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Authors of Weird Fiction > C. L. Moore

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message 1: by Ronald (new)

Ronald (rpdwyer) | 89 comments "Shambleau" is a short story by American science fiction and fantasy writer C. L. Moore. Though it was her first professional sale, it is her most famous story. It first appeared in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales and has been reprinted numerous times. It features one of Moore's best-known heroes, Northwest Smith, a gun-toting spacefarer, and is a retelling of the Medusa myth; it looks at themes of sexuality and addiction. {Wikipedia}


message 2: by Dan (last edited May 18, 2022 05:33PM) (new)

Dan | 1580 comments If you check ISFDB.org you will find Moore published some stories in 1930, before "Shambleau," as by Catherine Moore in the Indiana University student literary journal, The Vagabond, November 1930.
1) "Happily Ever After"
2) "Semira"
3) "Two Fantasies"
They have all been reprinted in various issues of Galaxies Edge edited by Mike Resnick. "Shambleau" was maybe her first commercial sale.

Moore also helped author our first group read, The Challenge from Beyond. No one raved about her contribution to the story.

The only C.L. Moore book I have is Jirel of Joiry. It is a series of five short stories published in the 1930s featuring a Red Sonja like precursor named Jirel.

Sword and sorcery. Has to be great, right? It sounds better than it is. The writing is really slipshod, the plots not that meaningful. In fact, if I remember right, there was a part where Jirel seemed to be glad for being raped. I didn't get it. Disgusted, I put the book down and went on to something else. My reading of those first two stories was a few years ago and I may be misremembering it. I need to finish the book, reread the parts I don't remember well, so that I can give it the 2- or 3-star review I think it will ultimately garner, and put the book back in circulation by selling it to 2nd & Charles. Copies of the book are inexpensive though not that easy to come by. My copy is the 1977 Ace Fantasy Classic hardback, complete with really nice condition dustjacket which has a beautiful painting of Jirel in silver armor more practical than Red Sonja's, riding a white stallion, and leading other white horses through a lightning storm.


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