#c. l. moore

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

I couldn't decide which flavour of lines for her... Jirel of Joiry, warrior Queen from the 1930's - created by the great C. L. Moore.

[oliverbrackenbury]

New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2024 only launched on Backerkit yesterday and it's already 75% funded! Be a part of literary history when backing this project by helping us publish the first new Jirel of Joiry story in 85 years! There's also an obscure Elric reprint paired with new art, an S&S tale by Harry Turtledove, and scads of crowdfund exclusive rewards. Check out the campaign page to learn more!

[zippocreed501]

Northwest Smith by C. L. Moore

Cover art by Jim Burns

[tromroan]

Jirel ☀️

[charnel-grounds]

"From a world like a jewel we come"

Virgil Finlay (1914–1971) - Illustration for C. L. Moore's 'Lost Paradise'

(Weird Tales, July, 1936)

[misforgotten2]

Lewis Padgett is the pen name of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore.

Cover by Hubert Rogers

[aristocraticelegance]

Reading for February 2024. This was a Tanith Lee heavy month, because as I try to make my way through my backlog of books purchased at secondhand book stores I have been forced to confront the fact that I own far more Tanith Lee than I've actually read. This is because I don't come across her books that often, so when I do I buy them all and hoard them.

The Secret Books of Paradys I & II, Tanith Lee, 1988. I started reading this several years ago, because the first half is 2 novellas, so I would read one and then go do other things, and then come back. The second part is a novel, but it is organized in such a way that it reads similarly to a collection of novellas, but more clearly interconnected. The thing about Tanith Lee's writing is that she presents you with any number of fantastic, horrible, or fantastically horrble things and doesn't blink once. In one story a character is buried alive and then comes back a different gender. Another one starts off with sexual assault AND THEN SOMEHOW GETS WORSE. There were regularly parts throughout this collection where I had no idea where it was going next, but it was great. If a collection of horror-fantasy stories set between ancient Roman and 1920's pseudo-Paris sound like a good time to you, it's worth reading.

Cordelia's Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold, 1986-1996. Technically this is two books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but I had already read the first one and while I thought it was fine, I wasn't really interested in reading more. However, I've heard enough good things about the rest of the series that I decided to read the second half, and I'm glad I did. Technically sci-fi, but set on a planet that's late 18-early 1900s coded, it's an interesting look at pregnancy and motherhood through that specific lens. There's not a lot of pregnancy in sci-fi; you'd kind of think there'd be more by now. Still not my favorite of McMaster Bujold's (the Chalion books are great), but I feel motivated to read more of this series now.

3. The White Serpent, Tanith Lee, 1988. I have no idea how she published all of this in one year. I assume it was not all written in one go. Anyways, in a bold move I chose to read the third book of a trilogy without having read the previous two books. This is because I found this one at Half Price books, saw it was by Tanith Lee, and thought the cover looked cool. This wasn't a huge issue, because this seems to be a series of stories set in different generations in the same world, so events from the previous books are mentioned as historical details. I really liked this one; Lee is great at telling big, sweeping stories in a relatively small space. I also like her approach to rendering deeply sexist societies, simultaneously blunt in the way the characters are confronted with the reality of their situation and nuanced in how they manage to navigate it. Also? She can describe a sunset like no one's business. This is what's wrong with fantasy today: no one describes the sunsets or the trees. I want to know about the trees!! (Also weather plays a weirdly important part in this book. Like a major plot point hinges on some really bad weather). I realize I've said nothing about the plot, and that's because it A. doesn't matter and B. is impossible to summarize. At the core of it is a guy who is a gladiator in a kind of fantasy Rome-type city, but a lot happens before and after that. There are also some white people (literally white) who might be aliens. I'll probably go back and read the first two books, since this one was pretty weird. Modern readers might take issue with the way race is handled (see above RE: bluntness and nuance) but I can't really say much on that front.

4. Black God's Kiss, C. L. Moore, 1930s. A collection of the Jirel of Joiry stort stories from the 30s, which I only learned existed about a month ago. There was a lady protagonist in sword and sorcery! Written by a woman! Amazing. I did generally like these; the titular story was great (except for the very end, which I did not like, but the sequel story kind of made it better). I've seen these stories described as female Conan meets Alice in Wonderland, but the wonderland bits reminded me more of Arthur Machen's work. Some great descriptions overall, even if some parts felt dated in an annoying way. Also, this particular cover is ridiculous, but she is described as running around in a chain mail shirt with her thighs out, for some reason. Presumably because sword & sorcery abhors a pair of pants.

Link to January's books

[bookmaven]

SHAMBLEAU AND OTHERS by C.L. Moore. (New York: Gnome Press, 1953) Cover art by Ric Binkley.

Announced by Arkham House but never published by them. This collection of stories about Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry originally appeared in Weird Tales. 4,000 copy edition.

"Black God’s Kiss" (October 1934) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Shambleau" (November 1933) [Northwest Smith]

"Black God’s Shadow" (December 1934) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Black Thirst" (April 1934) [Northwest Smith]

"The Tree of Life" (October 1936) [Northwest Smith]

"Jirel Meets Magic"(July 1935) [Jirel of Joiry]

"Scarlet Dreams" (May 1934) [Northwest Smith]

Weird Tales (October 1934) Cover by Margaret Brundage. Story illustrated by H.R. Hammond.

(New York: Galaxy Novel #31, 1957)

“Shambleau”

“Black Thirst”

“The Tree of Life”