# A New Horror explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Clark Ashton Smith.

## What happens

Roverton, Adams, and Deming find themselves in a nightmarish jungle on an alien world, surrounded by carnivorous plant-monsters. Adams is devoured by a kraken-like plant but is later ejected, as human flesh proves indigestible. The survivors are passed through the jungle by the plants and eventually flung unconscious onto a treeless plain.

## Themes in this chapter

### Cosmic Horror and Estrangement

The alien jungle and its carnivorous flora embody the incomprehensible and hostile nature of the cosmos, overwhelming the human characters.

### Supernatural and the Unknown

The bizarre, sentient plant-forms and their predatory behaviors defy natural laws, creating a sense of the uncanny.

## Character check-ins

### James Roverton

Witnesses the plant-monsters and is dragged through the jungle, eventually flung unconscious onto the plain.

### Herbert Albert Adams

Devoured by a plant-monster but ejected when human flesh proves indigestible.

### Chester Deming

Survives the plant attack alongside Roverton and is also flung unconscious onto the plain.

## Key lines

> The flying monster was stretched on the ground and was wrapped from head to tail in the coils of something which Roverton could only designate to himself as a vegetable anaconda.

The bird-like creature lay on the ground, completely entangled in the coils of a plant that Roverton thought of as a vegetable anaconda.

_Describes the initial encounter with the alien plant life._

> Instantly a long tentacle shot out from the nearest of the kraken-like forms and encircled him. Struggling and screaming, he was drawn toward the great dark lumpish mass from which the tentacles emanated.

A tentacle from a nearby plant-monster grabbed Adams and pulled him toward its central mass as he screamed.

_Adams is captured by the plant._

> Obviously human flesh had not agreed with the digestion of the Andromedan plant-monster.

The plant-monster found human flesh indigestible.

_Explains why Adams was ejected._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/a-new-horror
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters