A review by smiorganbaldhead
Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore

5.0

4.5/5. (Vague spoilers.) I really enjoyed these stories. In particular, I enjoyed the first two stories’ exploration of the consequences of revenge. Still, I wish the central relationship in those stories had been more developed. Jirel’s romantic feelings in the second story are strange, though perhaps they are a magical consequence of her actions in the first story. The plot would have still worked if her feelings were of compassion and pity without being romantic. In the later stories, Jirel’s “violence” takes a magical quality, giving her power but also luring her back into the same mistake from the first story. In this way, the final line of the last story is tragic, and perhaps dramatic irony as Jirel doesn’t seem to see the parallel with her previous actions.