Status Updates From Jirel de Joiry

"Quest of the Starstone," co-written with her husband, Henry Kuttner, is the first story in the collection that I just did not like at all. I understand the urge to combine her two signature characters of the time, Jirel and the SF character Northwest Smith, but for me it just did not work at all. The overwhelming cosmic weirdness so far established was abandoned for goofy, pedestrian action.

The Dark Land is my new favorite. I like the atmosphere and the challenges that Jirel goes through.

Just finished Jirel meets magic. My favorite story so far. I enjoyed the utilization of magic in the story.

In “The Dark Land” Jirel faces her most powerful foe yet but at the same time the downside of reading all the Jirel of Jory stories in one volume is impossible to ignore. As fun and as weird as the stories are they’re equally formulaic, and by now sadly predictable.

“Black God’s Kiss” and “Black God’s Shadow,” very cool! This is Elden Ring, to me. Taking a break and gonna read some other stuff though!

The story “Jirel Meets Magic” raises the cosmic horror level a few dozen notches… and I’m not complaining! These exercises in vividly described hellscapes continue to fascinate.

I finished the 1st novella in this collection, it's very good but 'of its time'. Not sure if I'll read the rest yet, they're a bit long winded.

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.