Status Updates From Black God's Shadow

The second story, "Black God's Kiss," is a direct sequel to the first story, so any discussion of plot would be filled with spoilers. Suffice it to say, though, this story kicks things up a notch, adding surrealism to sword & sorcery and weird horror--a trifecta C.L. Moore pulls off admirably.

BLACK GOD'S KISS

It took me a few pages to grow accustomed to C.L. Moore's particular voice, but having easily passed that hurdle I was 100% in.

This story combines sword & sorcery and weird horror so perfectly it's now hard for me to think of them as in anyway separate sub-genres. This story was spectacular.

"For no human creature, by the laws that govern it, can have led a life whose intimate review is anything but pain. To be frozen in eternal reflections, reviewing all the futility and pain of life, all the pain that thoughtless or intentional acts have caused others, all the spreading consequences of every act--that, to a human being, would be the most dreadful of all torments."

"And something in Jirel knew warmly that the image of life as a tiny spark flickering out in limitless black was a false one--that without light there can be no darkness--that death and life are interdependent, one upon the other. And that she, armored in the warmth of her aliveness, was the black god's equal, and a worthy foe."

I get that these short stories were originally published in separate volumes of the magazine, but Moore is just repeating herself in recapping what happened. Also, yellow eyes seem...rabid.