Clark Ashton Smith and Zothique, illuminated by a dim and tarnished sun

Image by Junior Peres Junior from Pixabay I'm going to do a few articles on dark fantasy, grimdark and otherwise. My Cambion Chronicles series is heading in that direction, and what better way to explore dark fantasy that doing some dives into it? Let's kick this off with one of my favourite writers, Clark Ashton Smith. (CAS) He was one of Lovecraft's contemporaries, and dare I say it, a better prose writer. If you haven't read his stuff before, you're in for a treat, especially if you dig his dense, poetical style. His work ranges across different story universes, but my favourite is the Zothique stories, set at the end of the world. In CAS's writings, our own Earth goes through many different ages, including a sword-and-sorcery Hyberborean age, the gothic stories of Averoigne, a few set in a modern age where the lives of contemporary people are touched by ancient gods and hidden monsters. And at the end of the world, the last age belongs to Zothique. A dying earth, and exceedingly…