Short stories by a pioneering female author who went on to become a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. This anthology includes some of C.L. Moore’s best-known and most beloved tales, including: “Shambleau” First published in Weird Tales, Moore’s bizarre, imaginative, and wildly acclaimed debut features space outlaw Northwest Smith and his meeting on Mars with a strange young lady whose turban hides a terrifying secret . . . “Black God’s Kiss” The debut of Jirel of Joiry, one of the classic heroes of sword and sorcery and fantasy’s first true strong female protagonist. As cunning as she is fierce, Jirel descends into a nightmarish land beneath her castle to find the instruments of her revenge . . . “The Bright Illusion” One man’s journey to a mind-bending, terrifying planet of blinding colors and impossible angles, filled with unutterable horrors and strange temptations . . . With these and seven additional stories that evoke the enduring spirit of sci-fi and fantasy’s early days, The Best of C.L. Moore is a treasure that belongs on the shelf of any reader of speculative fiction. “Her contributions to the field are instrumental in the formation of the modern face of science fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews
Two legendary masters of science fiction and fantasy come together in this landmark anthology, filled with gems from the Weird Tales era and beyond. During the weird fiction boom that gave birth to H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore produced some of the most enduring pieces of speculative fiction in the genre’s history: the sagas of Jirel of Joiry, Northwest Smith of Earth, Galloway Gallegher, and more. Working closely, Kuttner and Moore became a husband and wife team whose work appeared in everything from television and print to the Cthulhu mythos. Both Moore and Kuttner have a legacy that is as acclaimed as it is widely read: Moore received a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement by the SFWA while Ray Bradbury called Kuttner a "neglected master." Now, for the first time, some of their best work is collected in one anthology, including “Black God’s Kiss,” “Shambleau,” “Graveyard Rats,” “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” and “The Proud Robot.”
From the SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to the fantastic work of C. L. Moore. One of the first women to rise to prominence in the male-dominated world of pulp science fiction, Moore was a mainstay of SF in the middle of the last century, both as a solo writer and in collaboration with her husband, Henry Kuttner. This omnibus shows her mastery of both Sword and Sorcery and planetary romance, reprinting JIREL OF JOIRY, NORTHWEST OF EARTH, and story collection JUDGEMENT NIGHT.
Meet the iconic space outlaw who “could be Han Solo’s grandfather,” in these stories by a pioneer of Golden Age science fiction (SF Signal). First published in Weird Tales in the early 1930s, C.L. Moore’s Northwest Smith stories, especially “Shambleau,” were hailed as some of the most imaginative and vivid science fiction stories ever to come out of the golden age of sci-fi. At a time when women were heavily underrepresented in the genre, Moore was among the first to gain critical and popular acclaim, and decades later was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Northwest Smith, now recognized by many as the archetypal space smuggler and gunslinger, is an adventurer in the classic sense of the word, and these thirteen stories chronicle the bizarre dangers, interstellar wonders, and titillating romances that captured the imagination of a generation.
Praised by H.P. Lovecraft as a “magnificent” debut, C.L. Moore’s first story is still one of the most famous and enduring tales in science fiction. Passing through the streets of Lakkdarol, the newest human colony on Mars, Northwest Smith witnesses a bizarre sight: a young woman, clad in scarlet, being chased by a mob chanting “Shambleau! Shambleau!” As beautiful as she is frightened, Northwest shields her from death at the hands of the mob, but alone in his quarters, she reveals how she intends to thank him and what lies inside the closely wrapped turban on her head... One of the strangest, and surely one of the most imaginative stories ever written, SHAMBLEAU was hailed by readers, authors, and editors as the debut of a truly gifted writer during the golden age of science fiction.
For fans of Red Sonja and Xena the Warrior Princess, a collection of five fantasy stories starring a mighty and powerful female warrior. The 1930s heralded the arrival of C.L. Moore, one of the pioneering women writers of speculative fiction, and the appearance of fantasy’s landmark female hero: Jirel of Joiry. With her red hair flowing, her yellow eyes glinting like embers, and her face streaked with blood, Jirel is strong, fearless, and driven by honor. Her legendary debut, Black God’s Kiss, begins as her castle, Joiry, is overrun by invaders, but knowing that this is one battle she cannot fight, she summons her courage and cunning and descends into the castle’s hidden reaches, where she crosses through a doorway into Hell itself… Jirel of Joiry collects the classic tales of blood and vengeance that secured C.L. Moore’s place among legendary authors of sword and sorcery like Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Originally published in the magazine Weird Tales, Moore’s fantastic tales of warriors, gods, and magic are defined by a fierce, romantic vision that helped define the genre, earning her the title of Grand Master for lifetime achievement by the World Fantasy Convention. Includes “Black God’s Kiss,” “Black God’s Shadow,” “Jirel Meets Magic,” “The Dark Land,” and “Hellsgarde.” “One of the best authors of her era.... The stories are engaging and well written, and the central character, who is headstrong and passionate, is more than compelling…. Fans of eldritch horror and sinister gods…will find much to enjoy here.”—Alan Brown, Tor.com
A classic, post-apocalyptic vision of America created by C. L. Moore, an undisputed master of science fiction’s golden age. In the wake of a nuclear war, the totalitarian system known as Comus has restored order in a shattered America. Comus controls every aspect of American life, from communications to transportation to law enforcement, but cracks are beginning to show: rumors of a rebellion in California are brewing, and Comus’s leadership is aging. History is at a crossroads, and the man who will decide the outcome is a washed-up actor named Howard Rohan. Leading a troupe of theatre players to perform in the heart of rebel territory, Howard’s true mission is to gather intelligence on a device that could bring down Comus. But Rohan finds himself slipping between his roles as a double agent and supposed revolutionary sympathizer, to the point where even he isn’t sure where he stands. As America edges closer to its reckoning, Rohan will need to decide who he’s been lying to: the rebels, Comus, or himself. “A finely wrought dystopic vision where an oppressive future government utilizes communication networks to spread its tentacles across the United States.” —Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations “It need hardly be mentioned at this late date what a gloriously fine writer Moore was . . . she combined elegant yet colorful prose with a distinctive emotional flair and one helluva imagination.” —Fantasy Literature
Nysa appeared mysteriously with a request of Northwest Smith... excerpt The thick Venusian dark of the Ednes waterfront in the hours before dawn is breathless and tense with a nameless awareness, a crouching danger. The shapes that move murkily thru its blackness are not daylight shapes. Sun has never shone upon some of those misshapen figures, and what happens in the dark is better left untold. Not even the Patrol ventures there after the lights are out, and the hours between midnight and dawn are outside the law. If dark things happen there the Patrol never knows of them, or desires to know. Powers move thru the darkness along the waterfront to which even the Patrol bows low. Thru that breathless blackness, along a street beneath which the breathing waters whispered, Northwest Smith strolled slowly. No prudent man ventures out after midnight along the waterfront of Ednes unless he has urgent business abroad, but from the leisurely gait that carried Smith soundlessly thru the dark he might have been some casual sightseer. He was no stranger to the Ednes waterfront. He knew the danger thru which he strolled so slowly, and under narrowed lids his colorless eyes were like keen steel probes that searched the dark. Now and then he passed a shapeless shadow that dodged aside to give him way. It might have been no more than a shadow. His no-colored eyes did not waver. He went on, alert and wary. He was passing between two high warehouses that shut out even the faint reflection of light from the city beyond when he first heard that sound of bare, running feet which so surprised him. The patter of frantically fleeing steps is not uncommon along the waterfront, but these were-he listened closer-yes, certainly the feet of a woman or a young boy. Light and quick and desperate. His ears were keen enough to be sure of that. They were coming nearer swiftly. In the blackness even his pale eyes could see nothing, and he drew back against the wall, one hand dropping to the ray gun that hung low on his thigh. He had no desire to meet whatever it was which pursued this fugitive. But his brows knit as the footsteps turned into the street that led between the warehouses. No woman, of whatever class or kind, ventures into this quarter by night. And he became certain as he listened that those feet were a woman's. There was a measured rhythm about them that suggested the Venusian woman's lovely, swaying gait. He pressed flat against the wall, holding his breath. He wanted no sound to indicate his own presence to the terror from which the woman fled. Ten years before he might have dashed out to her-but ten years along the spaceways teaches a man prudence. Gallantry can be foolhardy sometimes, particularly along the waterfront, where any of a score of things might be in close pursuit. At the thought of what some of those things might be the hair prickled faintly along his neck.
A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar--a tale of Northwest Smith...Excerpt Over time-ruined Illar the searching planes swooped and circled. Northwest Smith, peering up at them with a steel-pale stare from the shelter of a half-collapsed temple, thought of vultures wheeling above carrion. All day long now they had been raking these ruins for him. Presently, he knew, thirst would begin to parch his throat and hunger to gnaw at him. There was neither food nor water in these ancient Martian ruins, and he knew that it could be only a matter of time before the urgencies of his own body would drive him out to signal those wheeling Patrol ships and trade his hard-won liberty for food and drink. He crouched lower under the shadow of the temple arch and cursed the accuracy of the Patrol gunner whose flame-blast had caught his dodging ship just at the edge of Illar's ruins.Presently it occurred to him that in most Martian temples of the ancient days an ornamental well had stood in the outer court for the benefit of wayfarers. Of course all water in it would be a million years dry now, but for lack of anything better to do he rose from his seat at the edge of the collapsed central dome and made his cautious way by still intact corridors toward the front of the temple. He paused in a tangle of wreckage at the courtyard's edge and looked out across the sun-drenched expanse of pavement toward that ornate well that once had served travelers who passed by here in the days when Mars was a green planet.
Under Eddie Burton's management the ambitious starlet Lorna Maxwell seemed headed for the top of Broadway's glamorous world of make-believe. And then she vanished - through a wall where there was no door. Eddie found himself plunging after her into a city beyond reality. In that weird twin city to New York, Eddie became a hunted fugitive while his girl friend turned up as an ever-present face and all-pervading voice that awed and mystified the inhabitants. And Eddie learned that between him and return to his natural home stood her new manager, a mysterious figure who ruled by a tyrannical combination of super-scientific miracle and brute force.
Under normal circumstances, a man must face reality to be a sane, well-balanced citizen. But not in that city! Any man who faced and understood the reality of the place was insane!
Meet “the first lady of sword-and-sorcery, Jirel of Joiry . . . in all her ferocious mailed glory and defiance” in these classic tales from a sci-fi pioneer (Tor.com). Originally published in the legendary magazine Weird Tales in 1934, C. L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry is fantasy’s first true strong female protagonist, as well as one of the most striking and memorable characters to come out of the golden age of science fiction and fantasy. Published alongside landmark stories by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, the six classic stories included in this volume prove that C. L. Moore’s Jirel is a rival to Conan the Barbarian and Elric of Melniboné, making Black God’s Kiss an essential addition to any fantasy library. “I was looking for tales of dire conflict, hot-blooded honor and impetuosity, leadership and courage—all the qualities that my culture told me were reserved for males . . . what a joy it was to run across Jirel, who at some levels of my soul I longed desperately to be.” —Suzy McKee Charnas, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author
Locke was determined that Absalom would follow his rules, Absalom disagreed...ExcerptAt dusk Joel Locke came home from the university where he held the chair of psychonamics. He came quietly into the house, by a side door, and stood listening, a tall, tight-lipped man of forty with a faintly sardonic mouth and cool gray eyes. He could hear the precipitron humming. That meant that Abigail Schuler, the housekeeper, was busy with her duties. Locke smiled slightly and turned toward a panel in the wall that opened at his approach.The small elevator took him noiselessly upstairs.There, he moved with curious stealth. He went directly to a door at the end of the hall and paused before it, his head bent, his eyes unfocused. He heard nothing. Presently he opened the door and stepped into the room.Instantly the feeling of unsureness jolted back, freezing him where he stood. He made no sign, though his mouth tightened. He forced himself to remain quiet as he glanced around.It could have been the room of a normal twenty-year-old, not a boy of eight. Tennis racquets were heaped in a disorderly fashion against a pile of book records. The thiaminizer was turned on, and Locke automatically clicked the switch over. Abruptly he turned. The televisor screen was blank, yet he could have sworn that eyes had been watching him from it.This wasn't the first time it had happened.
Northwest Smith gets a new client who draws him into the jungle and the web of Yvala...ExcerptNorthwest Smith leaned against a pile of hemp-wrapped bales from the Martian drylands and stared with expressionless eyes, paler than pale steel, over the confusion of the Lakkdarol space-port before him. In the clear Martian day the tatters of his leather spaceman's garb were pitilessly plain, the ray-burns and the rents of a hundred casual brawls. It was evident at a glance that Smith had fallen upon evil days. One might have guessed by the shabbiness of his clothing that his pockets were empty, the charge in his ray gun low.Squatting on his heels beside the lounging Earthman, Yarol the Venusian bent his yellow head absently over the thin-bladed dagger which he was juggling in one of the queer, interminable Venusian games so pointless to outsiders. Upon him too the weight of ill fortune seemed to have pressed heavily. It was eloquent in his own shabby garments, his empty holster. But the insouciant face he lifted to Smith was as careless as ever, and no more of weariness and wisdom and pure cat-savagery looked out from his sidelong black eyes than Smith was accustomed to see there. Yard's face was the face of a seraph, as so many Venusian faces are likely to be, but the set of his mouth told a tale of dissoluteness and reckless violence which belied his features' racial good looks."Another half-hour and we eat," he grinned up at his tall companion.Smith glanced at the tri-time watch on his wrist."If you haven't been having another dope dream," he grunted. "Luck's been against us so long I can't quite believe in a change now.""By Pharol I swear it," smiled Yarol. "The man came up to me in the New Chicago last night and told me in so many words how much money was waiting if we 'd meet him here at noon."Smith grunted again and deliberately took up another notch in the belt that circled his lean waist. Yarol laughed softly, a murmur of true Venusian sweetness, as he bent again to the juggling of his knife. Above his bent blond head Smith looked out again across the busy port.
Four WWII combatants travel to a distant and dangerous future in this novel by “two of the most revered names from [science fiction’s] Golden Age” (SFReviews.net). During World War II, four bitter enemies are pulled forward a billion years in time by a master being from an alien galaxy. They arrive on a dying Earth—to Carcasilla, Earth’s last citadel—where the mutated remnants of humanity are making their final stand against the monstrous creations of a fading world. Thrust in the middle of this desperate struggle for survival, the last humans must put aside their differences and stop the looming Armageddon. Praise for Henry Kuttner “One of the all-time major names in science fiction.” —The New York Times “A neglected master.” —Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 “Kuttner is magic.” —Joe R. Lansdale, author of The Thicket
Smith was stolen away in the night, to be sacrificed to the great Julhi a mysterious being who controlled the denizens of Vonng.excerptThe tale of Smith's scars would make a saga. From head to foot his brown and sunburnt hide was scored with the marks of, battle. The eye of a connoisseur would recognize the distinctive tracks of knife and talon and rayburn, the slash of the Martian drylandercrwg, the clean, thin stab of the Venusian stiletto, the crisscross lacing of Earth's penal whip. But one or two scars that he carried would have baffled the most discerning eye. That curious, convoluted red circlet, for instance, like some bloody rose on the left side of his chest just where the beating of his heart stirred the sun-darkened flesh....In the starless dark of the thick Venusian night Northwest Smith's pale steel eyes were keen and wary. Save for those restless eyes he did not stir. He crouched against a wall that his searching fingers had told him was stone, and cold; but he could see nothing and he had no faintest idea of where he was or how he had come there. Upon this dark five minutes ago he had opened puzzled eyes, and he was still puzzled. The dark-piercing pallor of his gaze flickered restlessly through the blackness, searching in vain for some point of familiarity. He could find nothing. The dark was blurred and formless around him, and though his keen senses spoke to him of enclosed spaces, yet there was a contradiction even in that, for the air was fresh and blowing.He crouched motionless in the windy dark, smelling earth and cold stone, and faintly-very faintly-a whiff of something unfamiliar that made him gather his feet under him noiselessly and poise with one hand against the chill stone wall, tense as a steel spring. There was motion in the dark. He could see nothing, hear nothing, but he felt that stirring come cautiously nearer. He stretched out exploring toes, found the ground firm underfoot, and stepped aside a soundless pace or two, holding his breath. Against the stone where he had been leaning an instant before he heard the soft sound of hands fumbling, with a queer, sucking noise, as if they were sticky. Something exhaled with a small, impatient sound. In a lull of the wind he heard quite distinctly the slither over stone of something that was neither feet nor paws nor serpent-coils, but akin to all three.
Classic space opera from one of the first female authors of science fiction, an “exhilarating” tour-de-force from the genre’s golden age (Futurism). The Lens of Death was the most destructive weapon in the history of the cosmos. Now it will decide the fate of the Lyonese, whose galactic empire is crumbling before the assaults of a new, younger race, the H’vani. The champion of the empire and its home-world of Ericon is the daughter of the Emperor, Juille: a tall, fierce Amazon who will not see her dynasty end. But Juille could never have foreseen the twist of fate that turns her mortal enemy, the godlike H’vani warrior known as Egide, into her lover. As their races clash, the two are locked in a swirling embrace of death and lust that might end in the destruction of their peoples, the galaxy, and one another. All will be decided on Judgment Night. “It need hardly be mentioned at this late date what a gloriously fine writer Moore was . . . She combined elegant yet colorful prose with a distinctive emotional flair and one helluva imagination.” —Fantasy Literature
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.
In the 1920s a group of children staying at their grandmother's house realize that one of the uncles who lives there is not a real person, and only arrived there a few weeks before. He is able to exert some kind of mental influence over the adults of the household, which makes them believe he has always been a member of the family. The Wrong Uncle, as they call him , is a kind of projection -- or, more precisely, a detachable limb in human form -- of a creature which lives in a cavern deep beneath the house, accessed by a portal in the attic. The thing has only two emotions: hunger and satiety, and it only eats raw meat
Short stories by a pioneering female author who went on to become a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. This anthology includes some of C.L. Moore’s best-known and most beloved tales, including: “Shambleau” First published in Weird Tales, Moore’s bizarre, imaginative, and wildly acclaimed debut features space outlaw Northwest Smith and his meeting on Mars with a strange young lady whose turban hides a terrifying secret . . . “Black God’s Kiss” The debut of Jirel of Joiry, one of the classic heroes of sword and sorcery and fantasy’s first true strong female protagonist. As cunning as she is fierce, Jirel descends into a nightmarish land beneath her castle to find the instruments of her revenge . . . “The Bright Illusion” One man’s journey to a mind-bending, terrifying planet of blinding colors and impossible angles, filled with unutterable horrors and strange temptations . . . With these and seven additional stories that evoke the enduring spirit of sci-fi and fantasy’s early days, The Best of C.L. Moore is a treasure that belongs on the shelf of any reader of speculative fiction. “Her contributions to the field are instrumental in the formation of the modern face of science fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews
Released in 1952, Judgment Night collects five Moore novellas from the pages of editor John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Astounding Science Fiction magazine: ''Judgment Night'' (first published in August and September, 1943) balances a lush rendering of a future galactic empire with a sober meditation on the nature of power and its inevitable loss; ''The Code'' (July, 1945) pays homage to the classic Faust with modern theories and Lovecraftian dread; ''Promised Land'' (February, 1950) and ''Heir Apparent'' (July, 1950) both document the grim twisting that mankind must undergo in order to spread into the solar system; ''Paradise Street'' (September, 1950) shows a futuristic take on the old western conflict between lone hunter and wilderness-taming settlers. Chosen by the author herself as the best of her longer-form writing, these stories show a gifted wordsmith working at the height of her talents.
The Baldys have come to face the hardest decision so far. Will it result in the destruction of mankind? The Baldys? Is it possible for a peaceful solution be found…
A psychiatrist travels to a world of magic and gods in this take on “Jason and the Argonauts” from the Hugo Award–nominated author of Earth’s Last Citadel. Jay Seward remembers a former life in a land of magic, gods, and goddesses—a time when he was Jason of Iolcus, sailing in the enchanted ship Argo to steal the Golden Fleece from the serpent-temples of Apollo. But one night the memories become startlingly real, as the Argo itself sails out of the spectral mists and a hauntingly beautiful voice calls: “Jason . . . come to me!” And suddenly he’s on the deck of the Argo, sailing into danger and magic . . . “A fantasy in the grand tradition of Merritt and the other giants.” —Arthur Leo Zagat, author of the Tomorrow series Praise for Henry Kuttner “One of the all-time major names in science fiction.” —The New York Times “A neglected master.” —Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 “Kuttner is magic.” —Joe R. Lansdale, author of The Thicket
Edited by the mysterious Rey Bertran, the Science Fiction Archive #1 features some of the greatest science fiction writing of all time. Featuring: The Sentimentalists, by Murray Leinster The Girls from Earth, by Frank Robinson The Death Traps of FX-31, by Sewell Wright Song in a minor key, by C.L. Moore Sentry of the Sky, by Evelyn E. Smith Meeting of the Minds, by Robert Sheckley Junior, by Robert Abernathy Death Wish, by Ned Lang Dead World, by Jack Douglas Cost of Living, by Robert Sheckley Aloys, by R.A. Lafferty
Little did Buckhalter know when he took his new job in the sleepy little town of Sequoia that he would become involved in pivotal moment, one that they knew was coming, yet hoped would never come.
How do I start my book or novel? How can I get my manuscript published? This easy to follow and understand guide gives you practicle advice that will have your great work transformed into a published book in no time!
The Road to Redemption, the sequel to 'Belmont Falls' The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The road to Heaven? It is paved with deceit, and absolutely no honour. Kat has been left broken after Belmont Falls. She is on the run. Hiding from her past, and from herself. Lucas is just broken, a man who has lost all hope. Salem 1692 Kat is in trouble. Increase Mather is baying for her blood. Can Lucas save her in time?
Here is an anthology that explores the furthest reaches of imagination and the closest areas of emotion with power and with humour and with a sense of human purpose. This is Kuttner and Moore at their best.
Under Eddie Burton's management, the ambitious starlet Lorna Maxwell seemed headed for the top of Broadway's glamorous world of make-believe. And then she vanished - through a wall where there was no door. Eddie found himself plunging after her into a city beyond reality. In that weird twin city to New York, Eddie became a hunted fugitive while his girl friend turned up as an ever-present face and all-pervading voice that awed and mystified the inhabitants. And Eddie learned that between him and a return to his natural home stood her new manager, a mysterious figure who ruled by a tyrannical combination of super-scientific miracles and brute force.
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