The Martian Horrors of Clark Ashton Smith, Part 4

 

cover art by Margaret Brundage

Read/Watch 'em In Order #185

Smith's last trip to Mars takes us to the same version of the Red Planet as we visited in "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" and "Dweller of the Gulf." In other words, it's a planet you don't necessarily want to visit.

But it's fun to read about other people visiting it. "Adventure is bad luck happening to someone else," after all.

"Vulthoom" was published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales.  The two protagonists are two Earthmen stranded on Mars. They are lured down into vast underground chambers, where they are sort-of introduced to Vulthoom, an alien who came to our solar system many millennia ago. Vulthoom, who often takes thousand-year-long naps, has become a sort of legend in Martian culture--an representation of evil.  There is good reason for this.

Vulthoom is now awake and has plans. He wants the help of the two Earthmen to carry out these plans, which would result in thousands of deaths and the horror of Vulthoom moving from Mars to Earth.

The protagonists are apparently helpless to either refuse to help or escape. In the end, Smith telegraphs the one way they can stop Vulthoom perhaps a little too obviously, but the story overall achieves its purpose in generating a sense of real dread.

In the end, the lesson we learn from Clark Ashton Smith is DON'T GO TO MARS! Maybe take a trip to Venus instead. 

You can read the story HERE.