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Title: The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt, A. Merritt ISBN: 0-8032-8268-0 Publisher: Bison Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A MASTERFUL FIRST NOVEL
Comment: A. Merritt's masterful first novel, "The Moon Pool," originally appeared in the magazine "All-Story Weekly," as a short story entitled "The Moon Pool," in 1918. Its full-length sequel, "The Conquest of the Moon Pool," followed in that pub the following year. The first book publication, later in 1919, combined these two works into a unified whole, and the result is an astonishing piece of fantastic fiction. And it would seem that Orson Welles' radio rendition of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" on 10/30/38 was not the first piece of fantasy to dupe the public, either. Readers of "The Moon Pool" in 1918 were so convinced of the book's veracity that they wrote to "All-Story Weekly" wanting more information. I can easily understand their confusion, as this novel is told in a very realistic style, purportedly from notes that the famous botanist Dr. Walter Goodwin had submitted to the International Association of Science. Goodwin had been en route from Port Moresby, New Guinea to Melbourne when he encountered an old associate, Dr. Throckmartin, who told him a remarkable story. It seems that Throckmartin's entire scientific party had been abducted by a being of light, while they were exploring the (actual) Nan-Matal ruins off Panape, in the Caroline Islands. Throckmartin himself is abducted before Goodwin's eyes, leading to Goodwin's exploration of those same ruins. Throckmartin's tale is eerie and quite suspenseful; indeed, those first 30 pages of the book are so very intense that the reader will be amazed to realize that there's another 250 pages in this novel yet to go! En route to Panape to effect his investigation, Goodwin, through a series of somewhat forced coincidences, encounters a Norwegian captain whose family had been abducted by the strange light entity; a visionary, somewhat fey, Irish fighter pilot; and a duplicitous Russian (German in the original magazine version!) scientist, all of whom accompany him on his adventures. And this is just the introductory setup in what turns out to be a long, involving, at times hallucinatory, and all in all quite remarkable tale. Underground civilizations, invisibility cloaks, giant jellyfish, disintegrating beams, good and evil priestesses, battles involving thousands, frogmen, shell-shaped flying cars...Merritt's imagination seems to be bursting loose in this, his first work. Much has been said regarding the fact that Merritt, a newspaperman for the most part (for many years on "The American Weekly"), could switch so easily from dry journalese to the florid, purple prose that soon became his trademark. This book would not be what it is without his dense, adjective-heavy, hyperimaginative prose, with its wide range of reference and yearning lyricism. Just take this example, in which the author describes the flora of the underground world that Goodwin & Co. discover:
"...moss veils like banners of a marching host of Titans; pennons and bannerets of the sunset; gonfalons of the Jinn; webs of faery; oriflammes of elfland! Springing up through that polychromatic flood myriads of pedicles--slender and straight as spears, or soaring in spirals, or curving with undulations gracile as the white serpents of Tanit in ancient Carthaginian groves--and all surmounted by a fantasy of spore cases in shapes of minaret and turret, domes and spires and cones, caps of Phrygia and bishops' mitres, shapes grotesque and unnameable--shapes delicate and lovely! They hung high poised, nodding and swaying--like goblins hovering over Titania's court; cacophony of Cathay accenting the "Flower Maiden" music of "Parsifal"; bizarrerie of the angled, fantastic beings that people the Javan pantheon watching a bacchanal of houris in Mohammed's paradise!"
Despite the reader's desire to flip through the pages breathlessly to see what happens next, prose such as this almost demands a more leisurely pace. I found myself rereading many such passages, just reveling in Merritt's ability to conjure up dreamlike word pictures. But strangely enough, although he is extraordinarily good with these descriptions, sometimes Merritt overreaches himself, and then his attempts to picture things fall flat. I defy any reader to fully visualize Goodwin & Co.'s means of descent into the Murian underworld, for instance, or the geography of the bridge leading to the Portal. But for the most part, Merritt's prose is extremely effective at conveying a sense of alien wonder, and "The Moon Pool" does indeed live up to its reputation as a fantasy classic. I recommend it wholeheartedly to all amazon.com readers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Merritt at his finest
Comment: This novel sags in the middle with what appears to be padded material to lengthen it out, but the beginning and ending chapters are breathtaking fantasy in a beautiful style. Merritt was a genius and one should simply ignore the padding and enjoy the brilliant parts.
Rating: 5
Summary: Still a Classic
Comment: I gave this five stars because it deserved it. It's still a classic and still a lot of fun to read. However, readers be warned. You must remember it was written in 1919. Stereotypes abound. Women are voluptous, wear very little clothing and are either totally good or totally evil. If you can make allowances for all that, then it's a thoroughly enjoyable romp and the author's imagination is stunning. Today, he would place his adventure on an alien planet. In 1919, the vast uncharted regions of the Pacific were vast and alien enough to contain lost races, lost civilizations, unimaginable science, etc. My recommendation is to suspend all disbelief and critical judgment and simply enjoy.
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Title: The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel, John Clute ISBN: 0803292791 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay ISBN: 0803280041 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Face in the Abyss by A. Merritt ISBN: 0020228732 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 1992 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney, Boris Artzybasheff ISBN: 0803269072 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne ISBN: 0803273320 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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