"Vulthoom" / A Weird Tale of Mars by Clark Ashton Smith

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

"Leave in Silence, long unsaid/all the words that wake the dead." - Clark Ashton Smith. I've always adored his work. He was a true genius who deserves his own time to shine, outside of Lovecraft's shadow.

[@maledikt]

Wasn't Lovecraft also a fan of Ashton's work? I distinctly remember one Lovecraft tale where he even mentions him as a "Grand Priest", and praises him in others.

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

@@maledikt They were associates and friends. I just wish Smith's unique aesthetic permeated as much into the popular culture, and that he wasn't primarily known through his association with Lovecraft.

[@unclesam1756]

Until Warren tells me so himself I refuse to believe that he's dead.

[@jeremyw.norwood1453]

Well, if you stick around the entrance long enough, that indescribably horrific monstrosity which so hungrily slew Warren shall inevitably be up here rather soon to make you a true believer my man... LoL. And to feast upon your corpse as well... Ha!

[@jprp999]

You fool..............:)

[@gohboy56]

Some people are such unbelievers! Wait til Warren sends an alien hit-and-run after you🤣🤣

[@jeremyw.norwood1453]

HorrorBabble is one of the most valuable channels to be found on all of KZbin... they always have such enjoyable, high-quality, & truly invaluable literary content to entertain us with... I sincerely do appreciate all of their hard work and quality narrations... For, in truth, the privilege of having all of their masterfully told stories at hand is something that has consistently been of benefit to me, most especially so whenever I happen to be going to bed; much more so than many another of the myriad forms of entertaining distraction which I have ever utilized in my time... LoL.

[@sindarpeacheyeisacommie8688]

Easy there, buddy. You’re exceeding your ellipses allowance.

[@jeremyw.norwood1453]

@@sindarpeacheyeisacommie8688 I know man, it must look like I was trying for a new world record or something... LoL. Sometimes I just seem to enjoy pushing the limits of how the rules of writing in proper english can allow for some absolutely ridiculous, unnecessarily complex wording combinations... Ahh... and those little beauty's... are the perfect loophole for allowing one to craft some obscenely excessive amounts(hell it could basically be infinite in all honesty) of single subject sentences that are literally several pages in length... Oh, and the amount of unnecessary adjectives that can be inserted "legitimately" in a given sentence structure is just too much damned fun to resist my man... I mean, it IS all little more than me childishly messing with the random people unfortunate enough to actually read it all... Ha. Plus, it's kinda stupidly pointless & undeniably trollish I do suppose... But hey, at least I am having fun when I am doing it... and after all, isn't having fun in life all that really matters in the end? Heh.

[@Eris123451]

@@jeremyw.norwood1453 Heh.

[@riphopfer5816]

@@jeremyw.norwood1453 I, too, am fond of very long, complex sentences; however, I write professionally and have found it far more exciting to alter the tempo of the text by varying punctuation-(I am especially partial to m-dashes, semicolons, and parenthesis)-than to permit my paragraphs to grow slippery through overuse of ellipses, which almost inevitably imbues the text with the quality of hypnagogic hallucination. No doubt this had its place in the arsenal of the creative writer (e.g., creating just the sort of delirious atmosphere I mentioned above), but that place is not clarification and explication. Indeed, repeat ellipses are obfuscatory tools: they round off the precise cutting edges of the words which precede them, making explication into suggestion and description into distortion.

[@GreenTeaViewer]

Are you sure?

[@Red13teen]

CAS!!....a true master of the written word, so vastly underrated and unknown he deserves huge recognition! Wish someone wud make a feature film of one of his works..the weaver in the vault wud be awesome....thanks for this Ian and Jen 😈+🐛+🐙+🐸=a C.A.S mythos God!

[@kidkurmudgeon-0_o]

The mother of Toads in Theater Bizarre. 2010-ish anthology film with Udo Kier starring in the frame story.

[@donaldmccleary9015]

​@@kidkurmudgeon-0_oI like that story. I have to check it out. Thanks!

[@sandrargriffith3493]

Horrorbabble gives me so much pleasure...can't thank you enough!

[@tamlandipper29]

Sir, Warren has already paid for the pizza. Do you want it or not?

[@Wombats555]

I AM a fool! I've missed a free pizza hundreds of times now :)

[@Arwcwb]

哈哈哈哈😂

[@MrZooBreak]

Clark Ashton Smith's use of the English language is nothing short of phenomenal, as is Ian Gordon's flawless narration. Thank you for this horrorbabble delight!

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Agree on both accounts!

[@chrisu7022]

This story was amazing! Thank you for this one, i love Clark Ashton Smith.

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Three minutes in and this story is amazing. So many descriptions in a few minutes that i had to listen three times! More to follow........ I do love Clark Ashton Smith! Great story and narration. Fantastic as always! Thanks!

[@TheRedRacoonDog]

There is a DC Comics Green Lantern villain named Vulthoom who is an all powerful alien. I thought the name was an original creation until I listened to this story. Crazy to think a Weird Tales story from 80 years ago still lives on in a new form today.

[@owensthilaire8189]

How many comic books and characters do you suppose came from reading these old magazines? The Green Lantern is hardly a modern creation.

[@TheRedRacoonDog]

@@owensthilaire8189 Yea Alan Scott is old but Vulthoom wasn't introduced as the first lantern until 2014 though.

[@Ayahuasca98]

It’s also used in the game “Fate/Grand Order”

[@CrenJay]

Bought a copy of The King in Yellow because I enjoyed the podcast episodes so much! Looking forward to reading the book in a few months :)

[@HorrorBabble]

Fantastic!

[@katem3553]

Me too! I just picked it up a week ago!

[@jonathonfrazier6622]

Clark Ashton Smith deserves a lot more attention.

[@seadog915]

My first thoughts when I started this were like " This is childish, like something I used to listen to when I was 11,But I didn't turn it off. The next thing I noticed was that I had been sitting there in my recliner for almost 45 minutes! I'm 67 now but for 45 minutes I was 11 again! THANKS

[@danielmeredith4222]

That was absolutely fantastic Ian. This story is kinda like the demon flower story. Its like all the stories are connecting. Cheers and thankyou so much xo

[@awarningtothecuriouswerewolves]

Can't go wrong with my man, Klarkash-Ton! Hung out with him on Venus, Mars & in Auburn, California! Cheers Warren, whose been everywhere...& now lives in the Comments!

[@RedcoatsReturn]

A classic from a master of pre-war era Sci-Fi, so descriptive 😲 ...and....masterfully read too! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😊 Excellent!👍👍

[@josephclark211]

Just read this one the other day! Love the genius of Clark Ashton Smith!

[@micheleclass2248]

It seems almost hard to believe that my oldest niece, a young teen is considering taking classes towards a career on Mars.

[@chrimony]

Vulthoom will be pleased.

[@alswann2702]

John Carter of Virginia may be her jedak.

[@Eris123451]

Tripod Pilot ?

[@generalkrang7138]

I heard the night life isn't great

[@thisisdavid2]

More Mars from Klarash Ton! Hurrah one of my faves thank you thank you :)

[@nitayrafowicz5934]

I half feel like this was made for Me, and I LOVE IT! Vulthoom is one of my favorite stories out of all of CAS works. Truly terrific.

[@AcornElectron]

I heard it.... and knew no more .... Keep up the good work fella and stay safe. Absolutely LOVE these Martian stories.

[@feralbluee]

beautifully read. . . you made it into a noble sacrifice ( not a scary grotesqueness) at least every time someone listens to this story, we get a thousand years respite. thank you much ~ 🐶🌷🌼

[@SenorDisuade]

Ty for continuing to record and upload these. I'm coming across a lot of stuff I had never heard of thanks to your uploads and they're all very enjoyable. I've honestly yet to listen to a single one that I havent enjoyed.

[@MrZooBreak]

Clark Ashton Smith brings an amazing tension to every sentence-a palpable tension and panoramic view to each scene. … And Ian, you fulfill the promise of such fabulous writing perfectly! Here we have the fusion of these two great talents-merged across the years into a flawless listening experience! Thank you, Ian! Thank you, HorrorBabble!

[@Rougepelt]

Loving these Dying Mars tales.

[@self-aware5825]

Your mastery of language and different accents used to fill out your characters, 😮 never fails to leave my mouth agape in wonder and appreciation! Thanks for continually bringing imagination alive

[@HorrorBabble]

Thank you! 😃

[@riassslave558]

now there's one i haven't come across in years ...thanx for this one!!!!

[@rev.dr.dayspring7805]

If it we 're not for Ian's voice and reading cadence i wouldn't have gotten into Lovecraft and would likely never have been exposed to Clark Ashton Smith (ubbol-salboth. Such great time

[@NathanTarantlawriter]

Great story. Great channel! Keep up the great work!

[@goreworks3562]

Great voice work!

[@mikefischbein3230]

Exceptional!!!

[@jasoncookman3158]

Man that was something else 😁👍 awesome reading Ian. Your annunciation and tone is the best.

[@jeffashley5512]

Warren I certainly miss you no matter where you may be.

[@rainking4242]

He's still alive in our hearts.

[@kimberlythompson7946]

I've been listening for a few years now, mostly while working so I don't always hear everything sometimes I only get part of a story or completely miss all the intro, so i know there's something going on with "Warren" but I must have totally missed out on whatever happened that made that saying notoriously famous. Can someone please clue me in. Thanks

[@rainking4242]

@@kimberlythompson7946 Check out the story "The Statement of Randolph Carter." It's pretty short and HorrorBabble just put out a new version last week. 😁

[@jeffashley5512]

@@kimberlythompson7946 Along with RainKing's suggestion to listen to the story know it's part of the Lovecraft mythos and it will appear often within the comments.

[@letsleepingdogslie4692]

Does anybody else keep getting the Petco ad with the weird teen girl in a box, talking about how much she likes eating cat food from Petco? Not sure what they were thinking when they made that ad, but it's as creepy as anything on HorrorBabble..

[@popevimtoripkeefhappysackXXX]

We havent got it in’th’ UK - I want to see !

[@chrimony]

Haven't seen an ad on ThemTube in many, many years.

[@unclesam1756]

Yeah, it's a weird one

[@CountingHouse]

Mate, you have to write a short horror story based on that now.

[@letsleepingdogslie4692]

@@CountingHouse LOL; A girl in a box, eating cat food... I dunno, it feels very "Silence of the Lambs" to me. The first thought that crossed my mind when I saw the ad was "It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again"...

[@ADITADDICTS]

I finally got to heat this Ian! Absolutely amazing as usual

[@richardportman8912]

I don't know man. I'm part Mexican and it seems as if we have heard this story before. Great story, and excellent use of English language. A+.

[@TheDeadmanTT]

Thank you

[@MrsCaranAmy]

This was an amazing story. I loved all the descriptions and am a fan of science fiction. Narration was excellent tonight. Thank you. Have a terrific Tuesday 💓

[@robynmarler1951]

Wow🎆

[@awarningtothecuriouswerewolves]

Happy Walpurgis Nacht to one & all! Cheers Warren, who rises every 30th of April!

[@YouTubeIsRunByMarxists]

Warren has become a watercolor artist on KZbin.

[@gotredeemed]

That was really fine.

[@paulcateiii]

loved it Ian

[@generalkrang7138]

cool, thank you

[@gordonweir7953]

Give me a sign That your still on the line I can't leave you behind Is there something malign I got chills on my spine Am I loosing my mind tonight ? ..... Darkest of the hillside thickets

[@chaimbrownbasketball4730]

damn good alien servant voice!!!!!

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

I might have been ignorant but this was far from what I expected. I shall have to check out more of the author's stories.

[@Eidridin]

Now we need an original horror story from Ian about living in a near future colony on Mars given the recent hype of SpaceX and NASA.

[@HorrorBabble]

I'm working on a horror/sci-fi story at the mo, but it's probably not going to take place on Mars... We'll see!

[@Eidridin]

I'm excited! Your stories are terrific!

[@vintageyamahasquid]

I wonder if this story was part of the inspiration for Grace and the Bliss in FarCry 5? There are a lot of parallels here.

[@Eris123451]

Smith was quite a respectable and original graphic artist as well by the way.

[@scoutrifle6827]

"Rhomboidal"...ah, Clark Ashton Smith, I see. :)

[@thuzzwhistle1028]

It’s a perfectly cromulent word.

[@Wombats555]

Fourth time trying to get through this without Ian's melifluous tones putting me to sleep :) It is one Clark Ashton-Smith story I haven't read yet, too! Where is Brian Blessed when you need someone to shout Damn You Gordon!

[@AdamStJamesStJames]

Wow... I just heard about Warren's untimely passing the other day.

[@yarugatyger]

Title sounds like the name of a nord ruin in Skyrim :D

[@kidkurmudgeon-0_o]

More Clark Astral Surrealisms !!!

[@thefisherking78]

Anither back catalog gem. Wow.

[@DreadArkive]

Pretty clear this one inspired the Daedric quest for Vaermina in Skyrim.

[@lacyhart2043]

Yes sir

[@CountingHouse]

Vulthoom! Mars is barren and Dead.

[@Wombats555]

Yo! Vombis! There's a shadow beastie on your head!

[@alswann2702]

No according to ERB and John Carter of Virginia !

[@davidjamesmclean6325]

Listening to this while playing doom eternal 😁😁😁

[@doppiovinegar1292]

Will this amazing customer service and RMA policies apply worldwide or to America, EU, or any 1st world country with strict consumer protection laws? I live in the Philippines and warranty sucks in here unless you buy on physical stores

[@sharkbite9274]

If you have the time and want I think your rendering of The Dweller In Darkness would be genius

[@HorrorBabble]

Hello! If you're referring to the Derleth story, it isn't in the public domain.

[@sharkbite9274]

@@HorrorBabble Ah, that makes sense. Well in that case good luck with all your public domain renditions. Great work as always!

[@sindarpeacheyeisacommie8688]

To think...one large bottle of WeedBGone and problem solved.

[@marcosanmarco6996]

How did you do that voice!?

[@riphopfer5816]

‘...An alien drug that was no less potent than morphine, cocaine, or marijuana.’ Well, which? It makes a difference!

[@lacyhart2043]

I like em all

[@kimberlythompson7946]

I'm sorry at some point I missed something, I know it's said at the beginning of most vids but what's up with "you fool, Warren is dead!"??

[@slewis9602]

It's referencing "The Statement of Randolf Carter."

[@tamlandipper29]

You know Warren? Dead.

[@Destineddeath]

🍜

[@sickshitzdoesitmatter5904]

Dude, I just saw Warren....leaning on a post. Smoking...bedroom bedtime I'm out... ❤️ 😮😅

[@SlideRulePirate]

Ooh... trepidation. CAS can freak me a bit.

[@eugenemcgovern9703]

To be honest with you I didn't know Warren was dead either.

[@richardstrachmesserschmiti4979]

It’s yours V baby 🌎 have at it

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

Friday

[@Demonetized-wd6yn]

The era of sci-fi when it was all silly waffle of random names as if silly names were good world building was possibly the worst era of sci-fi ever. Stuff like this is cringe.

[@gothicdragonwarriorqueen5819]

Scary-as-shit cool!I wish this could be a good scary movie!🙂🖤💀☠🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️👻🦇⚰🪦🕷