Zothique: The Final Cycle
core collection 1970 Zothique
Record
| First published | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | collection |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.22 (1,372 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 364 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345219381 |
Synopsis
This collection gathers Clark Ashton Smith's tales of Zothique, the last inhabited continent of a far-future Earth after other landmasses have sunk beneath the seas and strange new ones have risen in their place. Its peoples have regressed from any modern civilization, so that sorcery, necromancy and ancient weapons of sword and bow have replaced machinery and firearms, and dying suns cast a somber light over crumbling cities and forgotten tombs. Spanning sixteen stories and one poem, mostly first published in Weird Tales between 1932 and 1951 and gathered here by editor Lin Carter, the cycle moves between different characters, kingdoms and sorcerers across this decaying world, each tale a self-contained episode of doomed ambition, necromancy or ancient curses rather than a single continuous plot.
Where it sits
- Universe: Zothique
- Series: The Zothique Cycle core; position 1 of 1 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Clark Ashton Smith
Notes
- From the series record (The Zothique Cycle): Collects the individual Zothique tales, originally published in Weird Tales 1932-1935; first gathered as a standalone collection in the 1970 Ballantine Adult Fantasy series edition.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Zothique
- Black Gate: The Fantasy Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zothique_(collection)
← Zothique dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.