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kalkwiese's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
yggie's review
4.0
This book was silly, and slow, and very much a product of its time. The descriptions of everyone who is either not white or not male are... well. Like I said, product of its time.
And the horror element! Ha! I suck at horror, I had to train to be able to deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This book is very obviously trying really really hard to be Strange and Horrifying and it probably did a good job a century ago. But even I was chuckling at this.
I really liked that there were Adventures, and the prose was like a thesaurus and a dictionary did their very best to produce eloquent offspring, which I very much enjoyed as well.
Also, there were some efforts to escape the thing where all characters are either Super Good or Pure Evil. There was definitely a hint of gray areas there, and Good did not automatically always win. Refreshing.
Plus, our while male heroes actually got scared every now and then! And in one single instance a woman sort of made a decision about her future by herself!
If you're interested in the genre and you'd like to see the start of some terrible cliches when they were fresh and new, you might like this. Otherwise, it's too dated to be of much interest.
And the horror element! Ha! I suck at horror, I had to train to be able to deal with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This book is very obviously trying really really hard to be Strange and Horrifying and it probably did a good job a century ago. But even I was chuckling at this.
I really liked that there were Adventures, and the prose was like a thesaurus and a dictionary did their very best to produce eloquent offspring, which I very much enjoyed as well.
Also, there were some efforts to escape the thing where all characters are either Super Good or Pure Evil. There was definitely a hint of gray areas there, and Good did not automatically always win. Refreshing.
Plus, our while male heroes actually got scared every now and then! And in one single instance a woman sort of made a decision about her future by herself!
If you're interested in the genre and you'd like to see the start of some terrible cliches when they were fresh and new, you might like this. Otherwise, it's too dated to be of much interest.
gothlithoe's review
4.0
This collection is my first dive int Clark Ashton Smith and I am hooked on his writing after devouring these stories. It compiles a few stories from each of his worlds and it makes me want to explore the anthologies of those worlds.
The writing is definitely some of the most unique I’ve read and his prose is addictive. It combines dark themes with a lushly beautiful color pallet that evoke worlds similar to the French animated film “Fantastic Planet”. The worlds, creatures, and narrative structures, in these stories are wildly imaginative and the word choice is dense and intimidating.
My favorite story in this collection are the titular story, door to Saturn, and the Hunters from beyond. There were a couple stories that were less than impactful but that hardly detracts from the overall package of this collection.
Definitely read this if you are into dark fantasy and can stomach some dense and grotesquely poetic writing.
The writing is definitely some of the most unique I’ve read and his prose is addictive. It combines dark themes with a lushly beautiful color pallet that evoke worlds similar to the French animated film “Fantastic Planet”. The worlds, creatures, and narrative structures, in these stories are wildly imaginative and the word choice is dense and intimidating.
My favorite story in this collection are the titular story, door to Saturn, and the Hunters from beyond. There were a couple stories that were less than impactful but that hardly detracts from the overall package of this collection.
Definitely read this if you are into dark fantasy and can stomach some dense and grotesquely poetic writing.
henryarmitage's review
3.0
A nice selection of Clark Ashton Smith.
See http://www.donaldcorrell.com/cas/index.html for more.
See http://www.donaldcorrell.com/cas/index.html for more.
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