In the early days of science fiction, most authors assumed that environmental conditions such as a breathable atmosphere on other planets would be similar to those here on earth. Early writers also mostly believed that intelligent alien species would be reasonably easy to communicate with and that their motives would be benign. In this pair of novelettes, Clark Ashton Smith turns those premises on their heads and writes of the utter alienness of alien worlds.
Marooned in Andromeda (1930) – Alone on this strange planet, assailed by unimaginable beasts and weird plants, three men struggle on . . . Are they lost forever, these doomed men . . ?
Chapter I
Chapter II – Marooned! – A Strange Land
Chapter III – Captured! – A Conference
Chapter IV – The Brink of Doom – Into the Stream!
Chapter V – Into the Pouch – A New Horror
Chapter VI – The Great Plain
Chapter VII – Volmar Again!
The Amazing Planet (1931) – Sold as chattels, they found themselves in the hands of that alien race, on a planet amazing beyond their imaginings. . . .
Chapter I – In the Pit!
Chapter II. – The Dwarfs.
Chapter III. – A Desperate Situation.
Chapter IV. – The Amazing Planet. – The Examination
Chapter V. – Revolt!
Chapter VI. – Pursuit.
Chapter VII. – Trapped!
Chapter VIII. – Into Space
The Ocean World of Alioth (1930) – A Fragment
Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He spent most of his life in the small town of Auburn, California, living in the small cabin built by his parents, Fanny and Timeus Smith. He hated the provincialism of the small town life but rarely left Auburn until he married late in life.
Clark Ashton Smith was one of the Big Three writers for the magazine Weird Tales. The other two were Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.
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