In my last post, I took you on a tour of Clark Ashton Smith’s version of our solar system. In this one we will go beyond it into interstellar space. Unlike the stories set in the solar system we do not know what exists in the rest of the universe. Anything could exist, and in Smith’s fiction, often does.

These stories are, even more than his solar system tales, dark fantasy and weird fiction set in space. Outright sorcery exists in some these stories and poems. In a weird way they precede the Star Wars movies in adding the supernatural to space travel (the Force basically being magic).

The two most famous of Smith’s interstellar stories are probably “The Maze of the Enchanter” (first published in Smith’s collection The Double Shadow) and “The Flower-Women” (published in Weird Tales). Both stories are centered around the scientist and sorcerer Maal Dweb. It is worth noting that in these stories science and sorcery are hard to distinguish from each other.

“The Maze of the Enchanter” is essentially sword and sorcery or maybe sword and planet. It involves a barbarian protagonist, Tiglari, who attempts to rescue his love from Maal Dweb. In some ways this is a set up of a Robert E. Howard story, but in other ways it is an inversion, for Tiglari fails. He does not rescue his love and is damned to a fate worse than death.

There are other things that Smith does different from Howard. To reiterate, the story is set on an interstellar world. With the exception of Almuric, all of Howard’s are set on Earth. Also the weird atmosphere of a Smith story is different than a Howard story. Conan’s adventures in the Hyborian Age are set in alternate version of various historical periods: Aquillona for Medieval France, Afghulistan for Afghanistan, the border of Pictland for the American Frontier, et cetera. The setting of “Maze” on the other hand has a truly alien ambience to it. While doing as Howard did can ground the story in reality, doing as Smith does gives you something truly unique.

Neither is necessarily right or wrong. (I do wonder if this is one of the reasons Howard is better known today then Smith. A reader used to “realistic” fiction might find it easier to relate to Howard’s setting than Smith’s.)

“The Flower-Women” is a sequel, this time with Maal Dweb as the protagonist, not the hero. Bored with his life in his fortress, Dweb goes to a planet on the outer rim of his solar system. There he finds the titular Flower-Women. Like the Martian in “Seedling of Mars,” these are sentient plants. He finds out they are being raided and killed by a reptile race. Dweb agrees to save them, not so much out of moral principle or empathy, but out of boredom and to nip a potential threat to his rule in the bud. He then does so using magic and cunning.

It’s worth noting that the Flower-Women are a truly alien race and in fact vampiric so they are not exactly innocent themselves.

Smith is at his best in these tales. There is an alien setting, poetic language, and an interesting story.

Intelligent plant life returns in “The Demon of the Flower.” Published in Astounding Stories (yes, the magazine known for having the hardest of Hard SF), it is set on the planet Lophai, where the “humans” of the planet are ruled over by an evil and tyrannical species of flower. When the oldest and most powerful chooses the bride of its high priest to be sacrificed to it, the priest plots revenge. His vengeance however has consequences he cannot imagine. This is one of the weirdest, in a good way, stories Smith wrote.

An even more fantastic tale is the prose poem/short story “Sadastor” (from Weird Tales). The main character is a demon that leaves Earth for the planet Sadastor. There he encounters a siren that is trapped in a pit with receding water from which he rescues her. This story is only one or two pages. It is short on plot but it is however terribly poetic. It is also pure fantasy despite the interstellar travel.

Then there is “The Monster of the Prophecy” (again from Weird Tales). This is not my favorite of Smith’s stories. While it has Smith’s beautiful prose it did not do much for me. The story is about a down and out poet who is transported from Earth to another planet. He is then used as pawn in politics to overthrow a theocracy. He hangs around the court for awhile, then that government is overthrown and he flees to another kingdom. There he falls in love and marries its alien queen despite her being very anatomically different from humans. The story ends there. I have to wonder if Smith was not parodying Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars novels. Instead of the heroic John Carter you have an ineffectual poet. There is a sardonic tone through out, but it does not really come off as a story. That said I am not a huge fan of satire and parody so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Speaking of poetry, Smith always considered himself a poet first. He wrote at least two poems about interstellar travel. These are “The Song of the Comet” and “The Star-Treader.” Both published in The Star-Treader and Others, these poems are excellent. In fact, after a single reading I thought “The Star-Treader” as astounding. It is a shame that Smith’s poetry is not better known. Frankly, I like his stuff better then a lot of more respected poets.

Looking at these works I think it is a shame that he is not as well known as Howard and Lovecraft. Because of his innate ear for the beauties of language every story by him is worth reading (even the ones I criticize in these posts). He is probably the most consistent in quality of the Big Three of Weird Tales.

His outer space stories also show that other worlds make good settings for weird fiction. Not everything set in outer space has to be Hard SF. I like Heinlein and Niven and all but it is good to read something more imaginative and poetic. Smith’s stories, even at his worst, are always that.

The Smith Circle: A Clark Ashton Smith Conference will be held on January 10th, 2026, the Saturday before Smith's 133rd birthday. The conference will be in Smith's hometown, Auburn, California, at the historic Auburn Carnegie Library. Tickets and more information can be found at https://www.thesmithcircle.net/.