Jesse’s Reviews > The Maze of the Enchanter > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 35 of 352
“A Star-Change”
This is another one of those “earth man ends up on an alien world” stories. The horror hook is that the protagonist sees their planet as uniquely terrifying until the aliens alter his senses so that he can perceive it as they do, after which it’s fine. Later, when a calamity condemns their world, they send him back to his. But, uh, they forget to reverse the operation on his senses…
— Jun 04, 2024 09:32AM
This is another one of those “earth man ends up on an alien world” stories. The horror hook is that the protagonist sees their planet as uniquely terrifying until the aliens alter his senses so that he can perceive it as they do, after which it’s fine. Later, when a calamity condemns their world, they send him back to his. But, uh, they forget to reverse the operation on his senses…
Like flag
Jesse’s Previous Updates
Jesse
is on page 285 of 352
“The Flower-Women”
The second story of Xiccarph and its naughty sorcerer supreme, the ridiculously-named Maal Dweb. It’s a passable battle of sorcery, committed by a dude who is Bored, against snake-dinosaur-serpent beings who are harvesting barely-intelligent siren plants that Suck Your Blood for alchemical components. It’s, uh, a glorious mess.
— Jun 11, 2024 09:30AM
The second story of Xiccarph and its naughty sorcerer supreme, the ridiculously-named Maal Dweb. It’s a passable battle of sorcery, committed by a dude who is Bored, against snake-dinosaur-serpent beings who are harvesting barely-intelligent siren plants that Suck Your Blood for alchemical components. It’s, uh, a glorious mess.
Jesse
is on page 275 of 352
“The Weaver in the Vault”
Another Zothique tale, but it has more of that Hyperborean flavor of ne’er-do-wells venturing into Forbidden Territory, with predictable results. I actually enjoyed the banter these three roughnecks had before they got into the doomed city. Like “The Charnel God”, the title creature is another not-quite-malignant entity that derives its sustenance from the flesh of the deceased.
— Jun 11, 2024 08:48AM
Another Zothique tale, but it has more of that Hyperborean flavor of ne’er-do-wells venturing into Forbidden Territory, with predictable results. I actually enjoyed the banter these three roughnecks had before they got into the doomed city. Like “The Charnel God”, the title creature is another not-quite-malignant entity that derives its sustenance from the flesh of the deceased.
Jesse
is on page 265 of 352
“Vulthoom”
More Martian shenanigans. Two down-on-their-luck earth men are propositioned by what they understand to be the Satan of Mars. The truth is more amoral when talking about interstellar beings but it’s still bad news for conventional mortals. I didn’t really connect with Smith’s bosom buddy main characters; unfortunately, they’re the protagonists we got.
— Jun 11, 2024 08:12AM
More Martian shenanigans. Two down-on-their-luck earth men are propositioned by what they understand to be the Satan of Mars. The truth is more amoral when talking about interstellar beings but it’s still bad news for conventional mortals. I didn’t really connect with Smith’s bosom buddy main characters; unfortunately, they’re the protagonists we got.
Jesse
is on page 245 of 352
“The Voyage of King Euvoran”
More Zothique, more arabesque. This one generically reminds me of the voyages of Sinbad, except it’s Zothique, so instead of something like the bird people Sinbad marries into it’s bizarre horrors like vampire colonies. This has the structure of a sobering fairy tale / parable as the King pays a heavy price for his desire but accepts his fate with AK-like humility.
— Jun 11, 2024 07:34AM
More Zothique, more arabesque. This one generically reminds me of the voyages of Sinbad, except it’s Zothique, so instead of something like the bird people Sinbad marries into it’s bizarre horrors like vampire colonies. This has the structure of a sobering fairy tale / parable as the King pays a heavy price for his desire but accepts his fate with AK-like humility.
Jesse
is on page 227 of 352
“The Dark Eidolon”
Smith’s heart was with The Arabian Nights and especially the derivation of Vathek so it’s only appropriate that the dark land of Zothique is a doomed earth that takes its cues from oriental tales dialed up to extremes. This dark tale, more than previous installments, shows just how cheap human life is on the dark continent where humanity dies out in its twilight.
— Jun 11, 2024 06:48AM
Smith’s heart was with The Arabian Nights and especially the derivation of Vathek so it’s only appropriate that the dark land of Zothique is a doomed earth that takes its cues from oriental tales dialed up to extremes. This dark tale, more than previous installments, shows just how cheap human life is on the dark continent where humanity dies out in its twilight.
Jesse
is on page 205 of 352
“The Charnel God”
Zothique!! This is a badass fantasy story in a city which is generally not bad to live in except for questionable practices regarding the dead. Which is fine if you aren’t a visitor whose wife has cataleptic seizures that resemble death. Things are further complicated by a grotesque necromancer who murders a similar young woman so that he can re-animate her. Cool sword and (mostly) sorcery.
— Jun 11, 2024 05:13AM
Zothique!! This is a badass fantasy story in a city which is generally not bad to live in except for questionable practices regarding the dead. Which is fine if you aren’t a visitor whose wife has cataleptic seizures that resemble death. Things are further complicated by a grotesque necromancer who murders a similar young woman so that he can re-animate her. Cool sword and (mostly) sorcery.
Jesse
is on page 187 of 352
“The Secret of the Cairn”
An artist bears witness to trans-dimensional aliens and gets briefly sucked into their world. Generally Smith stories tend to be nightmarish adventures when aliens are involved but this one has the ring of a parable in just what the aliens are doing and what the effect is on his curious protagonist. The ending is not cataclysmic but bittersweet.
— Jun 11, 2024 04:40AM
An artist bears witness to trans-dimensional aliens and gets briefly sucked into their world. Generally Smith stories tend to be nightmarish adventures when aliens are involved but this one has the ring of a parable in just what the aliens are doing and what the effect is on his curious protagonist. The ending is not cataclysmic but bittersweet.
Jesse
is on page 171 of 352
“Genius Loci”
A malign, shamanistic spirit devours all animal life in an isolated, depressing glade. It’s a pretty good weird horror story as the MC watches the dissolution of his friend - and later, his friend’s fiancé - in obsession with the glade. It reminds me of “The Colour Out of Space”, both stories centered around deliberately non-human intelligences (and not just Smith’s funny aliens).
— Jun 08, 2024 06:37AM
A malign, shamanistic spirit devours all animal life in an isolated, depressing glade. It’s a pretty good weird horror story as the MC watches the dissolution of his friend - and later, his friend’s fiancé - in obsession with the glade. It reminds me of “The Colour Out of Space”, both stories centered around deliberately non-human intelligences (and not just Smith’s funny aliens).
Jesse
is on page 157 of 352
“The Third Episode of Vathek” (with William Beckford)
Most of Smith’s youthful fiction was orientalist and almost certainly inspired in part by Vathek. Finishing the third episode takes things sort of full circle. Smith doesn’t dwell on Beckford’s twincest angle; this is mostly delivering on the premise of how Zulkais and her brother were damned.
— Jun 07, 2024 08:19PM
Most of Smith’s youthful fiction was orientalist and almost certainly inspired in part by Vathek. Finishing the third episode takes things sort of full circle. Smith doesn’t dwell on Beckford’s twincest angle; this is mostly delivering on the premise of how Zulkais and her brother were damned.
Jesse
is on page 121 of 352
oh dear lord i forgot that the next story is the finished-by-Smith third episode of Vathek
— Jun 07, 2024 12:59PM
