Author: C.L. Moore
Cover Artist: Arnold Tsang
Publisher: Planet Stories
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2007

He caught her strongly, in a hard, warm, clasp, and she heard his laugh triumphant and hateful as he bent his head to take the kiss she was raising her head to offer. He must have seen, in that last moment before their lips met, the savage glare of victory in her eyes, and been startled. But he did not hesitate. His mouth was heavy upon hers.

Jirel slaying her enemy with the Black God’s Kiss.

Black God’s Kiss is a collection of six stories featuring Moore’s sword and sorcery heroine Jirel of Joiry. They were first published in the magazine Weird Tales between 1934 and 1939. In those days it was highly unusual for a woman to get anything published in genre fiction, the ambiguous name on the cover is quite intentional. Moore’s stories were some of the first sword and sorcery stories written by a woman, with a female character as main protagonist. Just for that Moore’s stories attained a certain historical significance to the genre. Notwithstanding the achievement of getting them published in the first place, I don’t think the particularly stand out quality wise. A lot of the 1930s pulp fantasy hasn’t aged well and I think that goes for Moore’s work as well.

This collection contains six stories, more or less in chronological order:

• Black God’s Kiss (1934) in which Jirel travels to hell itself to collect the ultimate weapon and slays her mortal enemy with a kiss.
• Black God’s Shadow (1934) in which a remorseful Jirel ventures into hell again to set him free from the eternal torture to which she doomed him in the previous story.
• Jirel meets Magic (1935) in which Jirel follows an evil wizard into his magic realm to slay him.
• The Dark Land (1936) in which a wizard snatches Jirel from the jaws of death and has her face her worst fear: commitment to a man.
• Quest of the Starstone (1939) in which Jirel searches a haunted castle for the Starstone, the only ransom that will by the freedom of her man-at-arms.
• Hellgarde (1937), co-written with Henry Kuttner (whom she would marry in 1940), in which Jirel’s enemies bring in men from outer space to subdue her.

Except for the chainmail bikini, which must have been invented by a man, this covers about every sword and sorcery cliché I can think of. Interesting enough the artist who did the cover did depict her wearing a metal brassiere. In a 10 page introduction author Suzy McKee Charnas goes on at length about how Jirel does not conform to sexist stereotypes, in that light the cover is rather ill chosen. Instead of not conforming to the 1930s ideas on femininity they now submit her to ours.

So, to set the records straight, Jirel is a flame haired, short tempered, sword wielding and, above all, independent woman. Unheard of in the 1930’s. Had they hit the mainstream they would have been scandalous probably. Character development is pretty much non-existent in these stories. The wild Jirel will not be tamed. By modern standards they are not unpleasant to read but the genre has progressed a lot since the 1930s. For the jaded 21st century fantasy reader it doesn’t offer much. I must admit I am a bit biased here, I never enjoyed pulp fantasy. I tried to read a bunch of Howard’s Conan stories once and found them boring. If you happen to like Howard you will enjoy this.

One interesting aspect of this collection is that you can see the development in Moore’s writing. The prose of the first two stories is.. well.. by today’s standards it is atrocious. Every other sentence in Black God’s Kiss starts with “She”. In the later stories her writing improves, and in the collaboration with Kuttner the style changes somewhat. This development makes me wonder about her later work. Moore certainly did not lack talent.

All in all I have mixed feelings about Black God’s Kiss. Which I appreciate the historical significance of the work and Moore’s determination in getting it published, I didn’t enjoy the stories themselves that much. They were mildly entertaining at best, the writing of some of them is rather poor. I wouldn’t pick this up unless you really enjoy the 1930s pulp fantasy.

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Topics: Arnold Tsang, Black God's Kiss, C.L. Moore, Planet Stories, Short Fiction