Welcome to my monthly book recommendation for August! Every month, I recommend a book that I’ve personally read and find worthwhile enough to recommend to my own readers. In each post, I’ll introduce the book, discuss why I found reading it worthwhile, and the major themes the book touches upon. I won’t include any major spoilers, but I may discuss some of the characters and specific details or locations from within the book.
My recommendation for August 2025 is The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies, a compilation of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith.
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies
Available on Amazon
Author: Clark Ashton Smith
Genre: Fiction
Description: Not just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him “unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living” or compel Fritz Lieber to employ the worthy term sui generis. Clark Ashton Smith—autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller—simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith’s visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror, and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.
My Thoughts
H.P. Lovecraft once stated that Clark Ashton Smith is “unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living.” This quote is what originally led me to this author. Though lesser known than some of his contemporaries, Lovecraft included, his writing matches their vividness of imagination and exploration of the depths of the human psyche.
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies is a compilation of Smith’s short stories, ranging in genres from science fiction to cosmic horror to high fantasy, and often blurring the lines between them. The first few short stories cleverly raise doubts as to whether the events that take place are based on a science not yet discovered or are truly supernatural. I always enjoy a story that leaves the true nature of its events ambiguous. As we progress further into the book, we delve deeper into each genre – some stories are clearly high-fantasy with gods and deities and wizards, some are rooted in science fiction with future technology and a notable absence of magic, and others launch off into the vast seas of cosmic horror, reminiscent of Lovecraft’s stories while delivering a style all its own.
As I progressed through the book, I felt as if the writing style itself drastically changed across stories based on the theme and genre of those stories. In the story that gives the compilation its name, The Dark Eidolon, the text felt almost biblical, while in some of the first and last science fiction stories, it felt reminiscent of the science fiction writing of the early-to-mid 20th century. Interestingly, while the last short story of the collection was pure science fiction, the author managed to slip in an ambient feeling of cosmic horror that pervaded as a slow burn throughout the story, even its ending. Smith has a subtle way of infusing his writing with a unique dark atmosphere.
The book may be difficult for those who have never read books from the early 20th century. The writing is redolent of sophisticated vocabulary, including an array of words I would consider “slightly archaic” by today’s standards. This rich vocabulary paints vivid pictures, but new readers may find themselves consulting a dictionary as they read. If you fall into this category, I recommend you pick up a copy of this book for yourself, as simply reading these kinds of books will help you to improve your own vocabulary, and as a result, a deeper understanding of the world around you. If you are a seasoned reader, especially of the early 20th century, I’d still recommend this book all the same.
