Clark Ashton Smith's The Invisible City
We feel like we've been focusing too much on the same authors, so it's time to widen the Weird Fiction scope a little with Clark Ashton Smith's The Invisible City. Warning: SPOILERS.
After 3 deaths and the flight of the local guides, Furnham and Langley are all that's left of the Furnham Archaeological Expedition. Their only goal now is to reach the river before they die of thirst. However, they instead come across an alien town hidden in the desert...
It went on ceaselessly and monotonously, thrilling them with an eeriness as of untrod worlds, a terror as of uncharted dimensions. It seemed to fade away in remote ultramundane gulfs; and then, louder and clearer than before, the piping came from the air beside them.
The beginning, with the description of the deaths of the other members of the expedition, made it seem as if there was some supernatural force connected to the ruins they were searching at play. However, Smith then took this into a completely different direction. So different, in fact, that it felt as if he spliced 2 stories together. So, instead of facing a curse, Furnham and Langley find themselves in the city of Ciis, built eons ago by the Tiisins after they fled their dying planet.
I wasn't too happy with Smith's description of the aliens, because the moment he mentioned a trunk, I immediately thought of Chaugnar. Fortunately, there was no mention of Frank Belknap Long's rotund creation. The first contact with the aliens was pretty good - there was mysterious music (see quote) and an invisible vampire creature that nearly killed Langley. Then the aliens show up and Aispha telepathically explains that they're not going to kill them - just inject them with alien substances until their genetic makeup is completely altered and they become like the Tiisins. Since Smith often opts for unexpected endings, I wasn't sure where this was going. Sadly, this wasn't one of those times. For some reason, Aispha decides to share their most important artifact, the Doir, with the humans right away, and helpfully explains just how crucial it is for them; and even though they're telepaths, none of the Tiisins thought to monitor the humans' thoughts and Furnham manages to grab the Doir and threatens to destroy it if they're not allowed to leave. He senses evil in it but Smith never elaborates on that. Instead, Ciis and the Tiisins either explode on the spot or, according to Langley, are thrown into outer space. Either way, I don't think they survived, which means that Furnham and Langley exterminated an entire race...
VERDICT
Smith really should've spent more time in the alien city instead of rushing to the end. The escape was too easy and Aispha was impossibly stupid. It would've been more interesting to see Furnham and Langley changing. This was a waste of world-building.
By Danforth