Planet Stories Library

I've been plugging away at my reading list; lately, I've been concentrating on the few volumes I own from Paizio's Planet Stories line.

In short, I'm yet to be disappointed; however, I only own a few titles: Black God's Kiss, Northwest of Earth: the Complete Northwest Smith, both by C.L. Moore; Elak of Atlantis, The Dark World and Robots have No Tails by Henry Kuttner; Who Fears the Devil by Manly Wade Wellman and Before They Were Giants, edited by James L. Sutter.

Elak of Atlantis was the first book I dived into and the one that made me decide to get a subscription with Paizo. I expected a Clone-an story, they were much more than that.

I dove into Who Fears the Devil next. Wow, is the simplest way to explain how much I enjoyed these stories.

Northwest Smith was the third title I read, and while the stories were not what I expected (most reviewers lead you to believe that Northwest Smith is a proto-Han Solo and that these stories are Space Opera in their ray gun blazing best -- both statements are untrue and misleading), they were entertaining. I do recommend not reading them all in one sitting. I enjoyed Black God's Kiss by Miss Moore much more (no pun intended).

I have not yet read The Dark World, Robots have no Tails or Before they Were Giants as of yet, but will soon.

Many of these (Moore, Kutner and Wellman) fall into my pre-Tolkien reading list. Surprisingly, only Manly Wade Wellman is included in Gygax's Appendix N. It must be remembered though that Gygax stated in Appendix N that the authors listed were just some of many that inspired him. It is possible that he either never read Moore or Kuttner, or that he simply forgot to list them. Northwest Smith, Black God's Kiss and Elak of Atlantis are all three full of stories that would and should spark the imaginations of any fantasy gamer. I will give further thoughts on all of these books later, as each deserves more in-depth discussion.

I'm currently making my way through Appendix N from A to Z. I'm starting with Poul Anderson's Three Heart's and Three Lions.