Hyperborea (collection)
Hyperborea is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the twenty-ninth volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in April 1971. It was the second themed collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s, notably Weird Tales.[1]
Cover of Hyperborea | |
Author | Clark Ashton Smith |
---|---|
Cover artist | Bill Martin |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Ballantine Adult Fantasy series |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Ballantine Books |
Publication date | 1971 |
Media type | Print (paperback) |
Pages | xvi, 203 |
ISBN | 0-345-02206-8 |
Preceded by | Zothique |
Followed by | Xiccarph |
Summary
The book collects one prose poem and ten tales of the author's Hyperborean cycle, set on a prehistoric lost northern continent Smith named for the mythological land of Hyperborea, with an introduction and map by Carter. One story from the sequence, the fragment "The House of Haon-Dor," is omitted. The editor also includes in the collection four additional tales of Smith's from what he took to be a similar but more fragmentary sequence of stories.
Contents
- "Introduction" (Lin Carter)
- Hyperborea
- "The Muse of Hyperborea" (prose poem)
- "The Seven Geases"
- "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan"
- "The White Sybil"
- "The Testament of Athammaus"
- "The Coming of the White Worm"
- "Ubbo-Sathla"
- "The Door to Saturn"
- "The Ice-Demon"
- "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
- "The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles"
- The World's Rim
- "The Abominations of Yondo"
- "The Desolation of Soom"
- "The Passing of Aphrodite"
- "The Memnons of the Night"
- "Notes on the Commoriom Myth-Cycle", by Lin Carter
Reception
The collection was reviewed by L. Sprague de Camp in Amra v. 2, no. 55, December 1971, Robert FitzOsbert in Luna Monthly no. 40, September 1972, and Fritz Leiber in Whispers no. 2, December 1973.[1]
Notes
- Hyperborea title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database