THE DEEP ONES: "Vulthoom" by Clark Ashton Smith

"Vulthoom" by Clark Ashton Smith.

Discussion begins April 24, 2024

First published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?63487

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

The Monster of the Prophecy
The Maze of the Enchanter
Genius Loci and Other Tales

ONLINE VERSIONS

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/239/vulthoom

ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS

No online audio versions found to date.

MISCELLANY

http://www.eldritchdark.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith
https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/clark-ashton-smith-visionary-of...
https://tinyurl.com/52ns4jab

The least of Smith's Martian horror stories, but we do get another of his floral menaces and a decidedly downbeat ending with the invasion of Earth only postponed a 1,000 years.

I definitely had the sense that this was more of a generic Planetary Romance than I've come to expect from Smith, albeit with the usual Smith downbeat ending (although, reading the notes at the back of The Maze of the Enchanter, in the surviving initial synopsis, the two Earthmen seem to just manage to make their escape).

Also, I should acknowedge that as I was reading the story, I was vaguely reminded of "The Tree of Life" by C. L. Moore, but this one was published first.