In contrast to my rather so-so experience in reading the Clark Ashton Smith collection XICCARPH, ZOTHIQUE, another of the Lin Carter paperback editions from Ballantine Books, re-acquainted me with all the reasons I liked Smith's wry, mordant stories. Zothique-- possibly named for the Greek idea of the "Sothic Year," sometimes associated with cycles of world annihilation-- is Earth in its final days. But Zothique, unlike most if not all previous future-Earths in fiction, became dominated by ancient magicks, as described in the opening lines of "The Dark Eidolon:"
On Zothique, the last continent on Earth, the sun no longer shone with the whiteness of its prime, but was dim and tarnished as if with a vapor of blood. New stars without number had declared themselves in the heavens, and the shadows of the infinite had fallen closer. And out of the shadows, the older gods had returned to the gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names but the same attributes. And the elder demons had also returned, battening on the fumes of evil sacrifice, and fostering again the primordial sorceries...
It's a world in which Smith establishes a loose continuity between a few dozen exotic domains and their equally exotic deities, though in a sense none of the stories are literally tied together, even to the extent of the Cthulhu mythos. Oddly, editor Carter arranged the seventeen Zothique stories into what he considered their historical order. I can't claim that I don't pursue intellectual chimera just as elusive, but since there really isn't a "history" as such in Zothique-- which resembles the world of the Arabian Nights seen through the charnel lens of Edgar Allan Poe-- I didn't see the point. Personally, I might have preferred to see the stories-- all written in the early thirties-- to have been ordered according to their time of writing, though I concede that this could have been difficult, given that the author was something of a hermit.
Not all of the seventeen stories in the Ballantine collection meet my criteria for high-mythicity fiction, but as I've done in many other reviews, I'll go down the list, judging each with the symbols "G" (good), "F" (fair), and "P" (poor).
XEETHRA (G)-- The titular character is a simple goatherd who wanders into a mountain cavern and finds himself in a long-vanished realm. Hungry, he helps himself to some nearby fruit, after which he beholds two huge dark guardians, though they do nothing to impede him. He then begins to have dreams of a separate existence, wherein he was Amero, king of the ancient realm. Xeethra's mind becomes so divided between his two incarnations that he returns to the cavern-world. There he meets the lord of the domain, the demon lord Thasaidon, who offers to restore Xeethra to his earlier glory, but only if the goatherd can keep true to that incarnation. It turns out to be a "grass always greener" situation, but it's interesting that Xeethra's unhappy fate arises from tasting a sort of "forbidden fruit."
NECROMANY IN NAAT (F)-- Prince Yadar goes hither and yon seeking his lost love Dalili. He finds her on the isle of Naat, which is dominated by two necromancers with a small army of zombies. Sadly, Dalili died before coming to Naat, and the sorcerers have made her one of their undead followers. Things don't turn out all that well for Yadar either, but better than they do for the necromancers.
THE EMPIRE OF THE NECROMANCERS (P)-- This tale follows yet two other necromancers who create their own private kingdom of dead people. This one loses points given the presence of a zombie guy who turns on his masters, just because the story needs him to do so.
THE MASTER OF THE CRABS (P)-- A sorcerer and his apprentice go seeking treasure on an island inhabited only by crabs. But another sorcerer seeks the same wealth, and he knows how to turn the local fauna against the other seekers. Not much of anyone to root for.
THE DEATH OF ILALOTHA (F)-- King Thulos, though married to his reigning queen, becomes obsessed with the idea that his dead lover Ilalotha may cheat the Reaper thanks to her skills in witchcraft. He braves the tomb to find out. Things do not go well.
THE WEAVER IN THE VAULT (P)-- This tale suffers from a big buildup and an arbitrary resolution. A king sends three warriors to a dead city to bring back an ancient mummy for purposes of divination. Of course, things end badly for all three men, but Smith earns point in that the titular "weaver" isn't some stock vampire or zombie. However, the alien-seeming creature doesn't lend itself to context of any kind, and so seems rather contrived.
THE WITCHCRAFT OF ULUA (G)-- Smith was at his best when he wasn't so focused on delivering a "gotcha" to the horror fans. Young Amalzain plans to accept a position in a corrupt kingdom full of degenerates, particularly the witch queen Ulua. He visits his anchorite uncle Sabmon, who wants him of the perils and gives him a protective amulet. Sure enough, Ulua attempts to seduce the innocent youth, and when he rejects her, he's haunted day and night by specters of rotting corpses. Amalzain finally flees and escapes back to the protection of his uncle, who shows him the fate he missed, as the entire kingdom is dragged down to the hell of Thasaidon.
THE CHARNEL GOD (G)-- Poe would have loved this one. While Phariom and his bride Eliath pass through a city dominated by worshippers of the death god Mordiggian, Eliath succumbs to a cataleptic fit that makes her look dead. The priests of Mordiggian ignore the young man's protests and claim the woman to be buried in their sacred tombs. Phariom must brave the sepulchers of the god to prevent his bride from being buried alive. But as it happens, there are worse blasphemies transpiring that night, as a necromancer plans to steal the corpse of a woman he slew, the better to raise her from the dead for his pleasure. Will the worshippers, or even the death god himself, consume both the licit and illicit transgressors?
THE DARK EIDOLON (G)-- The evil king Zotulla commits many nasty acts, but he doesn't even remember driving his chariot over the body of a beggar-boy, Narthos. But Narthos becomes obsessed with gaining revenge for his injuries, and for years he studies sorcery. Years later, under the name Namirrha, the magician shows up in the city where Zotulla still reigns. Slowly Namirrha weaves spells to confuse and disconcert the ruler, like a cat toying with a mouse. But there's a new wrinkle when Namirrha's patron god Thasaidon warns the magician to leave Zotulla alone, since the king provides the demon with lots of evil deeds. Not surprisingly, Namirrha still visits an appropriate equine doom upon the king, but gods are not defied, and the dish of revenge never tastes good cooked by demon-fire.
MORTHYLLA (G)-- In the midst of courtly degeneracy, discontented youth Valzain can't get any satisfaction. But someone at court tells him that there's a lamia who hangs out at the local necropolis, and Valzain is willing to risk death to allay boredom. The lamia Morthylla welcome the young blade, and they make love. He begins to wonder, though, why she spares him her fangs. This leads to a sad story of disillusionment and death, but at least Valzain receives a mild surcease of sorrow in the afterlife.
THE BLACK ABBOT OF PUTHUUM (F)-- Two young warriors are charged with making a trek to a foreign land in order to guide a beautiful woman to her wedding with their king. Hostile creatures force the little band to seek shelter in a temple run by a Black man named Ujuk, even though the warriors think he's got a yen either to hump the young (implicitly White) girl, or to devour her. Smith playing to the worst elements of the pulp magazine audience? Not precisely, because in the catacombs beneath the temple, the two stalwarts meet the spirit of the real Abbot of Puthuum. Formerly a living Black man, the late Abbot belonged to an ascetic cult, but he strayed from his path, had sex with a succubus, and so spawned the only half-human Ujuk. After the two heroes slay the false abbot, they jointly decide that they don't want to waste the young bride on some decrepit king and decide only one of them should take her as the prize. The young woman's response provides one of the few humorous denouements in a Smith story.
THE TOMB-SPAWN (P)-- Two jewel merchants give ear to the story of an ancient kingdom whose king commanded a fell spirit, Nioth Korghai, who may still guard the king's tomb. The two begin their journey back home, but on the way, they're harried by a beast-like people. Unlike the various treasure-hunters in other stories, the innocents end up in a certain tomb, guarded by the very spirit they just learned of. This is easily the weakest story, though Smith does name-check the sorcerer Namirrha from DARK EIDOLON just for an inside reference.
THE LAST HIEROGLYPH (F)-- Nushain the astrologer seeks to avoid the fate decreed for him by the stars. Only the inventive nature of the doom redeems this so-so story.
THE ISLAND OF THE TORTURERS (G)-- I realize this story is basically just one of many "the biter bit" stories, but it's easily the most memorable one in the collection. A virulent plague, the Silver Death, decimates all the people ruled by King Fulbra. He survives the loss of all his people thanks to a magic ring which suspends the effects of the plague with which he too is infected, even keeping him from spreading it to others. He sets sail for a kingdom where he hopes to spend his days in peace, secluded so as to minimize contact with others. But a storm casts the unfortunate king upon the shores of Uccastrog, the island home of a people devoted to coming up with skillful tortures. Fulbra endures the torments of the vile natives without resorting to his one ace in the hole because a woman tells him she plans to help him escape. Then she betrays him, and there's no reason for Fulbra to withhold his hand-- or rather, his ring-- and the doom of the torturers is eminently satisfying.
THE GARDEN OF ADOMPHA (F)-- This too is a "biter bit" tale, but not nearly as interesting as TORTURERS. King Adopha maintains a fantastic garden, and how it grows is with the bodies of his pawns and enemies. The king owes his success to his court wizard Dwerulas, but the rash royal decides the magician's power might threaten him, and so murders Dwerulas. So this time, instead a worm turning the garden, the garden turns the worm.
THE VOYAGE OF KING EUVORAN (G)-- One of the best takes last place. Like most of the idiot monarchs in Zothique, Euvoran fills his days tormenting the subjects who fall under his scrutiny. His rulership is symbolized by his fabulously bejeweled crown, and much of his pride in his kingship is tied up is this hereditary possession. Then a stranger, either a magician or a god, decides to mess with Euvoran's peace of mind. In full sight of the court, the stranger brings to life a stuffed bird, and all watch as the bird flies off with the monarch's crown. Since Euvoran doesn't have the sense to know when he's out of his depth, he launches an expedition to find the bird's nest and recover the crown. Numerous events, both tragic and comic, eliminate all of Euvoran's retainers. Finally, in a great tour de force, the hapless monarch is taken prisoner by a race of intelligent birds, who are naturally offended when he mentions having stuffed one of their kindred. Despite Euvoran's massive stupidity and his indifference to the suffering of others, he's actually spared any of the ghastly dooms Smith metes out to the guilty and innocent alike, though, to say the least, he ends up in comically reduced circumstances.
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