Black God's Kiss

By: C. L. Moore

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir

First published in the pages of Weird Tales in 1934, C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry is the first significant female sword-and-sorcery protagonist and one of the most exciting and evocative characters the genre has ever known. Published alongside seminal works by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, the five classic fantasy tales included in this volume easily stand the test of time and often overshadow the storytelling power and emotional impact of stories by Moore's more famous contemporaries. A seminal work from one of fantasy's most important authors, Black God's Kiss is an essential addition to any fantasy library.

©1934, 1966 Weird Tales, Inc. © 2007 by Carol Ann Rodriguez (P)2015 Skyboat Media, Inc.

storyline is awesome!!

the narration was choppy and hard to follow sometimes.. almost made it hard to finish at one point. then the curiosity of the storyline took over more towards the end.

Pleasantly Surprised

That's not to say I expected it to be bad, but I didn't expect the variety in the tales. Each story even though they surround the same character have similarities to each other but also quite distinct changing I guess sub-genre from one tale to the next. I'd actually love more exploring the cosmology of her world.

Lovely surprise

I thought I was getting a romance novel so I was at first thinking this was not living up to expectations. But, I kept finding myself smiling, literally and frequently, at the clever word choices of the writer.

When I realized it was not a romance, at least not like I was thinking, I began to wonder what it was, genre-wise, and I’m still not quite sure. Kind of a fantasy-historical fiction-biography-memoir.

The narrator had a wide range of voices and emotional expression. Well done.

The main character is the strongest, yet realistic, female lead I’ve seen in a long time. A character with single mindedness, skill and flaws.

There are twists in the stories that I appreciated. Yes, I said “stories”. If you don’t realize that this is like different chapters in someone’s life versus one plot line with a single crisis and resolution, you too may be lost like I was and miss the elegance at first. But the ending was perfect.

This is the first review I’ve written (that I remember) and I just felt like this book deserved my time. I would have given it 4 1/2 stars, but I don’t know how. 4 is not enough. I didn’t do 5, because it took me awhile to catch on, but that might just be me.

MUCH better chapter order at end of my review

Real quick note here: 1934 sci-fi with a female protagonist who's a leader, warrior, and solos most of her content. These stories, written preWW2, is mind blowing and I'm willing to overlook the outdated female tropes because of the time they were written in.

I agree with the professional critics that these stories' subject matter have strong links to H.P. Lovecraft with demons, aliens, and shady magicians. The difference is that when I read Lovecraft, I feel like I'm watching a black and white murder mystery. As opposed to Moore, it feels more like watching Heavy Metal (1981 movie).

=== Better chapter order
My only complaint is that, according to character development, the current chapter order makes the protagonist seem indecisive and stupid. I highly recommend instead going chapters: 10, 9, 1-6, 7, then 8. Also, mentally alter the ending to chapter 8 so she accepts the dark god's offer.

Jirel of Joiry is a great character

I really like the character of Jirel of Joiry. She is such a bad-ass, and this is from a time when hardly anyone was writing female heroes, and no one was writing them as hardcore as C.L. Moore wrote Jirel.
Much respect to C. L. Moore to not only to write SFF when no women were writing for this genre and then take it a step further by creating a female sword & sorcery protagonist when no one else - except Robert E. Howard - was writing of heroines.
All that said, not to mention I enjoy descriptive writing, but Moore does run-on quite a bit when describing the other worldly dimensions that Jirel ventures into, to the point I couldn't help but skip over.
Still, I loved Jirel so much that I would love to read more of her adventures.

Gabrielle de Cuin reading was so well done that I'll seek out other books that she performs.