Scarlet Dream

by C.L. Moore

1981 D.M. Grant

Genres: Fantasy

328 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Excerpted from Wikipedia:
Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction.

Moore met Henry Kuttner, also a science fiction writer, in 1936 when he wrote her a fan letter (mistakenly thinking that "C. L. Moore" was a man), and they married in 1940.
Afterwards, almost all of their stories were written in collaboration under various pseudonyms, most commonly Lewis Padgett (another pseudonym, one Moore often employed for works that involved little or no collaboration, was Lawrence O'Donnell).

Reviews

[Warren Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is about the actual Catherine L. Moore story called "Scarlet Dream," which is the third of a series first published in "Weird Tales" magazine featuring the character of Northwest Smith, though you can read these in any order.

"Scarlet Dream" continues the tradition of our quiet space rogue hero getting into a doomed romance with a sexy alien female while embroiled in a trap laid by an eldritch vampiric menace. If you are reading these stories back-to-back, the repetitive nature can seem a bit jarring, formulaic, and disingenuous. Perhaps the author never imagined her work being published in so many compilations over the years, but I imagine that faithful readers of "Weird Tales" still had enough recollection of how similar all of her submissions were from month to month. Regardless, when considered individually, these stories do carry their own unique weight, and "Scarlet Dream" works very well for me.

Here we have a very early example of a kind of curse that can be passed on to others like a virus, like "The Ring" or "It Follows." The curse is encoded in the intricate scarlet pattern woven into a delicate blue shawl that Smith buys at a bazaar on one of Jupiter's moons. We get some idea of how the merchant came by the item, but no clue as to the origin. The hypnotic pattern is like a QR code for the brain, sending the wearer into a dream world made of meat.

I won't say anymore about the plot, as it is short. And sweet. Like blood. But I will say that this is weird fiction done just right. We never get full answers to the mystery, but we do get just enough of a peek to develop a sense of awe and dread. Moore also knows how to make her stories ooze with steamy sexual tension while keeping things clean and classy. The prose is top-notch, and steeped in rich themes that are pretty easy to spot without making the whole thing a preachy mess. I felt like I was in a video game that rewarded exploration, and in fact, the importance of taking risks and chances is just one of the topics this story manages to cover in it's meager length.

For anyone not familiar with this series, I want to caution you that this is NOT "Star Wars"-style fantasy. It is so easy to come to that conclusion based on the marketing. Though they do utilize a space opera backdrop, these stories could easily forgo the scifi descriptors and take place in Victorian London, or the wild West, or a town near you. Instead, the focus is on the author's message to readers of the month told via the lens of weird fiction and horror.

My advice to anyone experiencing C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories for the first time is to read them piecemeal. Check one out, then read other things before you go to the next Smith adventure. And "Scarlet Dream" certainly deserves to be one that you visit.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for 'Scarlet Dream', the third Northwest Smith adventure (not the collection).

We are reminded often that Northwest is not a lawful member of the interplanetary society and yet we never really witness him doing anything questionable. So far I suppose this aspect of his character serves merely to place him in questionable circumstances? In this story he picks up an enchanted shawl from a merchant at a seedy Martian market.

Northwest then meets some folk who have a, uh, shall we say, an unusual way of life. There he meets, to no surprise, a dazzling beauty who explains that:

"We do nothing—what purpose in beginning anything when we know we shall not live to end it? Why even think too long for one thing?"

The author is exploring something other than the curiosities of outer space in these adventures.

I felt a bit of a similar theme to the nexus on Star Trek, even though it is not the same set up at all. An attempt is made to make staying captive seem more desirable than leaving, even though staying constitutes "a living death", as Northwest explains. A kind of fear of euphoria is generated.

This is a bit of a trippy horror with I guess a bit of mild gore and maybe icky or squeamish content. It's pretty sick and I recommend it highly, Haha. Because the writing is just as sensational in this as it was in the first two Northwest Smith adventures and even though the overall story may be simple (and even similar) the journey through Moore's imagined world is thrilling.

Up next, Northwest's fourth adventure is 'Lost Paradise'.

[Bumblesmom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t get through this book of stories. It was written in the 1930s and with a style I am uncomfortable reading. (Reminded me more of the historical erotica I’ve read than science fiction.