Black Gods And Scarlet Dreams

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Wild Worlds & Weird Creatures - Rated
Volume 31 in the Fantasy Masterworks series is another collection of stories culled from the pages of the 1930s magazine 'Weird Tales'. Catherine Moore wasn't quite as prolific in the field as some of her better-known contemporaries, but managed to more than hold her own in providing the requisite bizarre creatures and strange worlds demanded of this type of pulp fantasy fiction. Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams is, in fact, two story collections. The first follows the adventures of Jirel of Joiry, Moore's warrior heroine, through five stories, the best of which is probably the last -'Hellsgarde', which is a bit like a cross between 'Xena - Warrior Princess', and one of Clark Ashton Smith's stories about rotting castles full of the living dead and gateways to other dimensions. We only get 160 pages' worth of Jirel and one is left with the feeling that a whole volume could easily be devoted to this character, although I have no idea whether Moore wrote any further stories about her.
On to part 2 and the adventures of Northwest Smith, laser gunslinger of the spaceways. Anyone concerned that the book is about to degenerate into cheap Western plots rehashed with a space setting will be pleased to learn that the first story contains a weird vampire-gorgon creature that must have provided the inspiration for using Caravaggio's Medusa as the book's cover art. Moore's prose style, particularly her descriptions of the various lurid landscapes in which Smith tends to find himself, is eminently readable. Unfortunately, plot wise these stories are often very similar, with our hero being threatened by a voluptuous lady alien who requires an essential part of him for some nefarious scheme. He usually escapes through the power of his will, sometimes helped along with a few bursts from his laser/ray/blaster gun (it changes from story to story). A book to be read more as a period piece, as well as a shining example of how a woman managed to succeed in the male-dominated arena of thirties pulp SF. Nevertheless, if you've been enjoying the books by Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith in this series, then you could do worse than to while away a few pleasant hours with this volume as well.

Strange, exotic and not what I expected - Rated
I'd heard of C. L. Moore and Jirel of Joiry for a long time. Jirel was one of the early Sword and Sorcery characters and the first to be a woman, barring one-offs like Howard's red Sonja. So I expected something along the lines of "Conan in a Skirt" or similar, the standard fantasy heroine.

But it's not like that at all. The Jirel of Joiry stories (which make up the first half of the book) are more thoughtful and disturbing than Conan. Jirel is the Castellan of a fortress in a French seeming country and not a barbarian at all, though she has a temper. And the stories contain far more elements of Horror, almost Lovecraftian Horror (though better written) than Howard's Conan. I was impressed, and I hadn't expected to be.

The Northwest Smith stories, which make up the second part, are varied in quality, "Medusa", the first one, being the best IMHO. They can drag on a bit at times but overall are also a good read. They, too, are mainly concerned with Horror, Lovecraftian style at times and this is interesting given the SF background (didn't I mention they're set in the future after Man's colonisation of the Solar System? Well they are.) SF and Horror rarely mix and it is to Moore's credit that she pulls this off pretty well.

In summary, a very good book. Read it.