It’s been some time since I reviewed a pulp-era book. I love the early 20th century genre literature (before the genre shift in the 50’s/60’s) and A. Merritt is an almost forgotten name among those early authors. Which is a shame! I encourage everyone who likes 20th century fantasy to check out Merritt’s work. I previously reviewed his book The Ship of Ishtar, which I loved. His work tends to skew towards adventure romance with a scifi/fantasy twist. Given that most early pulp authors wrote adventure or romance stories, this isn’t unusual.
Originally published as a short in 1918 through 1919, it was later turned into a book in 1919. This story is often referenced as the inspiration for H. P. Lovecraft’s own “The Call of Cthulhu” which he wrote in 1926, published in 1928, though I could find no actual evidence from Lovecraft for this connection.
This is another of the “lost world” type stories from the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s framed like any other story of the time period, where one character is meeting with his friend, who is regaling him with the tale of what happened to him. To be honest, it has fantasy elements but bears more in common with adventure stories of the time than anything.
The big star here is the cast of characters. From Larry O’ Keefe the singing half American half Irishman, the cruel and argumentative Russian scientist Marakinoff, to Olaf Huldricksson the hulking Scandinavian who seeks his wife and child, the cast is full of memorable and interesting characters.
Another thing I love is how the different characters interpret their experiences in their own cultural contexts. Olaf is Nordic and sees the old Norse myths in everything in the other world. Larry goes so far as to see the Shining Ones as the Tuatha De, the old stories of Ireland.
I also admit I confused Lakla and Yolara. It was difficult to keep straight which one was which. Lakla was the handmaiden to the Silent Ones, while Yolara was the evil servant of the Shining One. It was difficult keeping straight which one of those two groups were evil, since they all had something they were after.
The book culminates in a confrontation between the two groups, with the visitors at the focal point. All in all it’s a decent ending but it felt pretty abrupt to me with little explanation of what happens after the fact; it could have benefitted from a sort of epilogue.
The character Dr. Goodwin would show up in Merritt’s The Metal Monster later. Honestly, I kind of prefer The Ship of Ishtar over this one, the horror/dark elements of The Moon Pool were not particularly interesting to me. Overall it feels like Merritt is hit or miss with his longer stories, but if you like this older style that’s great; Burroughs is probably more my style.
I also reviewed this book on my TikTok:
My newest poetry book is now available!
If you like my work consider supporting me with a donation! http://www.paypal.me/FrankOrmond
You may like some of my other reviews:
- Book Review: The Skylark of Space by E. E. “Doc” Smith
- Book Review: The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt
- Book Review: Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock
- Book Review: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
You may also like some of my other work:
Frank Ormond 
Nice
LikeLiked by 1 person