The Best of C.L. Moore / edited by Lester Del Rey

The Best of C.L. Moore by C.L. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

2020 Summer Clearance Special

My summer reading project will be the unread books on my shelves and rereading books that I’ve had for a long time to see if they still warrant a place in my home.

I first read this collection of short fiction at least 30 years ago. I was impressed, but never realized that the stories were written in the 1930s and 1940s! Yet they still have that special sauce.

First, there is Northwest Smith. Could there be a better name for a space outlaw? Based on the bad guys of the old westerns or on pirates, this handsome antihero brandishes his ray gun and is steady as a rock. You have to love him. As they say, women want to sleep with him and men want to be him. (Although the Alendar in Black Thirst is quasi-male and seems to be attracted to NW too.)

There is a definite horror overtone to most of the stories. Moore had to be familiar with Lovecraft, but to my mind she is the more skillful writer. Lovecraft goes over the top, while Moore’s work simply oozes black dread. For example, in The Black God's Kiss, she takes the fairy tale trope of the reviving power of the handsome prince's kiss and turns it inside out, all the while giving us a remarkable female main character, Jirel of Joiry. Still, there are no happy endings here—relief maybe, in some stories, but no unalloyed happiness.

I had to snicker at the end of Greater Than Gods, when the main character, Bill, makes an unexpected life choice.  He chooses to marry the woman whose first name we never know, his lab assistant Miss Brown. This leaves the couple in a marriage of convenience, which is the usual beginning of a story,  not the last sentence!  When I originally read the story, I was impressed with the surprising twist. Now, as a more experienced reader, this ending entertains me.

Now the true challenge begins. I want to find more of Moore's writing and that of her husband, Henry Kuttner. They collaborated once they were married and wrote under several pseudonyms. This stuff is old enough that I am afraid that it won't be easy to find. This is ironic, as Moore's writing is still relevant and has aged well. She explores the nature of love, of beauty, of humanity. I wish she had written more.

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