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Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith
First published in Weird Tales in 1933, Catherine Lucille Moore exploded onto the pulp scene to become one of the most important science fiction and fantasy authors of all time. In her first story, 'Shambleu', Moore revealed a vast imagination, beautifully descriptive prose, and a throbbing sensuality rarely matched by her male counterparts. It also marked the first appearance of Northwest Smith, the quick-drawing outlaw of the spaceways who would become a science fiction archetype. Here, for the first time ever, all thirteen of Northwest Smith's adventures have been compiled into one rowdy thrill-ride, as sure to inspire readers today as it was seventy years ago.
In a time when women were marginalized in genre fiction, Catherine Moore stepped forward and opened the door for generations of female science fiction and fantasy authors. Earning praise from contemporaries like H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber as well as modern authors from Greg Bear to Michael Moorcock, C.L. Moore remains a giant in the genre, and the stories in this compilation comprise an essential addition to any science fiction library.
In a time when women were marginalized in genre fiction, Catherine Moore stepped forward and opened the door for generations of female science fiction and fantasy authors. Earning praise from contemporaries like H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber as well as modern authors from Greg Bear to Michael Moorcock, C.L. Moore remains a giant in the genre, and the stories in this compilation comprise an essential addition to any science fiction library.
381 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2008
31 people are currently reading
904 people want to read
About the author
C.L. Moore
309 books212 followersExcerpted 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
July 14, 2022
This is a collection of stories featuring the main character Northwest Smith, a pulp hero of the late Radium-Age and early Golden-Age of science fiction pulps. I've written separate reviews on some select individual tales of this collection, but I can sum up the book for you here.
Many of you sci-fi fans may have heard of Smith as a precursor to Han Solo, and so expect riveting tales of galactic adventure featuring a charming rogue. Not so much. It is true that Smith is portrayed as a smuggler and gun for hire, perpetually on the run from the law and from gangsters that he owes money. But very little of this background plays in to the stories at all, and you don't get much of a sense of his personality or history. He doesn't say very much, or even do much of anything.
The running theme is that Smith encounters some eldritch alien vampire, usually via seduction by a gorgeous damsel in distress or by a creature wearing the guise of a seductive woman. He falls into some kind of trance and something tries to suck his life force from him. Then someone comes along to save him, or he awakens through sheer force of will and dispatches the threat very easily with one zap of his ray gun.
With one exception, this is the storyline for every single one of the nine primary Northwest Smith stories written by author Catherine Moore. They are worth checking out as Moore was ahead of her time. Not only was she writing sci-fi in a predominantly male-dominated industry, but her stories tended to be more mature and racy than one would expect from 1930s American pulps. Her prose is spectacular, oozing with pheromones and sexual desire. Her eldritch perils are on par with Lovecraft and other contemporaries who specialized in weird fiction. Unfortunately, her themes and style grow very repetitive. All of her women rely on their curves and perfume to get what they want from Smith, and her hero is even less nuanced. He never seems to learn his lesson, and constantly gets himself in situations because he is lured by money, booze, or his balls.
Beyond that, we never learn a thing about Smith. Though I don't expect boring exposition, I thought that at some point through something he says, or through little quirks in his personality, he'd have some sort of development. But he doesn't. This collection even includes "Song in a Minor Key," a bonus story which originally appeared in a fanzine where Smith meditates on his life. Do we learn anything here? Not really, other than something bad happened to a woman he used to love, causing him to kill whoever was responsible, and causing him to be a criminal forevermore.
So really the whole "noble outlaw" concept is present but never really impacts the actual stories. The only time we get a glimpse of his "working life" is in the story "Dust of Gods." Here Smith plays a more active role. He and his Venusian partner, Yarol, are sitting in a Martian saloon (the description of which is highly remiscent of the Tattoine canteen scene from "Star Wars"), and they are eager to get their drink on. But they have one problem. They're broke. They consider robbing the joint, so this is the first time we get any idea of what kind of illegal shenanigans of which they may be capable.
But Catherine Moore was not interested in telling tales of smuggling phasers and exotic alien drugs, nor of starship battles or Martian civilization. Smith does not go up against fleets of ships or fight Jabba the Hutt. His villains are gods, or beings that the spawned religions in the solar system. To come even near them or to see their true form is to produce madness or to drain you of your very life.
But the stories start to run together. It is almost shameless how little Moore strayed from the basic formula. And for this I can't give this collection any more than three stars.
That being said, Moore still deserves to be immortalized among the greats of weird fiction and cosmic horror along with Lovecraft and Howard. My recommendation is to read her work sparsely so that you don't get burned out, or if you just want a sample, read "Shambleau," "Scarlet Dream," or "Dust of Gods."
Many of you sci-fi fans may have heard of Smith as a precursor to Han Solo, and so expect riveting tales of galactic adventure featuring a charming rogue. Not so much. It is true that Smith is portrayed as a smuggler and gun for hire, perpetually on the run from the law and from gangsters that he owes money. But very little of this background plays in to the stories at all, and you don't get much of a sense of his personality or history. He doesn't say very much, or even do much of anything.
The running theme is that Smith encounters some eldritch alien vampire, usually via seduction by a gorgeous damsel in distress or by a creature wearing the guise of a seductive woman. He falls into some kind of trance and something tries to suck his life force from him. Then someone comes along to save him, or he awakens through sheer force of will and dispatches the threat very easily with one zap of his ray gun.
With one exception, this is the storyline for every single one of the nine primary Northwest Smith stories written by author Catherine Moore. They are worth checking out as Moore was ahead of her time. Not only was she writing sci-fi in a predominantly male-dominated industry, but her stories tended to be more mature and racy than one would expect from 1930s American pulps. Her prose is spectacular, oozing with pheromones and sexual desire. Her eldritch perils are on par with Lovecraft and other contemporaries who specialized in weird fiction. Unfortunately, her themes and style grow very repetitive. All of her women rely on their curves and perfume to get what they want from Smith, and her hero is even less nuanced. He never seems to learn his lesson, and constantly gets himself in situations because he is lured by money, booze, or his balls.
Beyond that, we never learn a thing about Smith. Though I don't expect boring exposition, I thought that at some point through something he says, or through little quirks in his personality, he'd have some sort of development. But he doesn't. This collection even includes "Song in a Minor Key," a bonus story which originally appeared in a fanzine where Smith meditates on his life. Do we learn anything here? Not really, other than something bad happened to a woman he used to love, causing him to kill whoever was responsible, and causing him to be a criminal forevermore.
So really the whole "noble outlaw" concept is present but never really impacts the actual stories. The only time we get a glimpse of his "working life" is in the story "Dust of Gods." Here Smith plays a more active role. He and his Venusian partner, Yarol, are sitting in a Martian saloon (the description of which is highly remiscent of the Tattoine canteen scene from "Star Wars"), and they are eager to get their drink on. But they have one problem. They're broke. They consider robbing the joint, so this is the first time we get any idea of what kind of illegal shenanigans of which they may be capable.
But Catherine Moore was not interested in telling tales of smuggling phasers and exotic alien drugs, nor of starship battles or Martian civilization. Smith does not go up against fleets of ships or fight Jabba the Hutt. His villains are gods, or beings that the spawned religions in the solar system. To come even near them or to see their true form is to produce madness or to drain you of your very life.
But the stories start to run together. It is almost shameless how little Moore strayed from the basic formula. And for this I can't give this collection any more than three stars.
That being said, Moore still deserves to be immortalized among the greats of weird fiction and cosmic horror along with Lovecraft and Howard. My recommendation is to read her work sparsely so that you don't get burned out, or if you just want a sample, read "Shambleau," "Scarlet Dream," or "Dust of Gods."
July 29, 2010
The way I've heard it described, with Northwest Smith being a Han Solo prototype, I was expecting good pulpy action with rayguns and gross monsters. It's more like Han Solo nearly getting seduced/killed by Lovecraftian beasties (often disguised as women) and just barely surviving. The writing is much better than I expected, like Michael Moorcock at his pulpy best. The stories are fairly creepy and held my interest. The one gripe I had was that many of them are fairly similar in plot and structure.
In conclusion, creepy: yes, action-packed: no.
In conclusion, creepy: yes, action-packed: no.
January 10, 2023
100/5 stars. bangers from start to finish.
man. what is there to say about c.l. moore that people haven't said already? what can one say about my man northwest smith that encompasses him fully? my man has never met a pair of legs he could turn down, no matter how obviously devious they are or how clear a dame is beautiful and also hell bent on sucking his life force. the number of naked and weeping women he encounters and thinks 'by god, it is always my lucky day!' is truly unmatched in the annals of literature.
there are two things i love about moore's writing: 1) by god she's never a met a bit she didn't commit to, and 2) she loves a beautiful space-fantasy cityscape. she excels at sensationalist melodrama, while also being deeply committed to the seriousness of her characters emotions and very clearly taking seriously her own writing. this, i think, is a balancing act we've lost in science fiction and fantasy. either the writing is indulgent or the writing is Doing Work, but moore believes in the ancient and magical past of the unnameable martian god, in the cultural sexiness of a venusian woman who always has one milk white shoulder bare, and she also believes both those things are not her own particular indulgences or darlings, but that they are part of a broader world and taken seriously by the people that inhabit them. there's a melancholy to the past that northwest is disconnected from because he's from earth, a savagery beneath the smooth, slick ettiquete of his venusian friend yarol, and an actual, real connection to every dame, evil or innocent, that northwest meets. and unlike many contemporary writers of genre fiction today, moore is not defensive. she expects the reader to come to her tales filled with wonder and a hunger for the unknown. this frees her to delight the reader with a retelling of medusa as in "shambleau" or circe as in "yvala", or to create an orgasmic and carnivorous tree as in "the tree of life". extra- and interdimensional gods abound in her tales, and though i was never frightened, i believed that northwest was and that's really all that matters.
there are many lines and scenes that will stay with me and that ill keep returning to but i'll leave you with two.
from jhuli:
and from the tree of life:
eta: i kept meaning to put this somewhere in the review and then forgot and then remembered. anyway. one of the things i find people often struggle with in these stories is the women because they come away almost upset at the role they play--femme fatales and damsels, sleek and erotic, who often die (but not always). i understand why people react this way, because they're seeing the shape of a template often wrongly deployed. but what i've found both interesting and compelling about the women in moore's stories is that its clear to me that the seed of each woman is her desire. vaudir in "black thirst", apri and jhuli in "jhuli", and yvala in "yvala", are all driven desperately and passionately by the thing that they want, whether that thing is northwest himself or northwest is a means to an end to get it, they are distinct in that. to me they are often far more vibrant than northwest himself. part of this, i think, is that im reading the collection through the lens of my own lesbianism, and god if i don't love a space jaunt with beautiful and deadly women. but i also think there's a laziness at play when these women are dismissed as overly sexy canon fodder. one of the most compelling moments in the collection is when yvala sheds her human form and is revealed to be a pillar of light and northwest realizes for how many centuries she must have lured men to feed herself and then...he fucking leaves. he's not interested in destroying her or preventing her from eating--he just wants to go and he feels a kind of melancholy because he thinks she must be the last of her kind. the place from which moore writes these women--passionate, unquenchable, undeniable desire--is i think something we've lost and something deeply worth recognizing. i also desperately think we need to bring sexy back, but that is a separate and less sophisticated conversation, lmao.
man. what is there to say about c.l. moore that people haven't said already? what can one say about my man northwest smith that encompasses him fully? my man has never met a pair of legs he could turn down, no matter how obviously devious they are or how clear a dame is beautiful and also hell bent on sucking his life force. the number of naked and weeping women he encounters and thinks 'by god, it is always my lucky day!' is truly unmatched in the annals of literature.
there are two things i love about moore's writing: 1) by god she's never a met a bit she didn't commit to, and 2) she loves a beautiful space-fantasy cityscape. she excels at sensationalist melodrama, while also being deeply committed to the seriousness of her characters emotions and very clearly taking seriously her own writing. this, i think, is a balancing act we've lost in science fiction and fantasy. either the writing is indulgent or the writing is Doing Work, but moore believes in the ancient and magical past of the unnameable martian god, in the cultural sexiness of a venusian woman who always has one milk white shoulder bare, and she also believes both those things are not her own particular indulgences or darlings, but that they are part of a broader world and taken seriously by the people that inhabit them. there's a melancholy to the past that northwest is disconnected from because he's from earth, a savagery beneath the smooth, slick ettiquete of his venusian friend yarol, and an actual, real connection to every dame, evil or innocent, that northwest meets. and unlike many contemporary writers of genre fiction today, moore is not defensive. she expects the reader to come to her tales filled with wonder and a hunger for the unknown. this frees her to delight the reader with a retelling of medusa as in "shambleau" or circe as in "yvala", or to create an orgasmic and carnivorous tree as in "the tree of life". extra- and interdimensional gods abound in her tales, and though i was never frightened, i believed that northwest was and that's really all that matters.
there are many lines and scenes that will stay with me and that ill keep returning to but i'll leave you with two.
from jhuli:
All this he was aware of in the flashing instant when his eyes opened. Now he looked down, for the first time consciously aware of that pain which gnawed at his heart, of the clinging arms. And suddenly that pain stabbed like a heatray, and he went sick with the shock of what he saw. For Julhi clung to him, relaxed in avid coils. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth was fastened tightly against the flesh of his left breast, just over the heart. The plume above her head quivered from base to tip with long, voluptuous shudders, and all the shades of crimson and scarlet and bloody rose that any spectrum ever held went blowing through it. Smith choked on a word half-way between oath and prayer, and with shaking hands ripped her arms away, thrust against her shoulders blindly to tear loose that clinging, agonizing mouth. The blood spurted as it came free. The great eye opened and looked up into his with a dull, glazed stare.
and from the tree of life:
Priestess though she was, he could not believe that she was going to come within touch of that Tree the very sight of which roused such a panic instinct of revulsion in every fibre of him. But she did not swerve or slow in her advance. Walking delicately over the flowery grass, arrogantly luminous in the twilight, so that her body was the centre and focus of any landscape she walked in, she neared her horribly eager god. Now she was under the Tree, and its trunk had writhed down over her and she was lifting her arms like a girl to her lover. With a gliding slowness the flame-tipped branches slid round her. In that incredible embrace she stood immobile for a long moment, the Tree arching down with all its curling limbs, the girl straining upward, her head thrown back and the mantle of her hair swinging free of her body as she lifted her face to the quivering blossoms. The branches gathered her closer in their embrace. Now the blossoms arched near, curving down all about her, touching her very gently, twisting their blazing faces towards the focus of her moon-white body. One poised directly above her face, trembled, brushed her mouth lightly. And the Tree’s tremor ran unbroken through the body of the girl it clasped.
eta: i kept meaning to put this somewhere in the review and then forgot and then remembered. anyway. one of the things i find people often struggle with in these stories is the women because they come away almost upset at the role they play--femme fatales and damsels, sleek and erotic, who often die (but not always). i understand why people react this way, because they're seeing the shape of a template often wrongly deployed. but what i've found both interesting and compelling about the women in moore's stories is that its clear to me that the seed of each woman is her desire. vaudir in "black thirst", apri and jhuli in "jhuli", and yvala in "yvala", are all driven desperately and passionately by the thing that they want, whether that thing is northwest himself or northwest is a means to an end to get it, they are distinct in that. to me they are often far more vibrant than northwest himself. part of this, i think, is that im reading the collection through the lens of my own lesbianism, and god if i don't love a space jaunt with beautiful and deadly women. but i also think there's a laziness at play when these women are dismissed as overly sexy canon fodder. one of the most compelling moments in the collection is when yvala sheds her human form and is revealed to be a pillar of light and northwest realizes for how many centuries she must have lured men to feed herself and then...he fucking leaves. he's not interested in destroying her or preventing her from eating--he just wants to go and he feels a kind of melancholy because he thinks she must be the last of her kind. the place from which moore writes these women--passionate, unquenchable, undeniable desire--is i think something we've lost and something deeply worth recognizing. i also desperately think we need to bring sexy back, but that is a separate and less sophisticated conversation, lmao.
April 21, 2024
Billed on the back cover as “science fiction’s original outlaw,” this book definitely contains a Han Solo type main reoccurring character, one Northwest Smith (occasionally referred to as N.W. by his frequent companion from Venus, Yarol). Author C.L. Moore described his life as “a perilous affair outside the law and ruled by the ray-gun only,” his appearance “all leather and sunburn and his scarred face keen and wary” and sporting “scars that ray-guns had left, and the mark of knife and talon, and the tracks of wild years along the spaceways.” Living as a combination bounty hunter, mercenary, smuggler, and at one point briefly hinted robber, he is shown dealing with criminals and avoiding the law (which in the stories is simply called the Patrol) with his most often solution to a problem his ray-gun.
In thirteen short stories, all but one copyright between 1933 and 1938 (the last in the book is copyright 1957), author Catherine Lucille Moore (1911-1987) tells the reader of various adventures of Northwest Smith and his often companion Yarol. Writing at a time when there were very few women writers and also achieving some fame as the creator of the first female sword and sorcery protagonist (Jirel of Joiry), Moore created a series of stories that gave glimpses into some great worldbuilding, a setting of “milk-white,” blonde, cherubic Venusian humans in a world of perpetual cloud cover, of a million-plus year old inhabited Mars inhabited by two different races (canal Martians – their women “coral pink, sweet as honey, murmurous under the moving moons” and Martian drylanders – one described as “grim-jawed, leathery,” both very different yet still human), of a universe that felt big and gritty and used and lived in, really interstellar in the way Han Solo would know, as life wasn’t limited to Earth, Mars, and Venus but multiple other bodies in the solar system had life (in one story the main characters are on a jungle-clad wilderness moon of Jupiter).
Having said that though, this isn’t a collection of stories about N.W. being a smuggler or a bounty hunter or a mercenary or getting in bar fights in some remote Martian settlement or a seedy Venusian tavern near the docks. These things are hinted at, existing on the periphery, or prelude to a tale. No, this is an almost Lovecraftian collection of tales of N.W. being traumatized by mind-bending horrors that are difficult to comprehend. In most of the stories N.W. encounters some sort of femme fatale, often in many ways the main driver of events in that tale, and either is a monster herself, or introduces N.W. (and the reader) to some emotionally traumatizing experience where Bad Things happen to the woman and to N.W. Several of the stories are horror tales that one is glad N.W. survives, while others are sad, tragic tales where the thing N.W. wishes he had encountered wasn’t (just) gibbering mind-blasting cosmic horrors, but a super sad tale of a civilization or of one woman, tragic tales that end in sadness and heartbreak, of someone sacrificing themselves or struggling against a cosmic horror and it be all for naught. While the former tales or elements of cosmic horror felt very Lovecraftian, the latter weren’t something I associated at all with Lovecraft or those who wrote in his style and I think that sets Moore apart. Several of the very sad endings really stuck with me and I think will always stick with me (“Scarlet Dream” especially, that had such a haunting and sad ending), a type of evocative writing that seems very much ahead of its time.
Some of the tales belong more in the fantasy camp than science fiction (I would call the story “Quest of the Starstone” straight up fantasy though most stories are science fiction), though all are tinged by horror to one degree or another. N.W. fights monsters, gods, and those that would use them, though many times N.W. is more an observer than an active protagonist, as either whatever happens, happens, or a character in the story other than him is the driver of events, with that character pretty much always coming to a very bad end and it is Northwest Smith that survives as a witness. A few times Moore could fall into the Lovecraftian tendency for purple prose and overly long descriptions, though unlike Lovecraft I think she did a better job of describing what the characters felt as well as including actual dialogue. She was fond of the words queer, queerly, and once I noticed their frequency I couldn’t stop noticing them, but it wasn’t a big issue for me. One of the tales near the end of the collection was very arty and dream-like, some evocative writing but also rather confusing (“Werewoman”). Overall though the tales felt surprisingly modern and if one changed the settings from Venus, Mars, that moon of Jupiter, to some other planets out amongst the stars, they definitely could pass for modern science fiction (with horror and fantasy elements).
In thirteen short stories, all but one copyright between 1933 and 1938 (the last in the book is copyright 1957), author Catherine Lucille Moore (1911-1987) tells the reader of various adventures of Northwest Smith and his often companion Yarol. Writing at a time when there were very few women writers and also achieving some fame as the creator of the first female sword and sorcery protagonist (Jirel of Joiry), Moore created a series of stories that gave glimpses into some great worldbuilding, a setting of “milk-white,” blonde, cherubic Venusian humans in a world of perpetual cloud cover, of a million-plus year old inhabited Mars inhabited by two different races (canal Martians – their women “coral pink, sweet as honey, murmurous under the moving moons” and Martian drylanders – one described as “grim-jawed, leathery,” both very different yet still human), of a universe that felt big and gritty and used and lived in, really interstellar in the way Han Solo would know, as life wasn’t limited to Earth, Mars, and Venus but multiple other bodies in the solar system had life (in one story the main characters are on a jungle-clad wilderness moon of Jupiter).
Having said that though, this isn’t a collection of stories about N.W. being a smuggler or a bounty hunter or a mercenary or getting in bar fights in some remote Martian settlement or a seedy Venusian tavern near the docks. These things are hinted at, existing on the periphery, or prelude to a tale. No, this is an almost Lovecraftian collection of tales of N.W. being traumatized by mind-bending horrors that are difficult to comprehend. In most of the stories N.W. encounters some sort of femme fatale, often in many ways the main driver of events in that tale, and either is a monster herself, or introduces N.W. (and the reader) to some emotionally traumatizing experience where Bad Things happen to the woman and to N.W. Several of the stories are horror tales that one is glad N.W. survives, while others are sad, tragic tales where the thing N.W. wishes he had encountered wasn’t (just) gibbering mind-blasting cosmic horrors, but a super sad tale of a civilization or of one woman, tragic tales that end in sadness and heartbreak, of someone sacrificing themselves or struggling against a cosmic horror and it be all for naught. While the former tales or elements of cosmic horror felt very Lovecraftian, the latter weren’t something I associated at all with Lovecraft or those who wrote in his style and I think that sets Moore apart. Several of the very sad endings really stuck with me and I think will always stick with me (“Scarlet Dream” especially, that had such a haunting and sad ending), a type of evocative writing that seems very much ahead of its time.
Some of the tales belong more in the fantasy camp than science fiction (I would call the story “Quest of the Starstone” straight up fantasy though most stories are science fiction), though all are tinged by horror to one degree or another. N.W. fights monsters, gods, and those that would use them, though many times N.W. is more an observer than an active protagonist, as either whatever happens, happens, or a character in the story other than him is the driver of events, with that character pretty much always coming to a very bad end and it is Northwest Smith that survives as a witness. A few times Moore could fall into the Lovecraftian tendency for purple prose and overly long descriptions, though unlike Lovecraft I think she did a better job of describing what the characters felt as well as including actual dialogue. She was fond of the words queer, queerly, and once I noticed their frequency I couldn’t stop noticing them, but it wasn’t a big issue for me. One of the tales near the end of the collection was very arty and dream-like, some evocative writing but also rather confusing (“Werewoman”). Overall though the tales felt surprisingly modern and if one changed the settings from Venus, Mars, that moon of Jupiter, to some other planets out amongst the stars, they definitely could pass for modern science fiction (with horror and fantasy elements).
March 30, 2009
When I was around 14, I was given a library card to the San Marino library system, because the local branch of the Pasadena library system (I was living in Pasadena, California at the time) just didn't have enough books to keep me happy. I was overjoyed to discover a huge selection of science fiction in the nearest San Marine library branch which I'd never read before, and I promptly set about devouring all of it. One of the first things I discovered there was an omnibus anthology of some of the greatest science fiction stories of science fiction's Golden Age. It included "Shambleau," by C. L. Moore, one of the greatest short stories of all time, regardless of genre, a tale of a sexual vampire who imitates women in order to lure in human men and drain them of life-energy via sex. It was then that I was introduced to Northwest Smith, Moore's archetypal male hero, who broke the mold for all subsequent fictional adventurer-heroes, and who, in "Shambleau," barely escaped from the eponymous vampiric creature through no virtue of his own, thanks to the timely intervention of his partner-in-crime, Yarol. But more than that, Moore's superb storytelling opened up endless vistas of strange, doomed worlds and universes, of inconceivable Powers and Principalities, of terrors and horrors and wonders unimaginable, the like of which I'd never encountered before. And so, over the years that followed, I tried to find more of Moore's fiction, especially more about Northwest Smith, her cavalier hero/antihero, always on the run from the interplanetary law forces, aided and abetted by his Venusian sidekick Yarol, discovering one eerie, weird danger after another and somehow surviving all of them. Occasionally I was successful, and once I even managed to score a collection of her stories, though only a few, never enough to satisfy.
In the 1970s or 1980s a collection of Moore's Northwest Smith stories was marketed by Ballantine Books, and it contained most of her stories about Northwest Smith, including "Shambleau." The cover, however, was a travesty -- rather than looking the way an irresistably seductive woman should, the Shambleau on the cover looked like a lady who'd had a catastrophically unfortunate run-in with a massively incompetent cosmetic surgeon, her face a mass of wrinkles, her nose something straight out of the Paleocene, the "snakes" on her head looking somewhat the worse for wear. And Northwest Smith himself . . . you couldn't see his hair too well, and it looked as if he were tonsured. Or, at least, had a seriously metastasizing bald spot. Blechhh. Well, I finally got a copy of the book, and kept it in my collection for years, as much for reference as anything else. And then . . .
And then this year, the Science Fiction Book Club (http://www.sfbc.com) made Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith available to members, and I couldn't resist. I purchased it, and found it contained three of Moore's NW Smith stories I'd never seen before, as well as a great Introduction by C. J. Cherryh. One of the stories even featured Jirel of Joiry, Moore's other archetypal character, as well, the medieval female soldier-lord whose encounters with the uncanny and weird were just as intriguing, even seductive as Smith's adventures, perfectly complimenting his. On top of everything else, the cover of Northwest of Earth, painted by Andrew Hou, is perfectly in character with both Smith and the Shambleau he rescues and then is nearly destroyed by, as atractive as the cover of that earlier,above-mentioned collection is revolting.
As C. J. Cherryh says, this is an important book. Read it. Make sure your children and grandchildren read it. It's timeless -- and it's that good.
In the 1970s or 1980s a collection of Moore's Northwest Smith stories was marketed by Ballantine Books, and it contained most of her stories about Northwest Smith, including "Shambleau." The cover, however, was a travesty -- rather than looking the way an irresistably seductive woman should, the Shambleau on the cover looked like a lady who'd had a catastrophically unfortunate run-in with a massively incompetent cosmetic surgeon, her face a mass of wrinkles, her nose something straight out of the Paleocene, the "snakes" on her head looking somewhat the worse for wear. And Northwest Smith himself . . . you couldn't see his hair too well, and it looked as if he were tonsured. Or, at least, had a seriously metastasizing bald spot. Blechhh. Well, I finally got a copy of the book, and kept it in my collection for years, as much for reference as anything else. And then . . .
And then this year, the Science Fiction Book Club (http://www.sfbc.com) made Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith available to members, and I couldn't resist. I purchased it, and found it contained three of Moore's NW Smith stories I'd never seen before, as well as a great Introduction by C. J. Cherryh. One of the stories even featured Jirel of Joiry, Moore's other archetypal character, as well, the medieval female soldier-lord whose encounters with the uncanny and weird were just as intriguing, even seductive as Smith's adventures, perfectly complimenting his. On top of everything else, the cover of Northwest of Earth, painted by Andrew Hou, is perfectly in character with both Smith and the Shambleau he rescues and then is nearly destroyed by, as atractive as the cover of that earlier,above-mentioned collection is revolting.
As C. J. Cherryh says, this is an important book. Read it. Make sure your children and grandchildren read it. It's timeless -- and it's that good.
August 17, 2016
These stories are somewhat formulaic.
Shambleau - The introductory paragraph is a spoiler.
Black Thirst - Northwest Smith encounters a Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Scarlet Dream - Northwest Smith is transported into a perilous setting by a mysterious artifact. He passes time with a beautiful woman until a showdown with the local force of evil.
Dust of Gods - Northwest Smith and Yarol journey into the Martian wastes in search of forbidden relics of a previous civilization.
Julhi - Northwest Smith is drugged and awakens near a Venusian woman in a perilous setting.
Nymph of Darkness - Northwest Smith encounters a half-Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
The Cold Gray God - Northwest Smith encounters a Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Yvala - Northwest Smith and Yarol, his Venusian partner in crime, join a slaving expedition.
Lost Paradise - Northwest Smith and Yarol visit New York City and learn a forbidden secret.
The Tree of Life - Northwest Smith encounters a Martian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Quest of the Starstone - Northwest Smith encounters Jirel of Joiry (Moore's other series character).
Werewoman - Northwest Smith has a paranormal encounter in a desert.
Song in a Minor Key - Northwest Smith ponders his boyhood.
Shambleau - The introductory paragraph is a spoiler.
Black Thirst - Northwest Smith encounters a Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Scarlet Dream - Northwest Smith is transported into a perilous setting by a mysterious artifact. He passes time with a beautiful woman until a showdown with the local force of evil.
Dust of Gods - Northwest Smith and Yarol journey into the Martian wastes in search of forbidden relics of a previous civilization.
Julhi - Northwest Smith is drugged and awakens near a Venusian woman in a perilous setting.
Nymph of Darkness - Northwest Smith encounters a half-Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
The Cold Gray God - Northwest Smith encounters a Venusian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Yvala - Northwest Smith and Yarol, his Venusian partner in crime, join a slaving expedition.
Lost Paradise - Northwest Smith and Yarol visit New York City and learn a forbidden secret.
The Tree of Life - Northwest Smith encounters a Martian woman who leads him into a perilous setting.
Quest of the Starstone - Northwest Smith encounters Jirel of Joiry (Moore's other series character).
Werewoman - Northwest Smith has a paranormal encounter in a desert.
Song in a Minor Key - Northwest Smith ponders his boyhood.
October 3, 2022
Podcast on the opening story with Cora Buhlert and Greg Cox...
https://youtu.be/Bgl6ILcG1pI
I am super proud of growing up in Indiana. In my age and era, I think of our excellent and underrated punk rock. I think of the Gizmos an early garage punk band that was mostly lost to history because they were playing in small town basements, but they rocked. I have a special place in my heart for Indiana artists. There are some really special Hoosier authors from modern-day Afrofuturist Maurice Broaddus to giants like Kurt Vonnegut.
He was great but you know who I think is cooler? CL Moore. AKA Catherine Moore, AKA Catherine Lucille Moore, AKA Catherine Kuttner. Just like me, she is a Hoosier. Born in Indianapolis in 1911 Catherine Moore published her first works in the student journal the Vagabond at Indiana University journalism school just blocks from the house I grew up in 60 years later. Her first published work in that student journal was a story called Happily Ever After, and it has appeared in journals.
The first story in this collection likely written in 1932 was probably written when she was a student in Bloomington. To give some context that was a year before Hitler became chancellor of Germany. A long time ago.
80 years ago.
She left IU to support her family during the great depression but published many stories in the early pulp magazines, but it was Weird Tales where she became a popular regular alongside HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard who were fans of her work. At one point she received a fan letter from a fellow writer Henry Kuttner addressed “Dear Mister Moore.” Later she would publish many works co-written with Kuttner whom she was married until his death in 1958. She retired from writing in the 60s. In between her impact was hard to calculate.
It should be noted she never used the name CL to hide her gender, she was afraid she would lose her job as a secretary at the Fletcher Trust Company in Indianapolis if they found out she was moonlighting as a writer. She created two characters that were the focus of her Weird Tales stories. Her most famous character Jirel of Joiry was one I wrote about in my Tor.com article about Golden age classics that would make great modern movies. That character was a swordsman think of Conan played by Jessica Chastain in a few years. She remains an important character and in Weird Tales terms, her appearances were welcome returns for fans.
(As a little aside…as editor of Weird Tales from 1924-1940 Farnsworth Wright sure is not talked about. Not like Hugo Gernsback or John W. Campbell. He oversaw the creation of Cosmic horror, sword and sorcery, and pan-dimensional sub-genres. He discovered CL Moore, Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard and countless others. I don't have to look up who edited WT, but Gernsback, Boucher, and Campbell I already knew the journals they edited.)
I am not sure which character was more popular at the time, but her other character of note was the space rogue Northwest Smith. He is played by Harrison Ford in my mind because he is part, Indiana Jones and Han Solo. The OG space rogue who encounters monsters and cosmic horror around a very 30s-style pulp solar system that was written before we knew nearly as much about the planets, we share the sun with.
At the time these stories were science fiction but today they read like Fantasy, as Venus and Mars are impossibly filled with like. Smith as a character is similar to the character Eric John Stark written by Moore’s close friend Leigh Brackett. The world both even characters exist in is a delightfully out-of-date vision of our solar system that I imagine existing in a pre-history, alternate past.
This British edition collecting all the Northwest Smith stories opens with the classic Martian vampire story Shambleau which first appeared in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales. It has been collected in probably 50 or so collections or anthologies from this book, the best of CL Moore to many Vampire anthologies. Being her first story it is delightfully raw and pulpy, but it is so much fun. How can you not enjoy a stage set this way…
“It was a motley crowd, Earthmen and Martians and a sprinkling of Venusian swampmen and strange, nameless denizens of unnamed planets- a typical Lakkdarol mob.”
It invokes the cantina scene in Star Wars but this woman wrote this scene four decades earlier. With this one sentence, she sets the stage for a crazy strange solar system and city. This is excellent world-building and for a first story in a series, she sets the table so well. Yes, the details are dated but beautifully so.
As a space rogue in the Starbuck, Han Solo mode it is true that Moore was writing this type of character when FDR was president. I love how Buck Rodgers some of these details feel now.
“Smith's errand in Lakkdarol, like most of his errands, is better not spoken of. Man lives as he must, and Smith's living was a perilous affair outside the law and ruled by ray-gun only.”
But also they had a noir drunk dude feeling at the same time….
“The cool night air had sobered him a little and his head was clear enough – liquor went to Smith’s feet, not his head, or he would never have come this far along his lawless way he had chosen.”
Still, this was Weird Tales and one of the great things about all these stories is no matter how pulpy some of them feel they also have that grand cosmic feel that the magazine was known for. CL Moore could write a paragraph that pushed you to that edge where you peeked into the great cosmos.
“He was staring into a greater dark that held all things..He had known - dimly he had known when he first gazed into those flat animal shallows that behind them lay this - beauty and terror, all horror and delight, in the infinite darkness upon her eyes opened like windows, paned with emerald glass.”
The stories have gorgons, vampires, Werewolves, and ancient tombs. The best moments in the book come when the pulp style mixes with that cosmic feelings. The Dark itself is a monster, who mated with Swamp vampire women from Venus. Ancient gods and green fertile Mars…
“There were gods who were old when Mars was a green planet, and verdant moon circled an Earth blue with steaming seas, and Venus, molten hot, swung round a younger sun. Another world circled in space then, between Mars and Jupiter where its fragments planetoids are now.”
It is impossible to divorce these stories from their era, and that is not the correct way to read them. If there is a problem with this beautiful modern edition from Gollancz in the UK is the lack of information. A Golden Age Masterworks edition has a slick cover and the back is divided by a description and an Encyclopedia of Science Fiction biography. This is a smart move as her place in the time and era of the genre is a selling point.
That said this edition doesn’t have a table of contents. I think this was a mistake. There is also no information. The back story and publication history of each of the stories were very interesting. As I had to go to the internet to find out what year each story was published I found myself thinking this should be in the book.
Catherine Lucille Moore was born of a strange mating of styles. I kinda thought of her style when I read this sentence.
“I was born of a strange mating, Earthman. My mother was Venusian, but my father- My father was Darkness. I can’t explain…because of the strain of Dark in me I am invisible.”
That is CL Moore in a nutshell, a strange mating of pulp Sci-fi and the blackest of cosmic horror. If she couldn’t write beautiful prose she would not have been able to hang with WT's stable of writers and not only that become one of the voices that built the style the magazine (that just released a new issue) is known for. The prose has that nasty beauty that Lovecraft was known for that edges close to purple prose. The thing she has that Howie struggled with is the fun she had with swords and heat guns. There are moments of light-hearted humor and fun that some of her peers struggled with.
It is sad she retired from writing, but before she did she and her husband Henry Kuttner created a few classics together. She taught writing at USC for many years, and worked in Television briefly. She earned her lifetime achievement awards and as an Indiana horror nerd, I want to do my part to make sure she is remembered.
This book is a great place to start.
“As he swept on through the dark he began to find a tantalizing familiarity in the arrangement of some of those starry groups there were constellations he knew… surely that was Orion, striding across the sky. He saw Betelgeuse’s redly glowing eye, and Rigel’s cold blue blaze. And beyond across the gulfs of darkness, twin Sirius was spinning blue-white against the black.”
https://youtu.be/Bgl6ILcG1pI
I am super proud of growing up in Indiana. In my age and era, I think of our excellent and underrated punk rock. I think of the Gizmos an early garage punk band that was mostly lost to history because they were playing in small town basements, but they rocked. I have a special place in my heart for Indiana artists. There are some really special Hoosier authors from modern-day Afrofuturist Maurice Broaddus to giants like Kurt Vonnegut.
He was great but you know who I think is cooler? CL Moore. AKA Catherine Moore, AKA Catherine Lucille Moore, AKA Catherine Kuttner. Just like me, she is a Hoosier. Born in Indianapolis in 1911 Catherine Moore published her first works in the student journal the Vagabond at Indiana University journalism school just blocks from the house I grew up in 60 years later. Her first published work in that student journal was a story called Happily Ever After, and it has appeared in journals.
The first story in this collection likely written in 1932 was probably written when she was a student in Bloomington. To give some context that was a year before Hitler became chancellor of Germany. A long time ago.
80 years ago.
She left IU to support her family during the great depression but published many stories in the early pulp magazines, but it was Weird Tales where she became a popular regular alongside HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard who were fans of her work. At one point she received a fan letter from a fellow writer Henry Kuttner addressed “Dear Mister Moore.” Later she would publish many works co-written with Kuttner whom she was married until his death in 1958. She retired from writing in the 60s. In between her impact was hard to calculate.
It should be noted she never used the name CL to hide her gender, she was afraid she would lose her job as a secretary at the Fletcher Trust Company in Indianapolis if they found out she was moonlighting as a writer. She created two characters that were the focus of her Weird Tales stories. Her most famous character Jirel of Joiry was one I wrote about in my Tor.com article about Golden age classics that would make great modern movies. That character was a swordsman think of Conan played by Jessica Chastain in a few years. She remains an important character and in Weird Tales terms, her appearances were welcome returns for fans.
(As a little aside…as editor of Weird Tales from 1924-1940 Farnsworth Wright sure is not talked about. Not like Hugo Gernsback or John W. Campbell. He oversaw the creation of Cosmic horror, sword and sorcery, and pan-dimensional sub-genres. He discovered CL Moore, Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard and countless others. I don't have to look up who edited WT, but Gernsback, Boucher, and Campbell I already knew the journals they edited.)
I am not sure which character was more popular at the time, but her other character of note was the space rogue Northwest Smith. He is played by Harrison Ford in my mind because he is part, Indiana Jones and Han Solo. The OG space rogue who encounters monsters and cosmic horror around a very 30s-style pulp solar system that was written before we knew nearly as much about the planets, we share the sun with.
At the time these stories were science fiction but today they read like Fantasy, as Venus and Mars are impossibly filled with like. Smith as a character is similar to the character Eric John Stark written by Moore’s close friend Leigh Brackett. The world both even characters exist in is a delightfully out-of-date vision of our solar system that I imagine existing in a pre-history, alternate past.
This British edition collecting all the Northwest Smith stories opens with the classic Martian vampire story Shambleau which first appeared in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales. It has been collected in probably 50 or so collections or anthologies from this book, the best of CL Moore to many Vampire anthologies. Being her first story it is delightfully raw and pulpy, but it is so much fun. How can you not enjoy a stage set this way…
“It was a motley crowd, Earthmen and Martians and a sprinkling of Venusian swampmen and strange, nameless denizens of unnamed planets- a typical Lakkdarol mob.”
It invokes the cantina scene in Star Wars but this woman wrote this scene four decades earlier. With this one sentence, she sets the stage for a crazy strange solar system and city. This is excellent world-building and for a first story in a series, she sets the table so well. Yes, the details are dated but beautifully so.
As a space rogue in the Starbuck, Han Solo mode it is true that Moore was writing this type of character when FDR was president. I love how Buck Rodgers some of these details feel now.
“Smith's errand in Lakkdarol, like most of his errands, is better not spoken of. Man lives as he must, and Smith's living was a perilous affair outside the law and ruled by ray-gun only.”
But also they had a noir drunk dude feeling at the same time….
“The cool night air had sobered him a little and his head was clear enough – liquor went to Smith’s feet, not his head, or he would never have come this far along his lawless way he had chosen.”
Still, this was Weird Tales and one of the great things about all these stories is no matter how pulpy some of them feel they also have that grand cosmic feel that the magazine was known for. CL Moore could write a paragraph that pushed you to that edge where you peeked into the great cosmos.
“He was staring into a greater dark that held all things..He had known - dimly he had known when he first gazed into those flat animal shallows that behind them lay this - beauty and terror, all horror and delight, in the infinite darkness upon her eyes opened like windows, paned with emerald glass.”
The stories have gorgons, vampires, Werewolves, and ancient tombs. The best moments in the book come when the pulp style mixes with that cosmic feelings. The Dark itself is a monster, who mated with Swamp vampire women from Venus. Ancient gods and green fertile Mars…
“There were gods who were old when Mars was a green planet, and verdant moon circled an Earth blue with steaming seas, and Venus, molten hot, swung round a younger sun. Another world circled in space then, between Mars and Jupiter where its fragments planetoids are now.”
It is impossible to divorce these stories from their era, and that is not the correct way to read them. If there is a problem with this beautiful modern edition from Gollancz in the UK is the lack of information. A Golden Age Masterworks edition has a slick cover and the back is divided by a description and an Encyclopedia of Science Fiction biography. This is a smart move as her place in the time and era of the genre is a selling point.
That said this edition doesn’t have a table of contents. I think this was a mistake. There is also no information. The back story and publication history of each of the stories were very interesting. As I had to go to the internet to find out what year each story was published I found myself thinking this should be in the book.
Catherine Lucille Moore was born of a strange mating of styles. I kinda thought of her style when I read this sentence.
“I was born of a strange mating, Earthman. My mother was Venusian, but my father- My father was Darkness. I can’t explain…because of the strain of Dark in me I am invisible.”
That is CL Moore in a nutshell, a strange mating of pulp Sci-fi and the blackest of cosmic horror. If she couldn’t write beautiful prose she would not have been able to hang with WT's stable of writers and not only that become one of the voices that built the style the magazine (that just released a new issue) is known for. The prose has that nasty beauty that Lovecraft was known for that edges close to purple prose. The thing she has that Howie struggled with is the fun she had with swords and heat guns. There are moments of light-hearted humor and fun that some of her peers struggled with.
It is sad she retired from writing, but before she did she and her husband Henry Kuttner created a few classics together. She taught writing at USC for many years, and worked in Television briefly. She earned her lifetime achievement awards and as an Indiana horror nerd, I want to do my part to make sure she is remembered.
This book is a great place to start.
“As he swept on through the dark he began to find a tantalizing familiarity in the arrangement of some of those starry groups there were constellations he knew… surely that was Orion, striding across the sky. He saw Betelgeuse’s redly glowing eye, and Rigel’s cold blue blaze. And beyond across the gulfs of darkness, twin Sirius was spinning blue-white against the black.”
March 4, 2015
Catherine Lucille Moore, or C.L. Moore was a contemporary of H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber, praised by Michael Moorcock and Greg Bear, my collection has a introduction by C.J. Cherryh, who says:
"This is an important book. Read it. Make sure your kids and grandkids read it. It's timeless, and it's that good."
It reminds me fondly of Andre Norton's Time Traders/Solar Queen series, and perhaps a bit of the show Firefly, but the prose is emotional and colorful, and at the end of it all there is still a mystery about who Northwest Smith, of Earth, is.
Shambleau : On Mars, takes the old cliche of saving a damsel in distress and turns it on it's head when Northwest Smith encounters the aliens which gave life to the myths of the Gorgon, Medusa, luckily Smith does not travel alone for when he goes missing, Yarol seeks him out in turn.
Black Thirst : On Venus, Northwest encounters a Minga maid Vaudir, who invites him into the depths and nameless danger of the Minga, in a vampiric shadow of the Alendar.
Scarlet Dream : On Mars, the purchase of a shawl bring strange scarlet dreams, from which NW might not wake.
Dust of Gods : On Mars, poor and drinking the last of their segir-whisky, Yarol and Northwest are approached with a job for fifty thousand Earth dollars, and all he has to do is give the dust of Black Pharol to a man who might be mad.
Julhi : On Venus, Northwest finds himself taken to the ruins of Vonng, where the girl Apri tells of Julhi, something between sorceress and goddess, who twists with her one eye real and unreal, time and place and sweet sensation.
Nymph of Darkness (with Forrest J. Ackerman) : It is dangerous to venture into night on Venus, as meeting Nyusa proves- even to Northwest.
The Cold Gray God : On Mars, Smith agrees to get something for Judai, a stolen box of a patron of Mhici's place, Spaceman's Rest, for a price of his naming, but the cost of taking of it is not worth the prize.
Yvala : On Mars, Yarol and Northwest Smith take a job that takes them face to face with Yvala, something like sirens and the sorceress Circe out of old Earth myth.
Lost Paradise : On Earth, Yarol and Northwest stumble upon the sight of a Seles, and Northwest glimpses the Secret of their race.
The Tree of Life : On Mars, Northwest stumbles into the ruins of Illar, but he is not alone and Thag is not merely a Tree...
Quest of the Starstone (with her husband, Henry Kuttner): Yarol and Smith encounter Jirel of Joiry, seeking Starstone for reasons which seem to twist all time and place.
Werewoman : Fleeing from battle, Northwest Smith joins the wild hunt of a werewoman's wolf pack, but to run free is not to be free.
Song in a Minor Key : Northwest Smith comes to Earth, and his fleeting feeling and memories offer but a glimpse of who he was, but who he is is now unchanging.
"This is an important book. Read it. Make sure your kids and grandkids read it. It's timeless, and it's that good."
It reminds me fondly of Andre Norton's Time Traders/Solar Queen series, and perhaps a bit of the show Firefly, but the prose is emotional and colorful, and at the end of it all there is still a mystery about who Northwest Smith, of Earth, is.
Shambleau : On Mars, takes the old cliche of saving a damsel in distress and turns it on it's head when Northwest Smith encounters the aliens which gave life to the myths of the Gorgon, Medusa, luckily Smith does not travel alone for when he goes missing, Yarol seeks him out in turn.
Black Thirst : On Venus, Northwest encounters a Minga maid Vaudir, who invites him into the depths and nameless danger of the Minga, in a vampiric shadow of the Alendar.
Scarlet Dream : On Mars, the purchase of a shawl bring strange scarlet dreams, from which NW might not wake.
Dust of Gods : On Mars, poor and drinking the last of their segir-whisky, Yarol and Northwest are approached with a job for fifty thousand Earth dollars, and all he has to do is give the dust of Black Pharol to a man who might be mad.
Julhi : On Venus, Northwest finds himself taken to the ruins of Vonng, where the girl Apri tells of Julhi, something between sorceress and goddess, who twists with her one eye real and unreal, time and place and sweet sensation.
Nymph of Darkness (with Forrest J. Ackerman) : It is dangerous to venture into night on Venus, as meeting Nyusa proves- even to Northwest.
The Cold Gray God : On Mars, Smith agrees to get something for Judai, a stolen box of a patron of Mhici's place, Spaceman's Rest, for a price of his naming, but the cost of taking of it is not worth the prize.
Yvala : On Mars, Yarol and Northwest Smith take a job that takes them face to face with Yvala, something like sirens and the sorceress Circe out of old Earth myth.
Lost Paradise : On Earth, Yarol and Northwest stumble upon the sight of a Seles, and Northwest glimpses the Secret of their race.
The Tree of Life : On Mars, Northwest stumbles into the ruins of Illar, but he is not alone and Thag is not merely a Tree...
Quest of the Starstone (with her husband, Henry Kuttner): Yarol and Smith encounter Jirel of Joiry, seeking Starstone for reasons which seem to twist all time and place.
Werewoman : Fleeing from battle, Northwest Smith joins the wild hunt of a werewoman's wolf pack, but to run free is not to be free.
Song in a Minor Key : Northwest Smith comes to Earth, and his fleeting feeling and memories offer but a glimpse of who he was, but who he is is now unchanging.
August 14, 2022
Smith's track recotd with women is abysmal. He would've been a lot better off had he been celibate or smth. Almost every single woman he meets is bent on seducing him and then proceeding to get him in trouble, one crazy way after another.
Of course, I've got trouble with the way women are shown here. It's like they've got one mode: seduction, wearing impracticable dresses, being in distresses of mysterious kinds and looking good. Never a single gal entertains any passion beyond these and murder/eating Smith whole/leeching his energy and being a femme fatale/ being the object of Smith's being an homme fatal/ both. This is so darn tedious that I can't believe a woman wrote this stuff. Not a gal ever reads or is obcessed with books or gets busy doing smth, anything at all. Not even smth menial like cooking or cleaning. No poets, employees, writers of any kind or maybe getting a job for women here. Okay, one of these danced to a crowd of worshippers who commanded her to dance right until she punished them for their transgressions but that's about it.
I'm wondering here: had they anything remotely interesting to do, mybe they wouldn't get to be murderous and troublesome all the way (or at all)?
Of course, I've got trouble with the way women are shown here. It's like they've got one mode: seduction, wearing impracticable dresses, being in distresses of mysterious kinds and looking good. Never a single gal entertains any passion beyond these and murder/eating Smith whole/leeching his energy and being a femme fatale/ being the object of Smith's being an homme fatal/ both. This is so darn tedious that I can't believe a woman wrote this stuff. Not a gal ever reads or is obcessed with books or gets busy doing smth, anything at all. Not even smth menial like cooking or cleaning. No poets, employees, writers of any kind or maybe getting a job for women here. Okay, one of these danced to a crowd of worshippers who commanded her to dance right until she punished them for their transgressions but that's about it.
I'm wondering here: had they anything remotely interesting to do, mybe they wouldn't get to be murderous and troublesome all the way (or at all)?
October 1, 2016
This is a collection of short stories and it is because of that I actually finished. If it had been a novel I would have given up because I would have known it would never improve.
The style was just too slow for me, yes things happened, but it was very slow. 379 pages could have been 250 if not 200. I did not like most of the plots, they did nothing for me. Once you had read a couple you had an idea what was going to happen.
Really regret struggling on with it. Not for me.
The style was just too slow for me, yes things happened, but it was very slow. 379 pages could have been 250 if not 200. I did not like most of the plots, they did nothing for me. Once you had read a couple you had an idea what was going to happen.
Really regret struggling on with it. Not for me.
January 4, 2010
The stories follow a clear formula: Northwest Smith encounters a damsel in distress, who is Other Than She Seems, and encounters some menacingly powerful otherworldly entity which he manages to resist through sheer force of will, losing said damsel (who is often the entity itself) in the process.
Fine enough, but it starts to wear after the first three or four stories.
Fine enough, but it starts to wear after the first three or four stories.
May 27, 2023
C.L. Moore’s space faring hero, Northwest Smith, reminds me of Han Soli crossed with Clint Eastwood’s “Man with no name”, a scarred leather clad man for hire who wields a heat gun in his holster often teaming with his Venusian friend Yarol.
My favorite two stories occurred near the end of the book. The first, “Quest of the Starstone”,written with husband Henry Kuttner, teams NW with Moore’s other famous character, Jirel of Joiry. Frank’s the Warlock, escapes Jirel and hires NW out of time and space to get back a magic stone from Jirel. Just a neat cross-time adventure with the two titanic heroes.
The second great story is “Werewoman” opening with a bloody NW fleeing some foes into the haunted city wastes only to come upon a female werewolf and her pack and later an invisible malevolent wave of sludge tracking them down.
Meaty and enjoyable stories!
My favorite two stories occurred near the end of the book. The first, “Quest of the Starstone”,written with husband Henry Kuttner, teams NW with Moore’s other famous character, Jirel of Joiry. Frank’s the Warlock, escapes Jirel and hires NW out of time and space to get back a magic stone from Jirel. Just a neat cross-time adventure with the two titanic heroes.
The second great story is “Werewoman” opening with a bloody NW fleeing some foes into the haunted city wastes only to come upon a female werewolf and her pack and later an invisible malevolent wave of sludge tracking them down.
Meaty and enjoyable stories!
January 9, 2020
3/5
Northwest Smith, el supuesto antecedente literario de Han Solo, es un cazarrecompensas que lleva a cabo todo tipo de misiones, que siempre involucran de alguna forma a un personaje femenino, a lo largo y ancho del Sistema Solar. En esta antología encontramos todo tipo de historietas, en las que seguimos a nuestro hombre del espacio y a su compañero, Yarol, un amante del whisky segir. La colección, no obstante, aunque tenga muchos relatos, casi todos presentan una estructura similar, por lo que leerse casi 500 páginas así puede llegar a cansar.
La labor de la editorial española es destacable, dado que dudo que de otra forma se puedan traer estas obras a España, pero esta edición cuenta con notables imperfecciones. Por ejemplo, el hecho de que la obra haya sido traducida por diferentes personas no permite realizar una correcta calificación de los diferentes relatos que componen esta antología. Otra de las deficiencias de la edición es la de los numerosos errores tipográficos, frutos de una inadecuada revisión, no creo que el presupuesto pueda influir en este aspecto, dando una imagen poco seria en ocasiones. Es el primer libro que leo de esta interesante editorial y quiero que no sea el último; me parecen ediciones muy bonitas y creo que es un gran punto la inclusión de las ilustraciones originales - me encantan -, pero espero que cuiden para los siguientes volúmenes estas cuestiones, para poder convertirse así en una de las editoriales de referencia de la literatura pulp clásica en nuestro país.
A continuación, muestro la valoración y comentario de cada uno de los relatos del libro.
-Shambleau. (3,5/5). Una historia cuya protagonista evoca a la monstruosa Medusa griega.
–Sed Negra. (2,5/5). Historia en la que se nos describen las profundidades de Minga.
–El sueño escarlata. (2,5/5). La compra de un chal en el mercado le provocará a Smith sueños misteriosos...
–El polvo de los dioses. (3,5/5). Smith y Yarol deciden adentrarse en una cueva en busca de Pharol...
–Julhi. (3/5). En uno de sus viajes Northwest Smith conocerá a la fantástica y peculiar Julhi.
–La ninfa de la oscuridad. (3/5). El hallazgo de una misteriosa mujer le llevará a conocer a los Nur.
–El frío dios gris. (3,5/5). Una misión en la que tendrán que conseguir una caja, pero que no acabará valiendo el precio que cuesta.
–Yvala. (3,5/5). Un trabajo les llevará a conocer a la fantástica Yvala.
–Paraíso perdido. (3/5). En este relato conoceremos a la legendaria raza de los seles.
–El árbol de la vida.(4/5). En las ruinas de Illar, nuestro aventurero no estará solo, pues también estará la presencia de un tal Thag. De los mejores relatos.
–La búsqueda de la gema de las estrellas. (4/5). Yarol y Smith se encontrarán con Jirel de Joiry - uno de los principales personajes de la escritora - en una de sus misiones en la que estará involucrado un malvado hechicero. Me ha gustado mucho.
–La mujer lobo. (3/5). Northwest Smith entrará en contacto con unas mujeres lobo.
–Canción en una clave menor.(3,5/5). Smith volverá a la Tierra, pero sus recuerdos no le abandonarán...
Northwest Smith, el supuesto antecedente literario de Han Solo, es un cazarrecompensas que lleva a cabo todo tipo de misiones, que siempre involucran de alguna forma a un personaje femenino, a lo largo y ancho del Sistema Solar. En esta antología encontramos todo tipo de historietas, en las que seguimos a nuestro hombre del espacio y a su compañero, Yarol, un amante del whisky segir. La colección, no obstante, aunque tenga muchos relatos, casi todos presentan una estructura similar, por lo que leerse casi 500 páginas así puede llegar a cansar.
La labor de la editorial española es destacable, dado que dudo que de otra forma se puedan traer estas obras a España, pero esta edición cuenta con notables imperfecciones. Por ejemplo, el hecho de que la obra haya sido traducida por diferentes personas no permite realizar una correcta calificación de los diferentes relatos que componen esta antología. Otra de las deficiencias de la edición es la de los numerosos errores tipográficos, frutos de una inadecuada revisión, no creo que el presupuesto pueda influir en este aspecto, dando una imagen poco seria en ocasiones. Es el primer libro que leo de esta interesante editorial y quiero que no sea el último; me parecen ediciones muy bonitas y creo que es un gran punto la inclusión de las ilustraciones originales - me encantan -, pero espero que cuiden para los siguientes volúmenes estas cuestiones, para poder convertirse así en una de las editoriales de referencia de la literatura pulp clásica en nuestro país.
A continuación, muestro la valoración y comentario de cada uno de los relatos del libro.
-Shambleau. (3,5/5). Una historia cuya protagonista evoca a la monstruosa Medusa griega.
–Sed Negra. (2,5/5). Historia en la que se nos describen las profundidades de Minga.
–El sueño escarlata. (2,5/5). La compra de un chal en el mercado le provocará a Smith sueños misteriosos...
–El polvo de los dioses. (3,5/5). Smith y Yarol deciden adentrarse en una cueva en busca de Pharol...
–Julhi. (3/5). En uno de sus viajes Northwest Smith conocerá a la fantástica y peculiar Julhi.
–La ninfa de la oscuridad. (3/5). El hallazgo de una misteriosa mujer le llevará a conocer a los Nur.
–El frío dios gris. (3,5/5). Una misión en la que tendrán que conseguir una caja, pero que no acabará valiendo el precio que cuesta.
–Yvala. (3,5/5). Un trabajo les llevará a conocer a la fantástica Yvala.
–Paraíso perdido. (3/5). En este relato conoceremos a la legendaria raza de los seles.
–El árbol de la vida.(4/5). En las ruinas de Illar, nuestro aventurero no estará solo, pues también estará la presencia de un tal Thag. De los mejores relatos.
–La búsqueda de la gema de las estrellas. (4/5). Yarol y Smith se encontrarán con Jirel de Joiry - uno de los principales personajes de la escritora - en una de sus misiones en la que estará involucrado un malvado hechicero. Me ha gustado mucho.
–La mujer lobo. (3/5). Northwest Smith entrará en contacto con unas mujeres lobo.
–Canción en una clave menor.(3,5/5). Smith volverá a la Tierra, pero sus recuerdos no le abandonarán...
October 16, 2023
Northwest Smith: Women want him, aliens want to eat him. My faves: Shambleau, Scarlet Dream, The Cold Gray God, Yvala.
September 12, 2020
There are lots of Golden Age SF/F writers I haven’t read, or in some cases never even heard of – until recently, C.L. Moore was both. Her most famous creation is Northwest Smith, an outlaw from Earth who spends time on Venus and Mars doing shady things. This book collects all of the Northwest Smith stories, starting with the most famous one, “Shambleau”, in which Smith protects a strange-looking woman on the run from a mob, and later finds out the hard way just why they were trying to kill her.
It’s a pretty good story, but it went downhill quickly for me after that. I could blame the back cover blurb for setting up my expectations of Smith as a sort of Han Solo-type anti-hero outlaw adventurer – in these stories, he does very little overt lawbreaking or adventuring, and mostly finds himself encountering deadly alien women with god-like powers, after which mind-bending things happen. That’s fine, but the mind-bending madness parts go on for 10-12 pages at a time. Maybe it’s better when you read them separately in pulp magazines, but when you read them all in one place, it gets tiresome – at least for me.
Credit where it’s due – as pulp SF/F goes, Moore was a much better writer than many of her bigger-name contemporaries, with more emotional depth and a focus on character rather than science and two-fisted action (indeed, there is precious little science or action here). And I appreciate that she’s doing something fairly subversive here in the sense that she’s writing about strong powerful women that are a threat to the masculine tough-guy protagonist – which was something you didn’t see much of in 1930s SF/F pulp. Still, all of the ancient-gods weirdness just goes on and on and gets tedious after a while. I gather it’s the result of pulp magazines paying by the word, and fair enough. Either way, it’s not really my thing.
It’s a pretty good story, but it went downhill quickly for me after that. I could blame the back cover blurb for setting up my expectations of Smith as a sort of Han Solo-type anti-hero outlaw adventurer – in these stories, he does very little overt lawbreaking or adventuring, and mostly finds himself encountering deadly alien women with god-like powers, after which mind-bending things happen. That’s fine, but the mind-bending madness parts go on for 10-12 pages at a time. Maybe it’s better when you read them separately in pulp magazines, but when you read them all in one place, it gets tiresome – at least for me.
Credit where it’s due – as pulp SF/F goes, Moore was a much better writer than many of her bigger-name contemporaries, with more emotional depth and a focus on character rather than science and two-fisted action (indeed, there is precious little science or action here). And I appreciate that she’s doing something fairly subversive here in the sense that she’s writing about strong powerful women that are a threat to the masculine tough-guy protagonist – which was something you didn’t see much of in 1930s SF/F pulp. Still, all of the ancient-gods weirdness just goes on and on and gets tedious after a while. I gather it’s the result of pulp magazines paying by the word, and fair enough. Either way, it’s not really my thing.
September 22, 2010
Northwest of Earth is an interesting study in 1930s pulp science fiction, despite the fact that I did not particularly like the parts of the collection that I read. For all intents and purposes, the stories barely qualify as science-fiction. Instead, they are typical Poe- and Lovecraft-style supernatural tales with a thin, practically translucent sci-fi shell. In "Shambleau," the most famous of the Northwest Smith shorts, the protagonist encounters Medusa. But it happens to be on Mars. Likewise, in the story "Black Thirst," Northwest encounters an age-old vampire. But it happens to be on Venus. You get the drift.
What makes the stories marginally interesting is when one considers their background. Northwest Smith is not a particularly strong character, and I would disagree with anyone who suggests that he is an archetype for, say, Han Solo. Northwest can barely take care of himself and wouldn't survive his various scrapes without crucial assistance from his Venusian sidekick, Yarol, or the various beautiful women he encounters. One wonders how Northwest has stayed alive so long at all, since he seems particularly susceptible to getting into trouble and rarely able to get out of it.
So what is Moore trying to say? As one of the first female sci-fi writers and certainly a pioneer for women in speculative fiction, was she suggesting that the male protagonists of the pulp era should not have been as strong and independent as they were typically portrayed? And if so, why are Moore's female characters not stronger (the woman who saves Northwest in "Black Thirst," after all, dies a particularly pitiful death)?
Northwest of Earth certainly provides plenty of food for thought, even if the stories are carbon copies of one another.
Finished on page 99 after reading "Shambleau," "The Black Thirst" and part of "Scarlet Dream."
What makes the stories marginally interesting is when one considers their background. Northwest Smith is not a particularly strong character, and I would disagree with anyone who suggests that he is an archetype for, say, Han Solo. Northwest can barely take care of himself and wouldn't survive his various scrapes without crucial assistance from his Venusian sidekick, Yarol, or the various beautiful women he encounters. One wonders how Northwest has stayed alive so long at all, since he seems particularly susceptible to getting into trouble and rarely able to get out of it.
So what is Moore trying to say? As one of the first female sci-fi writers and certainly a pioneer for women in speculative fiction, was she suggesting that the male protagonists of the pulp era should not have been as strong and independent as they were typically portrayed? And if so, why are Moore's female characters not stronger (the woman who saves Northwest in "Black Thirst," after all, dies a particularly pitiful death)?
Northwest of Earth certainly provides plenty of food for thought, even if the stories are carbon copies of one another.
Finished on page 99 after reading "Shambleau," "The Black Thirst" and part of "Scarlet Dream."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 25, 2012
It's hard to believe that these stories were written in the 1930's (except for the last one). Now the concept of aliens on Venus, Mars, and a few other places is quite laughable today, but taken for when they were written and as an alternate reality, they really were quite fascinating. Her world building was good. We knew that NW was a smuggler and criminal from many key points, but she never describes the man or his partner, Venusian Yarol, working aboard their ship. In fact ships are rare. These stories, by and large, are about NW encountering things (usually women) beyond the norm. They reminded me of the Star Trek stories that touched on the supernatural, like Who Mourns For Adonis. We have Medusa, the tree of life, and a werewolf. In all of these, it is the hardened and unusual nature of NW that leads him out of situations that would doom lesser men. As a smuggler he gets by, but faced with extraordinary adversaries is where he shines.
C.L. Moore's writing style is typical for the 30's, but very good. She has a way of describing things that really put me in the scene. I could feel what NW was feeling. Her imagination and creativity with her otherworldly creatures is where she shines. He words not only brought NW to life, but every aspect of the world she was creating. It was a marvelous read. Not the best book I've ever read, but far better than I expected. One I would recommend to anyone interested in SF tales of the fantastic.
C.L. Moore's writing style is typical for the 30's, but very good. She has a way of describing things that really put me in the scene. I could feel what NW was feeling. Her imagination and creativity with her otherworldly creatures is where she shines. He words not only brought NW to life, but every aspect of the world she was creating. It was a marvelous read. Not the best book I've ever read, but far better than I expected. One I would recommend to anyone interested in SF tales of the fantastic.
May 25, 2019
What a strange book - in a good way.
Take a proto Han Solo space smuggler type character, set him in a pulpy Flash Gordon/John Carter of Mars universe (with hints of Métal Hurlant), and then add a dash of James T Kirk alien loving... but top it all off with having the green alien chick inevitably turn out to be some sort of Lovecraftian unspeakable horror and cosmic madness abound.
A collection of short stories about our titular anti-hero Northwest Smith, is generally a vehicle for CL Moore to present her audience with tales of mind bending cosmic horror that I believe any fan of HP Lovecraft would take an interest in. In fact Moore and Lovecraft often corresponded in the '30s, so it's easy to see where his inspiration rubbed off; however Moore clearly runs with it and makes it her own with a lot more focus on sexuality.
This complete NW Smith collection also includes a crossover story with one of Moore's other interesting characters, Jirel of Joiry - a sort of early Red Sonja swords and sorcery style character of which there exists another collection of short stories that I can't wait to sink my teeth into.
So if you like the idea of Captain Kirk chatting up an green alien woman only for her to metamorphose into Cthulhu wearing some red lipstick, then this is the book for you!
Take a proto Han Solo space smuggler type character, set him in a pulpy Flash Gordon/John Carter of Mars universe (with hints of Métal Hurlant), and then add a dash of James T Kirk alien loving... but top it all off with having the green alien chick inevitably turn out to be some sort of Lovecraftian unspeakable horror and cosmic madness abound.
A collection of short stories about our titular anti-hero Northwest Smith, is generally a vehicle for CL Moore to present her audience with tales of mind bending cosmic horror that I believe any fan of HP Lovecraft would take an interest in. In fact Moore and Lovecraft often corresponded in the '30s, so it's easy to see where his inspiration rubbed off; however Moore clearly runs with it and makes it her own with a lot more focus on sexuality.
This complete NW Smith collection also includes a crossover story with one of Moore's other interesting characters, Jirel of Joiry - a sort of early Red Sonja swords and sorcery style character of which there exists another collection of short stories that I can't wait to sink my teeth into.
So if you like the idea of Captain Kirk chatting up an green alien woman only for her to metamorphose into Cthulhu wearing some red lipstick, then this is the book for you!
June 29, 2008
I can't say I didn't know what I was getting into with this book. I knew that these were some of the first high adventure space tales with all the hokeyness that comes along with that (written by one of those rare sci-fi authors without a y-chromosome, no less); I knew that the hero, Northwest Smith, is a kind of retro Han solo with the same amazingly bad luck with women; and I knew that the prose would be more purple than a grape pop. And I was not surprised.
For the first few stories I was able to latch onto some interesting nugget - some weird Lovecraftian horror, including one with overt homoerotic overtones (I believe there was a line spoken by an evil pimp/devil lord type along the lines of "it had been far too long since I have tasted of a man," which, for the 1930's is pretty out there; I bet Han Solo never had to grapple with that one!)
But in general the sheer hokeyness and pulpy prose (it reads like she got paid by the word and had expensive tastes) made these stories a chore to read after a while.
For the first few stories I was able to latch onto some interesting nugget - some weird Lovecraftian horror, including one with overt homoerotic overtones (I believe there was a line spoken by an evil pimp/devil lord type along the lines of "it had been far too long since I have tasted of a man," which, for the 1930's is pretty out there; I bet Han Solo never had to grapple with that one!)
But in general the sheer hokeyness and pulpy prose (it reads like she got paid by the word and had expensive tastes) made these stories a chore to read after a while.
March 12, 2016
It is abundantly clear that there would have been no Han Solo or Capt Mal Reynolds without Northwest Smith to pave the seedy intergalactic back alleys for them. Very pulpy and very classic scifi, I think the collection would have been a more pleasurable read if the order of the stories had been mixed around a bit. Putting the stories in chronological order allows you to see the development of the character and watch Moore's skills steadily improve, but the early stories tended to be a bit one-note, focusing almost entirely on the rake and less on the outlaw.
March 27, 2011
Imagine Han Solo writen by HP Lovecraft and you'll get an idea of CL Moore's style. But more talented. Her writing is not as lofty as Lovecraft and more descriptive. A poet. I would rate two stories in this collection a perfect 5 stars. Shambleau & Scarlet Dream.
June 12, 2009
An excellent collection. This supercedes the book called "Northwest Smith." This contains all the stories in that version plus a few other tidbits and an introduction that is pretty good.
July 26, 2014
1939 Retro Hugo nominee for Best Novelette
2.5 to 3 stars
Meh. One of the weakest of the slate.
2.5 to 3 stars
Meh. One of the weakest of the slate.
July 20, 2023
This is a collection of short stories by one of the few female authors of the sci fi Golden Age, Catherine Moore. Each story collated here follows the space-faring adventures of titular character, Northwest Smith, a charming, steely gunslinger and smuggler. I heard of this author and these stories mainly because of the importance of Northwest's character as a model for later famous sci fi heroes, most notably Han Solo.
Unfortunately, Moore tells us much about Northwest's bootlegging lifestyle and portrays him as a lovable rogue reminiscent of Solo, the stories themselves fail to actually convince me he is anything but a completely passive blank-slate with little personality. Aside from some notable exceptions, Northwest's charming criminal persona was merely told to me, and rarely shown.
Also disappointing was Moore's lack of variety in narrative beats. The repeated formula in most of these stories is that Northwest is seduced by some unknown, eldritch horror in the guise of an attractive woman, often of a vampiric nature that drains him of his life force or what have you, only to be rescued deus ex machina by some friend of his, or to slay the creature with a blast of his ray gun in a moment of clarity. Almost all of the stories in the collection slavishly adhered to this formula, which meant it quickly grew stale and repetitive.
Gladly, there are some exceptions. The story "Dust of Gods" is a new all-time favourite, in which Northwest is every bit the noble outlaw I was told he was for page upon page. He played an active role, there was some fascinating worldbuilding, and the descriptions were vivid and stunning. "Scarlet Dream" was also a highlight, full of rich and otherworldly and colourful landscapes. "Shambleau", the most famous of the Northwest stories, was also good, but not quite to the level of those previous two. The rest in this thirteen-story collection were forgettable at best and unpalatable at worst.
- Shambleau: 3 stars
- Black Thirst: 1 star
- Scarlet Dream: 4 stars
- Dust of Gods: 5 stars
- Juhli: 2 stars
- Nymph of Darkness: 2 stars
- The Cold Gray God: 2 stars
- Yvala: 2 stars
- Lost Paradise: 2 stars
- The Tree of Life: 2 stars
- Quest of the Starstone: 3 stars
- Werewoman: 2 stars
- Song in a Minor Key: 2 stars
Overall: 3 stars
Unfortunately, Moore tells us much about Northwest's bootlegging lifestyle and portrays him as a lovable rogue reminiscent of Solo, the stories themselves fail to actually convince me he is anything but a completely passive blank-slate with little personality. Aside from some notable exceptions, Northwest's charming criminal persona was merely told to me, and rarely shown.
Also disappointing was Moore's lack of variety in narrative beats. The repeated formula in most of these stories is that Northwest is seduced by some unknown, eldritch horror in the guise of an attractive woman, often of a vampiric nature that drains him of his life force or what have you, only to be rescued deus ex machina by some friend of his, or to slay the creature with a blast of his ray gun in a moment of clarity. Almost all of the stories in the collection slavishly adhered to this formula, which meant it quickly grew stale and repetitive.
Gladly, there are some exceptions. The story "Dust of Gods" is a new all-time favourite, in which Northwest is every bit the noble outlaw I was told he was for page upon page. He played an active role, there was some fascinating worldbuilding, and the descriptions were vivid and stunning. "Scarlet Dream" was also a highlight, full of rich and otherworldly and colourful landscapes. "Shambleau", the most famous of the Northwest stories, was also good, but not quite to the level of those previous two. The rest in this thirteen-story collection were forgettable at best and unpalatable at worst.
- Shambleau: 3 stars
- Black Thirst: 1 star
- Scarlet Dream: 4 stars
- Dust of Gods: 5 stars
- Juhli: 2 stars
- Nymph of Darkness: 2 stars
- The Cold Gray God: 2 stars
- Yvala: 2 stars
- Lost Paradise: 2 stars
- The Tree of Life: 2 stars
- Quest of the Starstone: 3 stars
- Werewoman: 2 stars
- Song in a Minor Key: 2 stars
Overall: 3 stars
February 10, 2020
Just an FYI though NW Smith might “sci fi’s first outlaw” these are very much horror stories.
This was a very hard book for me to review. There is a lot of really excellent stuff in here but some glaring flaws.
The two strengths I would point to the most are the “cosmic horror.” In many ways CL Moore outshines Lovecraft who is best known for the style. Her describing the indescribable just works better.
The second strength is the atmosphere and setting. There is just a great sense of character to the openings of these stories. They pull you in and make you feel like you’re there in a way most modern writers don’t. I think the best is done in The Cold Grey God. The opening city and intrigue are perfect pulp.
Where these stories struggle are the fact that they are very formulaic. And I say that as someone who prefers pulp sf/fantasy to modern bloated character drama. IE anything written in the last 3 years.
CL Moore recycles the same themes a lot in these 13 stories and it can be a bit repetitive. But even so they are deeply imaginative and occasionally become remarkable.
The two stories I would say were my favorites were Scarlet Dreams and Lost Paradise.
Scarlet Dreams is just that, utterly dreamlike and imaginative. It’s is both evocatively beautiful and utterly horrific. It’s truly a “scarlet dream.”
Lost Paradise is pure otherworldly and splendors atmosphere in the veins of Lord Dunsany with a truly horrific ending that adds such gravity to such a short story. It would be in my compendium of best pulp stories ever written.
These stories aren’t without their flaws or repetitions but they are deeply imaginative and when they are on they are on in a way that is lost to modern speculative fiction and is to me, sorely missed.
I really wish someone had done a NW Smith TV show in the 80s or 90s in the vein of Star Trek, Stargate, Farscape etc. It would have been the perfect era to do it and would probably be revered now. Ben Browder as NW Smith would have been perfect.
Anyways, if you like horror and science fantasy this is a must. Even if it gets a bit repetitive at times.
This was a very hard book for me to review. There is a lot of really excellent stuff in here but some glaring flaws.
The two strengths I would point to the most are the “cosmic horror.” In many ways CL Moore outshines Lovecraft who is best known for the style. Her describing the indescribable just works better.
The second strength is the atmosphere and setting. There is just a great sense of character to the openings of these stories. They pull you in and make you feel like you’re there in a way most modern writers don’t. I think the best is done in The Cold Grey God. The opening city and intrigue are perfect pulp.
Where these stories struggle are the fact that they are very formulaic. And I say that as someone who prefers pulp sf/fantasy to modern bloated character drama. IE anything written in the last 3 years.
CL Moore recycles the same themes a lot in these 13 stories and it can be a bit repetitive. But even so they are deeply imaginative and occasionally become remarkable.
The two stories I would say were my favorites were Scarlet Dreams and Lost Paradise.
Scarlet Dreams is just that, utterly dreamlike and imaginative. It’s is both evocatively beautiful and utterly horrific. It’s truly a “scarlet dream.”
Lost Paradise is pure otherworldly and splendors atmosphere in the veins of Lord Dunsany with a truly horrific ending that adds such gravity to such a short story. It would be in my compendium of best pulp stories ever written.
These stories aren’t without their flaws or repetitions but they are deeply imaginative and when they are on they are on in a way that is lost to modern speculative fiction and is to me, sorely missed.
I really wish someone had done a NW Smith TV show in the 80s or 90s in the vein of Star Trek, Stargate, Farscape etc. It would have been the perfect era to do it and would probably be revered now. Ben Browder as NW Smith would have been perfect.
Anyways, if you like horror and science fantasy this is a must. Even if it gets a bit repetitive at times.
November 24, 2024
Before Han Solo, before the Stainless Steel Rat, there was 'Northwest Smith' - the prototypical space outlaw.
Northwest of Earth is a collection of C.L. Moore's stories involving her character Northwest Smith, which originally appeared in the Weird Tales magazine. This history is important to understanding Moore's work as that magazine printed the early work of the likes of H.P. Lovecraft. Moore also met her future husband and frequent writing partner Henry Kuttner through their shared love of Lovecraft's work and it shows here in Northwest of Earth; many of the tales employ the use of what we now call 'Cosmic Horror', with frequent mentions of unknowable ancient entities and nightmarish sensations.
Northwest Smith is usually depicted as struggling against said entity or nightmarish scenario in each story, so he may be handy with a ray gun but this often doesn't serve him too well. Some of the stories are repetitive, but the highs are high - I think the stories which include Smith's associate Yarol (the Venusian) were the best ones for me as it adds a bit more dimension to the story to have two outlaws interacting.
It's an important set of stories that paved the way for similar heroes (or probably more precisely, anti-heroes) to come. Seedy Martian marketplaces jostling with weird and varied creatures to ruined civilisations once populated by ancient gods who have long vanished are some of the rich and atmospheric settings Moore describes here, so if you like your Han Solo-esque escapades mixed with a dash of existential cosmic terror in the vein of Lovecraft, Northwest of Earth is essential reading.
Northwest of Earth is a collection of C.L. Moore's stories involving her character Northwest Smith, which originally appeared in the Weird Tales magazine. This history is important to understanding Moore's work as that magazine printed the early work of the likes of H.P. Lovecraft. Moore also met her future husband and frequent writing partner Henry Kuttner through their shared love of Lovecraft's work and it shows here in Northwest of Earth; many of the tales employ the use of what we now call 'Cosmic Horror', with frequent mentions of unknowable ancient entities and nightmarish sensations.
Northwest Smith is usually depicted as struggling against said entity or nightmarish scenario in each story, so he may be handy with a ray gun but this often doesn't serve him too well. Some of the stories are repetitive, but the highs are high - I think the stories which include Smith's associate Yarol (the Venusian) were the best ones for me as it adds a bit more dimension to the story to have two outlaws interacting.
It's an important set of stories that paved the way for similar heroes (or probably more precisely, anti-heroes) to come. Seedy Martian marketplaces jostling with weird and varied creatures to ruined civilisations once populated by ancient gods who have long vanished are some of the rich and atmospheric settings Moore describes here, so if you like your Han Solo-esque escapades mixed with a dash of existential cosmic terror in the vein of Lovecraft, Northwest of Earth is essential reading.
April 27, 2023
This is a collection of the C.L. Moore stories with Northwest Smith as the main character (a couple of them are collaborations). There are many fine things about the stories, most of which I would give a 5* review as a short story. The stories are on the border between the SF and fantasy genres - more fantasy in my opinion because the main SF content of the stories is that they are set on various planets in our solar system, inhabited by a number of humanoid races (rather like Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter books). Northwest Smith is a good character - he is a flawed battle scarred hero.
But there are two fairly serious problems. Firstly, many of them follow a similar pattern - Northwest Smith encounters a mysterious beautiful woman, has a strange adventure. Each one is beautifully done, but a dozen of them read one after the other becomes tiresome. It's a collection which would be better read in science fiction magazines as they came out - which is of course how they were intended to be.
Second, and strangely for a female author, the depiction of women is decidedly old fashioned and sexist - all are decorative, most (with the notable exception of Jirel of Joiry who joins in one of the adventures from her own collection of stories by the same author), most are pretty passive, and some are bait in a trap.
These flaws are sufficient that I considered a 3* rating, but the writing is so good I just couldn't do that.
But there are two fairly serious problems. Firstly, many of them follow a similar pattern - Northwest Smith encounters a mysterious beautiful woman, has a strange adventure. Each one is beautifully done, but a dozen of them read one after the other becomes tiresome. It's a collection which would be better read in science fiction magazines as they came out - which is of course how they were intended to be.
Second, and strangely for a female author, the depiction of women is decidedly old fashioned and sexist - all are decorative, most (with the notable exception of Jirel of Joiry who joins in one of the adventures from her own collection of stories by the same author), most are pretty passive, and some are bait in a trap.
These flaws are sufficient that I considered a 3* rating, but the writing is so good I just couldn't do that.
June 13, 2017
He dudado entre ponerle tres o cuatro estrellas. Por una parte, este libro contiene unos cuantos cuentos de terror extraordinarios, sobre todo el que abre el volumen, "Shambleau", que resulta repugnante y fascinante a partes iguales.
Entre los méritos, también hay que destacar ese horror cósmico mezclado con extraterrestres y un estupendo viajero espacial como protagonista. Además, las descripciones están escritas con destreza y el ambiente que se crea funciona.
Sin embargo, la repetición excesiva de la formula: Dama en apuros + Peligro Cósmico + Pelea mental llega a resultar pesada, especialmente en relatos de más de cuarenta páginas que inciden en lo mismo.
Me he decantado por la puntuación alta porque el libro acaba en alto, gracias al crosover con Jirel de Joiry (otro de los personajes de la autora), el excelente relato del protagonista llevando sus instintos animales al extremo, y un breve pero bonito relato a modo de epílogo con Northwest reflexionando sobre las circunstancias y decisiones que le llevaron a una vida de forajido espacial.
En resumen, una colección de historias que merece la pena aunque sólo sera por contener un puñado de excelentes historias.
Entre los méritos, también hay que destacar ese horror cósmico mezclado con extraterrestres y un estupendo viajero espacial como protagonista. Además, las descripciones están escritas con destreza y el ambiente que se crea funciona.
Sin embargo, la repetición excesiva de la formula: Dama en apuros + Peligro Cósmico + Pelea mental llega a resultar pesada, especialmente en relatos de más de cuarenta páginas que inciden en lo mismo.
Me he decantado por la puntuación alta porque el libro acaba en alto, gracias al crosover con Jirel de Joiry (otro de los personajes de la autora), el excelente relato del protagonista llevando sus instintos animales al extremo, y un breve pero bonito relato a modo de epílogo con Northwest reflexionando sobre las circunstancias y decisiones que le llevaron a una vida de forajido espacial.
En resumen, una colección de historias que merece la pena aunque sólo sera por contener un puñado de excelentes historias.
October 14, 2017
Creo que le pasa a más gente: cuando no te crees las motivaciones de un personaje es difícil seguir leyendo. Hay una historia de Smith y su compi Yarol el venusiano que empieza en una taberna. No tiene un chavo y están a punto de liarse a tiros por un trago de cuando se les presenta la oportunidad de llevar a cabo un lucrativo trabajito. El encargo en cuestión le ha roto la mente a los dos hombres a los que se le pidió antes, pero Smith y Yarol aceptan porque es mejor morir violentamente o con la psique reventada a morir de sed.
Y me reí.
Como pasa con otros personajes pulp (creo que esto podría ser un elemento definitorio del mismo, ¿no?) algunas tramas y situaciones, o la estructura misma de la historia, se repiten en varios relatos y puede ser un poco cansino leérselo del tirón. Los que más me han gustado han sido ese en el que se enfrenta a una medusa cósmica (medusa mitológica, no el bicho nadador), el que empieza con ellos aceptando un curro que podría llevarles a la muerte por beber un poco de alcoholazo, el del Alendar esclavista y el último, que es un cierre muy emotivo y muy bien elegido.
Y me reí.
Como pasa con otros personajes pulp (creo que esto podría ser un elemento definitorio del mismo, ¿no?) algunas tramas y situaciones, o la estructura misma de la historia, se repiten en varios relatos y puede ser un poco cansino leérselo del tirón. Los que más me han gustado han sido ese en el que se enfrenta a una medusa cósmica (medusa mitológica, no el bicho nadador), el que empieza con ellos aceptando un curro que podría llevarles a la muerte por beber un poco de alcoholazo, el del Alendar esclavista y el último, que es un cierre muy emotivo y muy bien elegido.
April 17, 2022
Frankly, I found this book disappointing up until about 2/3 of the way through, where it picked up considerably. It had its laugh out loud moments, which are rare in any book, much less a bloody, violent fantasy. It also had a lot of current day, modern world phraseology that was some what off putting or unsettling, (which is at least better than authors who make up new words and phrases, but don't provide a glossary or any context to give a hint of their actual meaning.) As for the story: a daughter is in a terminal situation and the would be rescuers are diddling around visiting this person or getting that object or rounding up another member of the gang with little sense of urgency. Or maybe this is just one of those authors who feel they must tell a 250 page story in 500 pages so you get your money's worth of reading. I would have preferred the shorter version.Two stars for the first 300 pages. Five stars for the last 200 pages for an average of 4 stars overall.
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