Jirel of Joiry, the first of the great female warriors, the beautiful commander of the strongest fortress in the kingdom, would face any danger to defend her beloved country. She wielded her bright sword against mighty armies, the sinister magic of evil sorcerers and fearsome castles guarded by the dead, even daring to descend into Hell itself...Northwest Smith, the scarred and weathered outlaw, the legendary hero of the spaceways, forced to confront the terrible mysteries, the terrifying, mythic monsters of the universe...Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith are C.L. Moore's greatest creations and she used them not only to spin spellbinding tales but also to explore the mysteries of the human psyche.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
C.L. Moore was born in Indianapolis and became a leading author of science fantasies for WEIRD TALES in the 1930s. After her marriage to fellow SF writer Henry Kuttner in 1940 she concentrated on writing science fiction, usually in collaboration with her husband. She turned to screenwriting after his untimely death; her TV series included MAVERICK and 77 SUNSET STRIP.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lush and Exotic Horror-Fantasy,
By
This review is from: Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams (Fantasy Masterworks) (Paperback)
Catherine Lucille Moore was working as a secretary when she typed up and sent in to WEIRD TALES her first and ultimately most famous short story, "Shambleau," which introduced the hardbitten space adventurer Northwest Smith and recounted his terrifying experiences with an outer-space version of the monster Medusa. Nine further Smith adventures followed, as well as five adventures of an early-medieval warrior-maid, Jirel of Joiry in a somewhat similar vein. All these tales are collected here, as originally published between 1933 and 1939 (with one exception).
I must say that reading the stories one after the other, as one does in such a collection, tends to spoil them... because they are all essentially the same story. Smith or Jirel invariably encounter an extraterrestrial or extra-dimensional being, almost always of godlike power, which creates its own exotic and terrifying world around itself. Smith or Jirel escape the influence and malign purposes of the being, mainly by sheer force of will, and so on to the next adventure. Also Moore has a favorite phrase, along the lines of "how long or how far [s]he walked, [s]he never knew," which occurs about once per page in every story, a maddening repetition if one is reading several stories per sitting. However, what captivated WEIRD TALES readers still captivates... a dense barrage of evocations of completely other-worldly scenes and experiences, told in straightforward and rather immature but still compelling prose. The Smith adventures also contain an element which for obvious reasons doesn't appear in the Jirel tales... lavish descriptions of the physical charms of a long succession of stupifyingly beautiful and sexy women. And Smith has a semi-comical sidekick, Yarol the Venusian, whereas Jirel generally sets out completely alone. If you come upon this collection, you'll savor these tales, but my advice is to read them one at a time, with other, unrelated readings in between. While Moore is not quite up there with the three titans of WEIRD TALES, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, she is certainly not far behind.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Super Reader,
By Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams (Fantasy Masterworks) (Paperback)
A very cool combination here. The Sword and Sorcery warrior stories of Jirel of Joiry and the down and out weatherbeaten heroism of Northwest Smith.
This isn't the stuff of Burroughs, Kline, Nowlan's Buck Rogers or that doyen of polo players, Flash Gordon, as far as Moore's Smith goes. He finds himself wandering into things that a lot more resemble bits of Clark Ashton Smith's stories than of Barsoom. Plenty of that weird atmosphere to be found, as he can barely have a drink without babes, gods and monsters interrupting, and sometimes in combination. Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Jirel Meets Magic - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Black God's Kiss [short story] - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Black God's Shadow - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : The Dark Land - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Hellsgarde - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Scarlet Dreams · co Donald M. Grant, 1981 Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Shambleau - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Black Thirst - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : The Tree of Life - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Scarlet Dream - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Dust of Gods - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Lost Paradise - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Julhi - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : The Cold Gray God - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Yvala - C. L. Moore Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams : Song in a Minor Key - C. L. Moore Having to rid herself of a wizard that has killed some or her men, Jirel finds worse, his own ruler, a sorceress. 4 out of 5 An escape from a captor leads Jirel basically into a Clark Ashton Smith story, and a passionate revenge. 4 out of 5 Jirel looks for a way to undone some of what she has done when she decides that the Black God's Kiss was rather an extreme solution to her earlier hatred. 3.5 out of 5 Jirel is snatched from lying severely wounded by a wizard who is a lot more than he seems. 4 out of 5 Jirel finds your strange mysterious castle that only appears occasionally, and an occupant that has a bit of the undead thing going on. 3 out of 5 ---- Shoot vampire gorgon women, don't ask them in for dinner. 4.5 out of 5 "Not even the lowest class of Venusian street-walker dared come along the waterfronts of Ednes on the nights when the space-liners were not in. Yet across the pavement came clearly now the light tapping of a woman's feet." This leads him to monstrous vampiric alien, and to the aid of one his thralls, above. ""The-Guardians-still rove the halls, and unleashed now -so keep your ray-gun ready, Earthman. . , . 4 out of 5 Women who commune with trees and others in ruined temples are best avoided. Failing that, there is the trusty raygun solution. 3.5 out of 5 Northwest's fondness for markets leads him to a purchase trapping him in a dream world. 3 out of 5 Investigations leads to what just may be the remains of one of the three elder gods of mars. 4 out of 5 Northwest comes across evidence of an ancient Moon race. 3 out of 5 Other-planar sorceresses and their attractive victims to be found this time. 4 out of 5 A gorgeous famous singer suddenly reappears, and she gives Northwest the creeps despite her Venusian milky magnificence. Ol' leather's instincts are still good, as there is a bit of body snatching going on. 4 out of 5 Its Circe and Beast-men time when the desperados go in for a spot of exotic escort hunting. 3.5 out of 5 A bit of reminiscing about the first use of a ray gun in anger. 3 out of 5
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a lady of the pulps,
By Christophe "bookworm" (France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams (Fantasy Masterworks) (Paperback)
If you want a very good reason to buy this book ,read The Shambleau . Lovecraft liked this story.
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