Friday, April 6, 2018

"The Descent Into the Abyss"

by Lin Carter
originally published Weird Tales #2, Zebra, 1980

Haon-Dor, a sorceror of prehistoric times, and possibly not human, plans to enter the world of "gray-litten" Y'quaa in search of sorcerous wisdom.

 To get there, he needs some tablets said to be in the possession of Ubbo-Sathla, who's burbling away in the depths of Mount Voormithadreth.  So of HD goes to Mt. V.

His journey is eventful, sorta, as he meets Zulchequon, The Dark Silent One, Qumyagga, a shantak, Nug, King of the Ghouls, and K'Thugoul, The Original Shoggoth.  None of them even try to stop him, however.

Finally, he finds Ubbo-Sathla, who accidentally(?) tilts one of the tablets towards him.  What he sees causes HD to lose his shit, and he spends the rest of his days in the caves of Voormithadreth.

A shameless retread of Clark Ashton Smith's "The Seven Geases", lacking the Smith-ian charm.  In his introduction in the collection Book of Eibon, Robert M. Price's attempts to justify the tale as some sort of Bibilical scholarship, so to speak.  But it's bull.  Carter was really phoning it in with this one. 


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