Customer Reviews

Northwest Smith

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C. L. Moore garnered praise for her work in a time when women did not write science fiction. Her stories were powerful and poignant; her heroes and heroines were complex, well crafted individuals. She struck the perfect balance between adventure, science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

Northwest Smith is one of her more interesting heroes. He's an earthman who cannot return home and wanders the galaxy making the only living he can as a hired criminal. He's managed to become one of the best, and his employment continually sends him to the strangest most magical parts of the universe. Join in his adventures against the age old forces of the universe, which are often reminiscent of mythological tales.

This book is a classic that all sci-fi fans should read.

"Shambleau", the opening story of this series, was Moore's first sale and made her reputation. With a prelude that established a back story of ancient alien civilizations on Venus and Mars and a second space age of Man, it established a romantic setting for Moore to drop her outlaw hero Smith into. Mix in prose probably about as sensual and erotic as could be published in Weird Tales at the time and some explicit ancient Earth mythology, and a popular series was born.

And it's still a good, fine story. Unfortunately, it also established a formula pretty closely followed for eight out of the other nine stories in this book. So as not to spoil the enjoyment of the other stories, I won't spell out that formula, but I will say that what awed readers of Weird Tales as they were parceled out mostly from 1933-1936 will probably cloy your literary palate the way too much of a fine dessert will. Do not read these stories all at once.

Two other warnings are in order. First, this collection was first published as the limited hardcover Scarlet Dream in 1981. Second, I have found out that it seems to omit two Northwest Smith stories. You will find the whole series in the cunningly titled Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith (Planet Stories Library).