128 pages
Published 1943
Read from April 11 to April 17
Rating: 1 out of 5
American intelligence officer Alan Drake has been sent to Tunisia to keep Sir Colin, a scientist important to the war effort, safe from the Nazis. Two Nazi agents, femme fatale Karen and American muscle Mike, stand in Alan’s way. But then all four of them enter a sphere that takes them far into the future, where they find a dying Earth, wormlike monsters, and an immense spire like gossamer glass. They run afoul of an immortal being named Flande, who isn’t too happy to have them on his doorstep. And Alan unknowingly plays host to an alien intelligence that wants to feed on what’s left of humanity.
After reading Kuttner’s own Dying Earth-esque novel, The Dark World, and knowing of Moore’s contributions to classic sword & sorcery thanks to the reputation of her Jirel of Joiry stories, I had moderately high hopes for this book. Sadly, Citadel doesn’t have much of interest to offer. It’s a standard ’40s pulper with a blue-eyed hero who applies his gun and his fists to the problems of space and time, and immediately makes out with the first future babe he finds. This iteration adds nothing to the formula.
My impression was (perhaps) soured by the fact that my partner and I performed an arduous 700 mile move this week. Rarely have I been this comprehensively exhausted. I had hoped this book would be a light and colorful trifle to read whenever I had a spare moment, but it just never clicked. Maybe it was me.
Or maybe it was the way Citadel has Nazi collaborators help blonde barbarians steal the life-source of a race of effete and decadent spire-dwellers in order to establish a new human homeland. Maybe that was it.
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