing that Nightshade Books does is put out the work of early fantasists like William Hope Hodgson and Lord Dunsany and Mr. Smith here; kudos to them. I've seen CAS referenced many times, but this is my first time reading him. This is the first of five volumes (the fourth has just come out), and while the works in this volume vary in quality--the works are presented in the order of composition, and there's a clear progression at work--I plan to keep reading. The first couple of stories are hilariously purple, so much so that I nearly expected indigo to bleed from the text, but the voice soon settles into a tone that's still erudite, but far more accessible and readable. These stories are pure fantasy on the one hand, dwelling-places of dark magicians and elder gods and weird alien races, but on the other they are fantasy at its most reactionary: not just anti-symbolic and at times anti-scientific, but also anti-psychological. The characters are sketches, the plots are secondary to the wonders on display. Almost more interesting than some of the works are the notes, including excerpts from the apparently copious correspondence between Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. (Lovecraft nicknamed Smith "Klarkash-Ton" in both their correspondence and his own fiction.) Unlike Lovecraft's work, though, which I've always found to be weighted down with a fear of the world outside his front door, Smith's stories have a sensawunda about them even when dark. Faves in this volume include the title story as well as "A Night in Malnéant," "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros," and the last and possibly strongest, the surrealist dream/nightmare "A Voyage to Sfanomoë."
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. The Elephant's Secret Sense by Caitlin O'Connell.
72. Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness by Berke Breathed.
73. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs.
74. The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 1 by Clark Ashton Smith. I think my favorite thing that Nightshade Books does is put out the work of early fantasists like William Hope Hodgson and Lord Dunsany and Mr. Smith here; kudos to them. I've seen CAS referenced many times, but this is my first time reading him. This is the first of five volumes (the fourth has just come out), and while the works in this volume vary in quality--the works are presented in the order of composition, and there's a clear progression at work--I plan to keep reading. The first couple of stories are hilariously purple, so much so that I nearly expected indigo to bleed from the text, but the voice soon settles into a tone that's still erudite, but far more accessible and readable. These stories are pure fantasy on the one hand, dwelling-places of dark magicians and elder gods and weird alien races, but on the other they are fantasy at its most reactionary: not just anti-symbolic and at times anti-scientific, but also anti-psychological. The characters are sketches, the plots are secondary to the wonders on display. Almost more interesting than some of the works are the notes, including excerpts from the apparently copious correspondence between Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. (Lovecraft nicknamed Smith "Klarkash-Ton" in both their correspondence and his own fiction.) Unlike Lovecraft's work, though, which I've always found to be weighted down with a fear of the world outside his front door, Smith's stories have a sensawunda about them even when dark. Faves in this volume include the title story as well as "A Night in Malnéant," "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros," and the last and possibly strongest, the surrealist dream/nightmare "A Voyage to Sfanomoë."