Page:Weird Tales Volume 24 Number 06 (1934-12).djvu/122



HE latest story by C. L. Moore, The Black God's Kiss, has evoked much enthusiasm among you, the readers, for Jirel of Joiry, the author's new heroine. But the fact that the author has built the story around a new central character has led many of our readers to fear that C. L. Moore has thrown Northwest Smith into the discard. This is not so; for Northwest Smith, the redoubtable hero of Shambleau, Black Thirst, and other stories, will shortly return to our pages in a story called Julhi, in which he undergoes weird adventures quite as thrilling and breath-taking as any in the preceding stories by C. L. Moore.

Ernest M. Smola, of New York City, writes: "Clark Ashton Smith's story, The Seven Geases, readily rates first place in the October issue, enumerating forgotten phases of evolution in backward sequence and eminently suitable as a subtle Sunday sermon for us, the conceited humanity of the 'outer world.' It being rather difficult to allocate the next best place to the other miniature jewels of stunning fiction, I would second the motion (already voiced) against stories of other planets; likewise against the visualization of mindless robots, duplicating futile efforts of the late lamented Atlanteans. The contributors to WT must have been masters of occult sciences in former incarnations—as good an explanation of their uncanny flashes of true insight and vivid style as any."

Louis C. Smith, of Oakland, California, writes: "Permit the entrance to the Eyrie of yet another fan from this district which fairly teems with the creatures. No laboriously detailed criticism is this, but rather a letter dealing in generalities. First, Brundage. By all means keep her. Pastel work—and especially such pastel work as Mrs. Brundage does—is a rare and unusual treat on a magazine cover. I can't truly tell you how really great I think her covers are: I'd have to write in rainbow-colored ink to make my praise colorful enough I challenge anyone with desire for combat to produce a magazine in the fiction field whose covers are more skilfully done. No—the work of Mrs. Brundage is not perfect—I have found fault with it myself at times, but only with the anatomical details of her subjects, not with their state of dress or undress, or their artistic worth. Now about this latest bombshell to burst so suddenly and astoundingly in our horror-seeking midst: C. L. Moore. More power to you! You have introduced a refreshing, vitally alive, human character whose actions are presented to us in a very capable, wholly artistic way. With Smith, Williamson, Howard and Merritt, you now hold a much-deserved place of honor at the ladder's top rung. You have that rare gift possessed by only a few—the ability to tell a tale of utter horror so that even the most blasé of us shudder, and to do it in a style which is at the same time polished, colorful and lacking all trace of amateurishness."

Herb Hock, of Frackville, Pennsylvania, writes: "I ask for more Northwest Smith stories by C. L. Moore. I read Shambleau and Black Thirst, and in my opinion they were among the best stories I have ever read. I read The Black God's Kiss too, but I do not like Jirel of Joiry nearly so well as Northwest Smith; neither do I like the settings of Moore's new stories as well as the settings of