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stephenmeansme's review against another edition
2.0
Dying earth, Moore & Kuttner style. Actually, it's a *lot* of THE TIME MACHINE pastiche, with a cast of four temporal castaways abducted by an alien, rather than a lone tinkerer. Mildly interesting because C. L. Moore's style shows through pretty strongly - the main alien antagonist is sort of Technicolor Cthulhu, which evokes comparisons to her "Black God's Kiss" or the one where the guy falls in love with a shoggoth...
As a story, it's pretty standard pulp, with only the high weirdness giving it an extra interest. 2.5 stars rounded down, but don't let it dissuade you from reading Moore's better stuff.
As a story, it's pretty standard pulp, with only the high weirdness giving it an extra interest. 2.5 stars rounded down, but don't let it dissuade you from reading Moore's better stuff.
pipbiz's review against another edition
4.0
I wish I could find more books by C.L. Moore because she was truly the only famous female author from the Golden Age of science fiction books. She, and her husband really do a great collaboration in this novel. And instead of being a silly adventure with 1-dimensional characters, C.L. builds on the worlds with the background of World War 2 and enemies having to become friends to survive. An excellent novel, and a good introduction into C.L. Moore's work.
peterseanesq's review against another edition
3.0
My Amazon review -
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1T6JADYN0BOTS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1T6JADYN0BOTS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
jameseckman's review against another edition
3.0
Nominated for a retro Hugo, while a decent story for the period, it's not Hugo material. This may reflect the very small pool of SF published during 1943. The first scene is our protagonist is being chased by Nazis, I think this was added to lure wartime readers of Argosy(mainstream pulp) in became it doesn't affect the rest of the story. There are a couple of ugly pulp bits,"...the unstable genius of many races shining in her eyes.", not uncommon in pulp fiction of the period. The story itself is reminiscent of [a:A. Merritt|16022666|A. Merritt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1483095695p2/16022666.jpg]'s lost civilization novels so nothing really new here.
A better C.L Moore read would be [b:Jirel of Joiry|941226|Jirel of Joiry|C.L. Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359216578l/941226._SY75_.jpg|926175] or one of her [b:Northwest Smith|941224|Northwest Smith|C.L. Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317078181l/941224._SY75_.jpg|926172] stories.
It's harder for me to recommend a Henry Kuttner read, his stories didn't age well in many cases, but he was an important influence on 40s science fiction.
A better C.L Moore read would be [b:Jirel of Joiry|941226|Jirel of Joiry|C.L. Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359216578l/941226._SY75_.jpg|926175] or one of her [b:Northwest Smith|941224|Northwest Smith|C.L. Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317078181l/941224._SY75_.jpg|926172] stories.
It's harder for me to recommend a Henry Kuttner read, his stories didn't age well in many cases, but he was an important influence on 40s science fiction.
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