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The Emperor Of Dreams: Best Fantasy Tales (Fantasy Masterworks) (Paperback)

by Clark Ashton Smith (Author) "We have been told that literature dealing with the imaginative and fantastic is out of favour among the Intellectuals, whoever they are ..." (more)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (14 Mar 2002)
Language English
ISBN-10: 057507373X
ISBN-13: 978-0575073739
Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 3.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 25,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#44 in Books > Fiction > Anthologies > Fantasy

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

The Emperor of Dreams is an intelligently put together collection of the short stories of Clark Ashton Smith, one of the most interesting of the group of fantasy writers who congregated around the magazine Weird Tales in the 1930s. Like his correspondent and friend Lovecraft, Smith was hugely influenced by the fantasies and horror stories of Lord Dunsany, from whom he learned to make dream landscapes seem coherent and to pepper his stories with whimsically polysyllabic names like Thasaidon and Moriggian. Smith's fiction is as ironic as Dunsany's, but distinctly more pessimistic; characters he likes, on the whole, are likely to die only slightly less horribly than the covetous or callous. These are stories whose human characters live on the sufferance of more powerful entities whom they are perpetually offending, almost without meaning to. The mundane world whose jewels and scents and bright flowers Smith portrays, in a prose that frequently heads off in the direction of the purple, is a thin skin over realms of vertiginous emptiness and nightmare. These are stories with a tremendous influence on the fantasy-fiction that followed them--they are an acquired taste which many love passionately. --Roz Kaveney

Product Description

From the vampire-haunted alleyways of mediaeval Averoigne to the shining spires of dying Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith weaves his literary sorcery, transporting us to forgotten realms of necromancies and nightmares, lost worlds and other dimensions. In the enchanted regions of Hyperborea, Atlantis and Xiccarph, encounter malefic magic and demonic deeds beneath the last rays of a fading sun . . . For the first time ever, this volume encompasses Clark Ashton Smith's entire career as a writer. Smith virtually stopped writing stories in 1937, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, but he left behind a unique legacy of fantasy fiction which is as imaginative and decadent today as when it was first published in the pulp magazines more than half a century ago.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
We have been told that literature dealing with the imaginative and fantastic is out of favour among the Intellectuals, whoever they are. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literally Fantastic, 26 Mar 2002

By	J. L. Probert - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It must have been wonderful to have been alive in the heyday of the pulp magazine, "Weird Tales". Can you imagine going to the newsagents once a month to buy a magazine which contained all-new stories by H P Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Seabury Quinn and Frank Belknap Long? In his very useful Afterword to this latest (No 26) Fantasy Masterworks volume, Stephen Jones tells us that the "big three" authors to appear in Weird Tales were Lovecraft (understandably), Howard (of course), and Clark Ashton Smith (who?). Apart from a couple of slim paperback collections issued in the mid-seventies, Smith's work has been lamentably out of print in this country, and his homeland across the pond has given his books little better treatment.
So listen carefully as I tell you this. Smith's work is literally fantastic. If you have any interest in, or love for, the kind of fantasy that the above-mentioned authors used to write, then you must read this collection of 46 Ashton Smith stories. Even if you feel that you've read enough Lovecraft rip-offs to last you several lifetimes you still need to read this. What makes him worth reading?. Well, he was originally a poet. Now keep reading because I know some of you will have stopped at the mention of the 'p' word. But the descriptive passages in Smith's work are superb examples of decadent, twisted prose. His vampire's castles, fog-wreathed swamps, other-worldly dimensions and tales of the 'Book of Eibon' come alive on the page in ways that many of his contemporaries could never have hoped to aspire to. The writer I can most liken him to is Lord Dunsany (Masterworks 2 & 15). But whereas Dunsany had a predilection for pixies and elves, and heavenly kingdoms, Smith brings you all manner of decaying corpses and hideous other worlds. Like the Dunsany volumes you need to read Smith's work slowly. There are innumerable words that you will probably have not come across before, so have a big dictionary to hand. But don't let this scare you off - this is seriously fabulous, wonderful stuff and the more people who get to know about Clark Ashton Smith the better. A final note - followers of fantasy publishing may be aware that Chaosium Publishing are about to release a collection entitled "Book of Eibon". From the title, you might expect this to also be a Smith collection but in fact it only includes a few of his stories. If you've been debating which to purchase, definitely buy British.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of Smith's work, 16 Aug 2002

By	Christine Menendez (St. Andreu de Llavaneres, Barcelona Spain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just wish it included some of his illustrations! If you have never read Clark Ashton Smith, this book will introduce you to one of the most amazing writers of the past century. Or of the current one, for that matter. He used words the way that Michelangelo used paint and marble; his prose is three-dimensional, and in the hands of anyone else it probably wouldn't work, would seem overblown and even silly. But Smith was truly a master, and his prose is simply gorgeous. Yes, the stories are all very good, and others have spoken of their content so I won't go on about that. I love the stories, the mythos, the fantasies, but even more I just love reading the very sentences and phrases penned by this wizard. It is a true pity that just because Smith wrote genre he is not considered to be a writer of literature.
I would very highly recommend this book both for the wonderfulness of the tales it contains and the great joy of reading some of the most beautifully executed prose ever written. Also, the book contains a short bio of Smith, which is quite interesting.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine collection of stories by Smith..., 7 Aug 2002

By	gilbert - See all my reviews

Clark Ashton Smith is a writer whose work I've enjoyed for a few years now. I picked up this new collection as it contained several stories I hadn't read yet. I must say that the choices are excellent. Smith's wonderful, exotic tales of Zothique, Averoigne, Poseidonis, and Hyperborea are well represented, and his unusual stories set in the present-day (well, his present-day, the 1930's), are all well worth the read. Smith was also a poet, and his prose has a richness of language that makes it a pleasure to read. He is one of the most imaginative authors I have ever read. Highlights of this collection are "The Empire of the Necromancers", "Necromancy in Naat", "The Nameless Offspring", and "The Tale of Satambra Zeiros". In my opinion though, they are all great. This book gets a definite "thumbs up" from me. It's a good introduction for new fans and I think many familiar with his work will find some stories here new to them. A real plus is Stephen Jones' detailed, informative Afterword. Buy it and help keep Clark Ashton Smith in print!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Superlative dark fantasy
Although never as popular as his friends Lovecraft and Howard, Smith
managed to carve his own niche in fantasy fiction. Read more

Published on 7 Mar 2006

4.0 out of 5 stars a marvellous book
Clark Ashton Smith was a contemporary and correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and other great writers of the '30s pulp magazines, and it shows. Read more

Published on 12 Oct 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!
Clark Ashton Smith writes peotically of strange worlds, people and creatures. If you like Vance, Moorcock and Lovecraft, you will love this! Read more

Published on 3 Jul 2002

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