In The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith, science fiction writer Giles Angarth discovers a shimmering gateway in the Sierra Nevada mountains that leads to an alien world of surreal landscapes and towering architecture. Accompanied by composer Felix Ebbonly, he follows a road traversed by strange, otherworldly pilgrims toward a vast city dominated by a mysterious tower of fire that emits a haunting, hypnotic music—the Singing Flame. The music exerts a profound, almost spiritual pull on those who hear it. Drawn by its sublime beauty, Ebbonly eventually walks willingly into the flame and vanishes. Later, Angarth returns through the gateway with a party of seekers, leaving behind a journal that recounts his experiences and suggests he, too, may have succumbed to the Flame’s transcendent allure. The story blends cosmic wonder and metaphysical mystery, evoking themes of otherworldly pilgrimage, ecstatic transformation, and the irresistible call of the unknown.
