A noticeable flaw in the golden age of science fiction is the absence of female authors. Currently, there are many women writing science fiction; they even dominate recent awards such as the Hugo Award. One possible answer is that women were rare in the professions of engineering and science at the time. The physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, living in San Diego, was greeted in 1962 by the headline, "San Diego housewife wins Nobel Prize in Physics." Even as late as the sixties, Goeppert-Mayer's role as a housewife overshadowed her being a prize-winning physicist. In 1956 I graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School, a school dedicated to the education of future engineers and scientists. It was one of New York City's four specialized high schools. Only males were accepted as students at the time. I have to admit that then I did not see anything wrong with this.
One of several successful female science fiction writers in the 1930s and 40s was Catherine Lucille Moore, born in 1911. In the early 1930s, she successfully published stories under the name C.L. Moore. She later claimed this was to hide her identity from her current employer rather than to deal with gender bias. One fan, assuming that Moore was a man, sent her letters of admiration for her work. After meeting her, Henry Kuttner and Moore started writing stories together. Their collaboration led to them marrying in 1940.
The story Judgement Night was written alone by Moore in 1943. It takes place on the planet Ericon, a unique world inhabited by god-like beings called The Ancients. Human beings are also allowed to live on Ericon, but are only given access to a small part of its surface. Humanity, which has been divided into numerous races, also inhabits many worlds in the galaxy. The racial group that occupies Ericon also controls humanity's galactic Empire. Over extensive periods different groups gain and lose this advantage. At the time of the story, the galactic Emperor is a Lyonese. The H'vairi is another human group that is revolting against the Lyonese control of the Empire. The current Emperor is old and in conflict with his daughter Juilli over what strategy is appropriate in the Empire's defense. Juilli, as the Emperor's only child, was raised as a trained fighter. The story contains many plot twists and interesting ideas that presaged later developments in science fiction writing. One example is something like the holodeck in the Star Trek television series.
As an example of Moore’s collaboration with Kuttner under the pseudonym of Laurence O' Donnell, it is worthwhile looking at the novella Vintage Season written in 1946. The story has appeared in many anthologies and was adapted for a movie in 1991. I don't want to ruin the story by saying anything more. There is even a giveaway in the movie's title, so don't look up the film if you wish to read the story or you will lose having a major surprise. The story is available in the book The Best of C.L. Moore, which can be found on Amazon.
As an aside, I use a personal evaluation notation to score stories. My score for the novel Judgement Night is S3-W4-I4-P3, where 'S' stands for Story, 'W' for Writing, 'I' for Ideas, and 'P' for Plausibility. The numbers are on a scale from 1 to 5, where the higher the number, the better the rating. Without tedious detail, I consider 'S' to indicate entertainment value, 'W' features such as style and character development, 'I' what is innovative and unexpected, and 'P' logic, consistency and possibility. In the scoring, I also take into account the social situation that applied when the story was written.
Let me know what you think of my personal evaluation notation and if you would like me to use this to assess stories discussed in the newsletter. The personal part is important, that is, the system is very subjective. Also, if you know someone that might enjoy these newsletters, please share it with them.