The Klarkash-Ton Cycle

I usually don’t talk about non-RPG books here on Stargazer’s World, but I don’t think it will hurt when I do from time to time. “The Klarkash-Ton Cycle” is part of a collection of Cthulhu Mythos books published by Chaosium.

The 220-paged book contains 11 horror short stories written by Clark Ashton Smith, who was one of major contributor’s to the so-called Cthulhu Mythos. The stories included in this book are:

• “The Ghoul”
• “A Rendering from the Arabic”
• “The Hunters from Beyond”
• “The Vaults of Abomi”
• “The Nameless Offspring”
• “Ubbo-Sathla”
• “The Werewolf of Averoigne”
• “The Eidolon of the Blind”
• “Vulthoom”
• “The Treader of the Dust”
• “The Infernal Star”

The book concludes with detailed notes on each tale, which give the reader some interesting background information.

Especially when you are already a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s work you definitely should read Clark Ashton Smith, too. In my opinion this book is the perfect introduction to his work. Stories like “A Rendering from the Arabic” or “The Infernal Star” are classic Mythos stories, that feature everything you would expect from one of Lovecraft’s work. What actually surprised me that Clark Ashton Smith also set several of his tales on Mars. “The Vaults of Abomi”, “Ubbo-Sathla” and “The Eidolon of the Blind” are all set on the red planet and would work perfectly as inspiration for a Space 1889 game with some Lovecraftian twist.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to any Mythos fan. And since Smith’s stories are not as well known as the ones written by Lovecraft himself you have a good chance your players don’t know them. That makes using them as inspiration for your games much, much easier.

I got my copy of the book from Amazon.de, but I am sure you can easily get it through your local bookstore or any online book seller. The regular price is $14.95. Or you can order it directly from Chaosium.