Clark Ashton Smith's The Empire of the Necromancers

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Let’s kick off the Zothique series that Clark Ashton Smith (CAS) came back to more than any other. Who is CAS? Great question! He was a big name during his era, and he wrote many an influential short story during his abbreviated writing career. We’ll look at the short story called “The Kingdom of the Necromancers” in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1932 which begins the end-of-the-world Zothique where everyone is decadent, and out now for themselves and are variations of evil. Magic has returned, as has the older gods.

Clark Ashton Smith hit the scene a major poet in the San Francisco region. He had an eidetic memory and after reading encyclopedias and dictionaries as a child, he retained those words and he dots the prose with, sometimes, purplish words. He can be a little florid at the time, which is considered a virtue during his heyday. This is one of the oldest Kingdom of the Necromancy style story I have encountered, and it’s fun! CAS has a strong sense of dark humor that will be felt in many of his works, and this is certainly one that qualifies. Enjoy it!

Want to check out my first video where I go over Clark Ashton Smith’s publication history and why you probably haven’t heard of him? Here you go!    • Why You've Never Heard of Clark Ashto...  

Now here is the Penguin Collection that I mentioned I would link you to: https://www.amazon.com/Eidolon-Other-...

Here’s the Zothique saga in novel form - https://www.amazon.com/Zothique-Clark...


Have you read Empire or other Zothique stories? Anything else by Clark Ashton Smith? What did you think of it? Did you agree or disagree with my video? Anything in the video or the story that you’d like to discuss? Sure; let’s chat about it!

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