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Judgement Night by C. L. Moore
01/10/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Red Jacket Press. 3.44 page slipcased hardback. Price: $39.95 (US). ISBN: 0-9748895-1-2. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.redjacketpress.com
Another of Red Jacket's reprinting in limited edition of a 1952 Gnome Press book. In this case, C.L. Moore's 'Judgement Night'.
Getting hold of stories by Catherine Moore is difficult. I've got her 'Best Of' collection of short stories but most of her work was in collaboration with her first husband, Henry Kuttner, and under various pseudonyms and nothing in print today. Finding the dividing line between what each contributed is difficult let alone all their work and I'm a great Kuttner fan. Finding some of her own work available again is especially unique.
Even these were published, with the exception of the title story, under the pen name of Laurence O'Donnell. Back in the 50s, it was very hard to be a woman writer who wrote Science Fiction. This husband-and-wife team were so prolific and it's a shame that they're almost forgotten by today's modern audience. One can only hope a publisher gets it into its head to do a fresh Kuttner collection. But, on the bright side, we do have this marvellous re-print here.
The 'Judgement Night' collection is solely Moore's work and it's really an anthology of five of her novelettes. 'Judgement Night' (1943) concerns the involvement of the Emperor's daughter in the prevention of an assassination attempt on her father and a change of power. Oddly enough, I felt this story to drag a little with various twists and turns. Moore was too skilled a writer to pad but this no doubt made up the word count and 10 years later would probably be considered more a small novel than a novelette.
'Paradise Street' (1950) is set on a frontier world where the maverick who discovered it mixes with the wrong people and is finally ousted from the world to go searching for new worlds again. Comparisons between the old Wild West and SF is nothing knew but in a story written in 1950 for 'Astounding Science Fiction', it's a fair bet that such stories were used to bring different audiences to our genre. As an open comparison to the first story, Moore has certainly come a long way since the previous tale with a desire to read to find out what happens next.
'Promised Land' (1945) is a tale of rebellion on a criminally run planet and how Fenton deposes his boss and the skulduggery of one of his other minions who was ousting him as well. If you were reading this book and weren't hooked by now, this one will catch you hook, line and sinker. It might have a certain naive charm today but I bet nearly 60 years ago, it caught all its readers.
'The Code' (1945) tells of a man being restored to youth and the realisation that they hadn't really known was kind of chap he was when young. As with all good SF authors, there is always opportunity to examine the human condition and this was one of Moore's stories doing the same.
'Heir Apparent' (1950) is set in a future where select groups of people can be integrated via a machine to, for the want of a word that probably wasn't used then, terra-form worlds. This tale focuses on Harding who is tracking down a renegade Integrator, Mayall, who was fired for not being up to the job and now being employed elsewhere. This story has unexpected turns and you're never quite sure who are allies or not. If anything, this one is really the topping of the book. It also holds with my theory that anthology books released in the 50s had a tendency to leave their best story for last so you'd go away wanting more by the same author or publisher.
C.L. Moore's strength was in writing character stories more than science-orientated ones. No doubt the collaborations with her husband, Henry Kuttner, gave the best of both worlds and probably explains why she moved towards fantasy stories after he died as SF became more science-orientated. Whatever, this collection is still of great interest to SF fans and those of you with an historian bent will be wanting to see some of her earlier work. Some of these stories might not be as memorable as her other work but this book can be used as a gauge to see how good she was, writing on her own.
GF Willmetts
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