Black God's Kiss
by C. L. Moore
Planet Stories (160 pages, October 2007, $12.99)
The back of the new collection of C. L. Moore's Jirel of
Joiry tales loudly exclaims: "THE FIRST LADY OF FANTASY!" Unlike most marketing
taglines, this is actually an understatement. Does it imply the author or her
character is the first lady of fantasy? Surprise, it's both. Shout it loud: THE
FIRST LADIES OF FANTASY!
Catherine Leigh Moore shattered the masculine barriers of
fantasy and science fiction when she started publishing her remarkable short
stories in Weird Tales in the 1930s.
Her character Jirel, the ruler of the fiefdom of Joiry in medieval France, was
the first female Sword-and-Sorcery hero. And, considering how much competition
she faces today from the warrior women who have followed the path she blazed,
she remains one of the best.
What makes Jirel stand out today, over seven decades after her
first appearance in 1934, is that C. L. Moore stubbornly refused to mold her
character to fit the pattern of the male heroes of the day. Readers expecting a
female Conan when they first delve into the Jirel stories are in for a surprise.
Jirel rarely defeats her foes with slashing steel or muscular brawling. She uses
the power of her overwhelming personality, her fierce determination to be who
she envisions herself to be, to lay her foes to waste. It isn't merely that
Jirel is tough, brave, and needs help from no one — man or god in man's shape —
that make her such a vibrant creation. She has a receptive emotional core and an
aching empathy that make her unlike the majority of male warriors with whom she
shared the pulp pages...and, unfortunately, the majority of female warriors
created today.
Paizo Publications' division Planet Stories (borrowing the
name of the most grandly pulpy science fiction magazine of them all) brings
together the complete Jirel chronicles in
Black God's Kiss, including one that has seen few reprints, as part of a
monthly series that might be called "Why the Hell Isn't This in Print?" books. A
new painting from Arnold Tsang graces the cover, a beautiful homage to Frank
Frazetta — even if it portrays Jirel in a bronze-bikini look that doesn't fit
her character the way it fits her curves. The Jirel of the page would proudly
wear the full armor of a knight. But if this cover pulls in a few newcomers, I
won't complain (much).
With the exception of the last, the six novelettes in the
volume are in order of first publication. The title story stands as one of the
strongest of the classic Weird Tales canon. It sets the tone for the works that follow,
sending Jirel across a dangerous magical world in search of a weapon to defeat a
foe who has humiliated her. I have personally re-read "Black God's Kiss" perhaps
a half dozen times and it never fails to astonish me, in particular the climax
that dares to do the unexpected, the almost irrational, with its heroine.
The direct sequel, "Black God's Shadow," repeats much of the
structure and ideas from "Black God's Kiss." Despite its merits, it can't live
up to its predecessor's originality and surprise. The contender for the
second-best Jirel tale is "Jirel Meets Magic," which puts the red-haired Lady of
Joiry against a deliciously icy sorceress in another one of Moore's twisted
otherworlds. "The Dark Land" again thrusts Jirel into a bizarre magic landscape,
and readers who tack straight through the collection may find the similarity of
plotlines turning stale at this point. However, "Hellsgarde," a more
conventional horror-themed work that keeps Jirel in medieval France, offers a
fresh perspective.
The final story in Black
God's Kiss (written before "Hellsgarde"), "Quest of the Starstone," is
Planet Stories' bait to lure readers who may already have an older Jirel
anthology on their sagging shelves. Moore co-wrote "Starstone" with her future
husband Henry Kuttner at the request of
Weird Tales readers who wanted to see a meeting between Jirel and Northwest
Smith, her two most popular characters. It has appeared only sporadically since
its first publication in 1937, and most collections of the Jirel series omit it
entirely. It is certainly different from the other stories: the plot-driven
style and level of humor make Kuttner's part in the collaboration obvious, and
Northwest Smith has a larger role in the action than Jirel does. It is worth
reading, however, both to see how effectively the authors bring together two
characters who have no connection to each other (a medieval noblewoman and a
space-faring rogue) and for its external view of Jirel. It may not have the deep
imagination of Moore's solo work, but it does provide a great deal of fun.
Author Suzy McKee Charnas provides a new introduction for the
collection, which extols Jirel's virtues as a groundbreaking female heroine and
puts her in historical context. However, the introduction provides no
bibliographic information about the stories, which would be particularly
rewarding for "Quest of the Starstone." Strangely, Charnas takes a few
paragraphs to praise the setting of Joiry, even though Jirel spends hardly any
time in it!
Having a complete Jirel of Joiry at last in one volume is
reason enough for fans to purchase Black
God's Kiss. And for those who have never read the wondrous adventures of the
First Lady of Sword-and-Sorcery from the First Lady of Sword-and-Sorcery... oh,
gods, how I envy the dark pleasures before them.
(Read Ryan Harvey's in-depth Black Gate essay
on C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales here.)
