The Metal Monster!

Just finished A. Merritt's outlandish thrill ride The Metal Monster. This is one of those wild yarns that picks you up and never lets you go.

Originally serialized in Argosy in the 20's, this science fiction novel is one of the most mind-boggling adventures I've ever encountered. The description by Merritt of the elaborate thing, dubbed for lack of any better terms "The Metal Monster", seems to lay just beyond my ability to apprehend it. Merritt describes and describes and describes, assaulting the reader's senses with colors and shapes and forms, but it's all rather difficult to hold together as we encounter a life form which is well and truly alien.

What we have is another adventure of Dr.Goodwin who was our eyes and ears in the earlier Merritt novel The Moon Pool. He returns with more of his heroic friends to explore the wilds of the Himalayas where they find a fantastically powerful woman named Norhalla, the last remnant of an ancient Persian culture who has control, of sorts, of a impossibly complex network of machines which express themselves (or itself) as cubes, cones, spheres, and such. These are amazingly powerful devices who suck their power from the Sun itself and are capable of ferocious damage when commanded by the implacable Norhalla.

Goodwin and his compatriots Drake, Ruth, and her brother Martin try to understand and then escape the clutches of this all-powerful goddess who seems devoid of most normal human characteristics, save the most brutal and ferocious.

The Metal Monster is a lush and truly weird adventure. Be prepared to have your senses assaulted as Merritt paints one astounding picture after another in an effort to fully describe an impossible beast.

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The Ship Of Ishtar!

Recently had the great pleasure to read A.Merritt's wonderfully lush novel The Ship of Ishtar. This 1920's high fantasy novel appeared originally in serial form in Argosy.

The story begins with John Kenton, an amateur archeologist and World War I American veteran who has lost some of the flavor for life. In an attempt to placate somewhat his ennui he rummages around with an ancient Babylonian block which ends up containing an elaborate and beautifully ornate jeweled model of an ancient sailing ship. The ship serves as key, allowing Kenton to enter a timeless world in which the full-scale version of this ship sails the seas and has done for thousands of years.

The ship, the titular "Ship of Ishtar" has two distinct parts, one dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and the eternal home to the beautiful Sharane and her handmaidens dedicated to the ancient goddess. On the other end of the ship is Klaneth, a priest dedicated to Nergal and who is at war with Sharane and Ishtar herself. This struggle has collected an assortment of warriors over the centuries in particular to the story Gigi, a weird giant who has dwarfish legs but a giant heart, Zubran a lusty and hearty Persian pirate of sorts, and Sigurd a giant and powerfully loyal Viking. These three end up becoming strong allies to John Kenton as he finds himself enmeshed in the war between Nergal and Ishtar and discovers he is more closely linked to this weird sprawling neverland than he at first suspected.

The story is potent thanks to Merritt's wonderful writing style, which is at once elaborate and ornate but highly readable nonetheless. Merritt never comes across as writing in an antique style, but despite highly decorative language keeps the pedal to the metal throughout the narrative. John Kenton is a man who has lost his way in the modern world and finds both love and purpose in this ancient one on which he and his allies sail. During the course of the story he is periodically pulled away, back to Earth where time passes remarkably slowly relative to the passage on the Ishtarian seas. He finds himself changed more and more, and more and more removed from his modern identity. It's a fascinating transformation as John Kenton becomes "Jonkenton" and eventually just "The Wolf", a hardened warrior ready to do things a modern man would at best blink at.

Merritt was a big favorite and influence for H.P. Lovecraft, and there's no denying the inspiration. But on reading this potent and bloody saga, I couldn't help but imagine that Robert E. Howard hadn't read a Merritt novel. I detected more than a hint of Conan's prowling eyes in the transformed face of Merritt's Kenton.

The edition I read (see the top cover) featured a host of lush and beautiful Virgil Finlay images. See some of them below. 

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Into The Moon Pool!

I finally entered The Moon Pool. What I mean is that I have finally read A. Merritt's landmark science-fantasy which established his once immense reputation. I bought the book many years ago in a tawdry looking Avon paperback and sort of had the notion that I had sampled the book. But after reading it the last few days, I realize I must have never have done so before, or I would certainly have a more robust memory of it. The book is entrancing and lush and compelling reading for anyone with a yen for a rock solid yarn about classic macho heroes venturing into the unknown and who find both danger and romance on the other side.

The Moon Pool, the original novella was published in in All-Story Weekly in 1918 and proved to be a great success. It tells the tale of a haunted man named Throckmorton who tells his woeful to story to his friend and botanist Dr.Goodwin. He tells of his tragic expedition to a remote Pacific island where they encountered a bizarre and apparently dangerous entity which seemed to emerge from a mysterious stone portal and was empowered by the light of the Moon.

After the success of this story, Merritt wrote an elaborate sequel titled Conquest of the Moon Pool which ran in All-Story the next year. It develops from the weird story of man's tragedy to become a full-blown lost world saga with more than a whisper of the elaborate cosmology that would some years later inspired Lovecraft.

Goodwin is joined by larger-than-life hero Larry O'Keefe, a ferocious Irish-American who functions not unlike the golden-hued heroes of H.Rider Haggard. In fact the whole feel of this sprawling story is very much like a Haggard tale, told from the perspective of a humble man who is often very impressed by the people and things around him. This duo alongside Olaf Huldricksson, a giant Norwegian who has lost his wife and child enter the domain of the Dweller of the Moon Pool,  and encounter the society which at once fears and worships it. There is also a Russian scientist named Marakinoff who shows up to stick his meddlesome Commie nose into the works.

This is not remotely a realistic novel. The descriptions are lush and baroque, sometimes opaque, but always beautiful. Merritt's writing is commanding and while he loses me sometimes in the sheer density of the description, I feel confident I will emerge safely on the other side. The story streams along with a profoundly weird aura as we see armies of dwarves battle regiments of frog-people and behind it all the Dweller, his creators and his legions of souless nigh-dead. There is sex and death and even a hint of philosophy and science, all the trappings of a whopping and memorable adventure romp.

If you want to enter The Moon Pool, check out this link. 

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