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Tales Of Science And Sorcery by Clark Ashton Smith
From haunted necropolises to alien suns, these decadent, dreamlike tales summon marvels and monsters with hypnotic prose. Tales of Science and Sorcery is Clark Ashton Smith at his most spellbinding—rich, eerie, and steeped in otherworldly allure.
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In Tales Of Science And Sorcery, did you enjoy ...
... baroque, image-drenched prose that turns alien vistas into fever dreams?
The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
If the luxuriant sentences and jewelled imagery of Clark Ashton Smith hooked you—those ornate evocations in stories like “The City of the Singing Flame” and the velvety decadence of his otherworldly locales—then you’ll revel in the high pageantry of The Worm Ouroboros. Eddison’s archaic, courtly diction transforms mountains, moons, and sorceries into living tapestries, delivering that same heady intoxication of language you loved while wandering Smith’s strange dimensions.
... reality-warping weirdness where art and obsession open doors to ruin?
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
Did the vertigo of crossing into another realm in “The City of the Singing Flame” (and the compulsion to go back in “Beyond the Singing Flame”) thrill you? The King in Yellow channels that same uncanny pull: a notorious play infects readers with visions of Carcosa’s twin suns and shifting shores. Like Smith’s portals to peril and ecstasy, Chambers’ stories blur dream and waking until you can’t resist stepping through—even though you know it may unmake you.
... decadent, end-of-age vignettes where sorcery and science mingle in self-contained episodes?
The Dying Earth: Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
If you enjoyed how Smith’s tales stand alone yet echo one another—grim expeditions like “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” or the sinister desert trek of “The Dweller in the Gulf”—you’ll love the mosaic of adventures in The Dying Earth. Vance offers glittering, ironic mini-quests and eerie encounters under a guttering sun, each piece a polished gem of wonder and menace, delivered with lush diction and mordant wit.
... cosmic vistas that escalate from haunted-ruin dread to awe and terror?
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The cosmic breadth that erupts from Smith’s ruins—think of the way “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” hints at immensities beyond a single expedition—finds a haunting counterpart in The House on the Borderland. A recluse’s crumbling manse becomes a vantage point for soaring, terrifying panoramas of time, space, and alien siege. It captures that same sudden widening of the universe from claustrophobic horror to vertiginous wonder.
... archaeological dread in ancient ruins where discovery feels like desecration?
At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
If the grim, expeditionary horror of “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” gripped you—the careful descent into buried chambers, the sickening revelations, the sense that knowledge itself is lethal—then At the Mountains of Madness is a perfect next step. An Antarctic survey uncovers a dead city and a history that should have stayed entombed, matching Smith’s cold, clinical awe with a crescendo of stark, cosmic terror.
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