Smith Review: The Abominations of Yondo

The plot is barely a skeleton: a prisoner was tortured and then released by his captives with a choice: survive in the impassable wilds of Yondo or return for more torture. The unlucky soul endured Yondo’s horror after horror until he broke and went crawling back to the torture.

On the surface, that sounds too simple to be a workable story but it’s Smith’s language that makes “The Abominations of Yondo” appear on so many lists of top fantasy and weird fiction.

After reading it, I thought to myself that so much happened in such a short story. Then, as the logic portion of my brain caught up, I realized, “He just walked around and saw strange stuff.”

Smith’s use of language filled out the thin plot. He threw out adjectives like Lovecraft but his style isn’t nearly so slow. He could describe the same object for three pages but spin the description around to the extent that it seems fast-paced. I don’t know why he is only a fraction as well known as Lovecraft (except that he didn’t come up with as many photogenic monster-gods).

Although there is very little action, “The Abominations of Yondo” is worth reading just to appreciate Smith’s writing style. If only he had added more tentacles.