Zothique (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Clark Ashton Smith
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Stories
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—magical world
- Time of Work: The distant future
- Setting: Zothique
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Magic or magicians, Future, Other worlds, Kings, queens, or royalty, Birds, Resurrection, Zombies or living dead
- Locales: Mythical lands
The Plot
In “The Empire of the Necromancers” (1932), two magicians conjure themselves an empire out of the dust of the ages and the corpses of the ancient dead, but their despotic rule leads to bloody rebellion by their subjects. The eponymous hero of “The Voyage of King Euvoran” (1933) offends a necromancer and is punished by the loss of his remarkable crown, which is carried away by the fabulous bird whose feathers topped it. Misled by an apparently favorable oracle, the king goes in quest of his lost crown but finds instead a peculiarly apt humiliation.
In...
[The entire page is 996 words long]
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