review of
C. L. Moore & Henry Kuttner's Earth's Last Citadel
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 10, 2019

I thought that I'd read something by Henry Kuttner before, probably in collaboration w/ someone other than C. L. Moore, but I can't find any traces of my having done so so, apparently, I haven't — unless it was a short story. This was written in 1943 but not published until decades later — what's up w/ that?!

This starts off in the N African desert during WWII. I wasn't expecting that.

""You'd be surprised. She's damned clever. She and her sidekick draw good pay from the Nazis, and earn it, too.["]" - p 3

When most people draw good pay & try to spend it they get arrested for counterfeiting — apparently that was a perq of working for the nazis.

My note to myself 'summarizing' the bk's style is: "Like Dean Koontz meets A. Merritt". Now, I've only read 1 Koontz novel, given to me by a security guard at a museum where I worked, & I didn't like it. It was too predictable-formulaic for me. It was called Lightning. I doubt that I'll ever read anything else by him. Merritt's a different story. I'm 'acquiring a taste' for Merritt. Basically what my note means is that the Koontz element is the nazi-thriller part but the prose is more 'flowery'. Given that this was written during WWII the nazi intrigue element isn't as what?-you're-still-milking-the-nazis? as I thought it was when I thought the bk was written decades later. Personally, if I were a farmer, I wdn't milk the nazis, I'd let them bloat until they explode.

Nnnoooowwww, when was the last time you were hypnotized by a mysterious ship in the desert? Do they expect us to believe this?!

"A door was opening slowly in the curve of the golden hull.

"Drake did not know that his gun-arm was drooping, that he was turning, moving forward toward the ship with slow-paced steps." - p 7

A "gun-arm"? Is that like a 'game leg'?

The ship takes them somewhen & then they wander around outside again.

"The dust of the world's end rose in sluggish whirls around their feet, and settled again as they plodded across the desert. The empty sphere of the ship was hidden in the mists behind them. Nothing lay ahead but the invisible airy path the birdman had followed, and the hope of food and water somewhere before their strength gave out." - p 20

It seems that they're having a mistical experience.

Then they found a McDonald's.. or was it a Gino's? Unfortunately, it was no longer cheap & their currency wasn't accepted. So they died shortly after p 20 & the rest of the bk was blank except for some mysterious black mold that moved across the surface, apparently hunting for rogue words, dunno, I didn't dare touch it.

&, yea, there were wonders to behold.

"Dubiously, they followed her up the spiral, at first watching their feet incredulously as they found themselves walking dryshod upon the waterfall whose torrent slid away untouched beneath their soles. But when they had mounted a few steps, they found it unwise to look down. Their heads spun as they walked upon sliding water over an abyss." - p 45

"They told him of the fountain's magic. It gave immortality. All who bathed in its pulsing light were immortal, as long as they renewed the bathing at intervals. Even Flande came to the fountain at intervals—the voices said." - p 57

NOW I understand the expression "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." But, y'know, immortality isn't usually all it's cracked up to be — I mean what's so good about something you can only do once? Take sex, e.g., you do it once & you want to do it again.. & again.. — but if you like immortality, that's it, once you're immortal you're immortal. ANYWAY, our heros aren't immortal, & they discover that the reason why they can't buy any food at the fast food joint is b/c they're the food.

"["]But we are both food for the Light-Wearer, and you will do well to treat me with respect."" - p 115

Why's that, exactly? It might make more sense to kiss the Light-Wearer's ass. But what about those nazis?

"Some premonition of what Mike intended galvanized Alan into action as he saw the Nazi's first forward stride. Flande must not die yet. Alan hurled himself against Mike Smith's shoulder with all his weight, sending the Nazi staggering." - p 126

I mean, what a mess, right? 1st they can't buy any food, then they ARE food, then one of them's vomiting on another one. Next thing you know some sort of outer-space dog will come along & lick it up. ( )

I have generally enjoyed just about all of the short fiction I've read from the team of Kuttner and Moore. The novels have been a bit more hit and miss, and this one continues that trend.

This is science fiction without any science, a far future fantasy in which a quartet from 1943 is transported into a bizarre, at times surreally imaginative, dangerous and not particularly coherent future. I agree with the reviewer who compared this book to an early Doctor Who episode. Still if you are looking for a bit of light escapism, this might fit the bill better than your average golden age adolescent wish fulfillment tale. And it does include a concept which may possibly have inspired one of the more memorable creations in one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. ( )

One of their very first collaborations, and published during the WWII years, as a serial, in Argosy. It's really excellent work, even though it must have been rushed at the time (1943 is a very long time ago). It's hard to think of this slim volume as lasting through a four part serialization, though. ( )

My reactions upon reading this novel in 1992.

I didn’t care for this novel all that much. I suppose Baird Searles included it on his list of classic sf novels because it's pulpy and probably one of the earliest far future science-as-magic stories.

While I didn’t find the novel particularly entertaining, it was critically interesting. First, the menacing Alien from beyond time -- first and last of his kind on Earth, feeder on mental energy (a vampire of sorts) is reminiscent of a Lovecraftian horror. He is a Light-Wearer. The good Light-Wearers created, from human stock, the Carcasillans and protected them (and expected worship from them) from the bad Light-Wearers like the Alien. This lends a biblical flavor to the book. This book is interesting as a midway point in the far-future sub-genre of sf. There is the bifurcation of man into Eloi-like Carcasillans and Morlock-like Terasi. However, this is only a surface appearance. The truth turns out to be different. The Carcasillans turn out to be fairly tough and still possess the proud technology of Earth’s alien overlords and man’s exterminators. Even so, they were Light-Wearer attempts at creating a slave race, a race that rebelled and became incredibly curious (only thirst for knowledge animates since them since dying Earth has no future). This bifurcation of man shows up in the two cultures of Arthur C. Clarke’s The City and the Stars (one rural, one urban) and the wonders of Carcasilla (immortality, forgetfulness) remind one of Clarke’s Diaspor (with its immortality and mind editing).

The book was written in 1943 and WWII and Nazis show up in interesting wasy. The Tersai defense against the Carcasillan assault (under influence of the Alien) is explicitly compared to the Allied defense against rising Nazi barbarism. Two of the four humans flung into the future are Nazis, anad Nazis are described as supremely self-confident and ruthless and courageous and deeply disturbed when his confidence is undermined -- indeed well-nigh psychotic. The setting -- a dying Earth of fantastic ruins, remanants of alien genetic engineering, and a river whose tides surge around the globe in a canyon -- was mournful and eerie and not played up enough. ( )