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A review by jameseckman
Earth's Last Citadel by Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore
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.