Customer Reviews

Dwellers in the Mirage

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After taking a brief respite--in the hardboiled yet outre crime thriller "Seven Footprints to Satan"--from the tales of adventurous fantasy at which he so excelled, Abraham Merritt returned in fine form with "Dwellers in the Mirage" (1932). In this terrific novel, Merritt revisits many of the themes and uses many of the ingredients that made his first novel, "The Moon Pool," such an impressive success. Like that early work, "Dwellers" features a lost civilization (of the type grandfathered by the great H. Rider Haggard), battling priestesses, civil wars, and otherdimensional creatures (in the earlier book, a light creature; in "Dwellers," an octopuslike nasty named Khalk'ru that dissolves whatever life-form it touches). In this marvelous fantasy, we meet Leif Langdon, who is hiking through the foothills of the Endicott Mountains in northern Alaska with his Native American buddy. Years before, Leif had witnessed an arcane religious ritual in Mongolia, and been told by the Uighur tribesmen there that he was a descendant of Dwayanu, an ancient Mongolian king. Leif and his buddy discover a hidden valley covered by a freak Alaskan mirage, and meet the golden-skinned pygmy peoples and the Mongolian descendants that reside therein. Before long, in an instance of extreme atavism, Dwayanu takes over Leif's mind and personality, and aids him in his upcoming trials. Leif must eventually encounter a civil war between the valley's inhabitants; the storming of the fugitive city of Sirk; the charms of a witch woman with the most appropriate name of Lur; giant leeches; AND the aforementioned Khalk'ru. The book is just brimming with marvelous imagination and endless wonder, and the reader will never guess what outrageous incidents will pop up next. Merritt was truly at the top of his form with "Dwellers," and threw in great detail to keep the whole conceit afloat. There are amusing side characters, interesting species of flora and fauna, some historical and metaphysical speculations, and bits of unusual anthropology. The tale proceeds with great drive and purpose, and concludes most satisfactorily, indeed. "Dwellers in the Mirage" has been included in Cawthorn & Moorcock's excellent overview volume "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books," and I can well understand why. It is a tale that Haggard himself may well have enjoyed, and if you knew me, you'd know that this is high praise, indeed! Seek this book out, by all means; it's a winner!

Why this has not been made into a movie is utterly beyond me.

Abraham Merrit is far older than any of the authors whose books have had the full front cover art that you see on some of these editions. On my book cover there is a full and detailed image of Kal Krúh, the terrible creature in the story.

As I'm in the process of translating this into an audio drama, I shoudl say some things. Merrit comes from a far earlier age, closer to HG Wells, for instance, than Asimov, and this is rather apparent in the voice of the dialogue. It comes a litle too fast in the book to begin with, though there is a way of making the material slightly re-ordered in time to fit modern tastes. Far, far better is his descriptive imagery, and here Merrit easily equals any of the contemporary fantasy authors. Given that he could probably not afford the long drawn out creative proces per book as such, he could no doubt have drawn even larger illustrations of his post 1st world war world of unexplored paradises and mysteries. We probably have enough, though. In this book, Leif, a young adventurer with an Indian companion, goes north after a family dispute to hunt for a while. Finds some strange geography and a confrontation with a single bizarre incident from his own past, something he only dreams about. Read on if you can get the book. Contact me if you can't. I'll be announcing the release of the audio drama in a year or two,

Simply put, this book is what other writer strive to achieve. It has a little of everything: Fantasy, Adventure, Exploration, Mythology, Romance, and Scientific Theory of the day. Fascinating exploration of what is really in the unused 90% of the mind.

Very much in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, Merritt was one of the early avatars of swords & sorcery fantasy novels. He emerged from the pulp magazines of the 50s to write novels which went on to influence a generation after him.

_Dwellers in the Mirage_ I found to be a very nice combination of all the things that make early fantasy readable. By turns sly and frightening and full of the high-hat adventure that characterizes speculative fiction of this period.

Leif Langdon feels as though he never really belonged in the modern world and this feeling is confirmed when he disappears into a separate society hidden by a natural phenomenon. He feels strangely at home with this lost society and discovers the role that he was meant to play in life.

Trainspotters may be interested in noting that Merritt went on sometime after this book to co-author a story with Lovecraft. After reading about the Khalk'ru I am certainly curious who was influencing whom.

Well, this is one of those "walk out of the world and into someplace very different" novels, put into an exploration of exotic (to the 1920's person) locals.

It ought to be a classic of the Genre, but it seems that nobody reads it and nobody publishes it either. A shame. I'm NOT going to say much, except to beware the monstrous Dwanyu.

This is surely one of the finest fantasy/lost race novels ever written. Back in 1969 during a parade I ran into a boy of 14 in the crowd and we somehow got on the subject of Merritt. He was an enthusiastic fan and told me that his friends shared the same tastes. He said that there was a paperback bookstore near his school where the kids hung out, and that was the place to find Merritt books. It would appear that in the 42 years since then, this fondness of boys for Merritt has somehow evaporated completely. It is their loss! The style of this book is taut, sparse, no-nonsense. Merritt comes right to the point. The action never lets up. There are two different endings to this novel, one forced on Merritt by his editor, and one by Merritt himself. I read the 1962 paperback and fear that this has the editor's ending, but in any case I liked it. I have no idea what the alternate ending is like. This title was included in Moorcock's list of the 100 best fantasy novels, and it deserves to be there. People whose idea of literature is realistic novels would find this book silly, childish and low-brow, a pulp thriller for teenagers. Well, they are partly right, but those of us who go for this sort of thing must consider this a masterpiece.

This book employes many of the themes one would expect from a pulp adventure story, particularly one written in the 1930's: exotic locations, treachous villains, wicked cults, bizarre civilizations and two mysteriously seductive heroines - one a Madonna-type the other a witch queen. The hero, Lief Langdon, is handsome, athletic, intelligent and fully versed in survival skills. Regrettable he has a split personality; sometimes he is the reincarnation of the ancient cult leader Dwayanu and sometimes the fearless soldier of fortune Lief. Complicating matters is that Dwayanu has the unfortunate ability to conjure from another dimension a kraken-like being called Khalk're that has a taste for human sacrifice.

Lief/Dwayanu is summoned to the land of the Mirage and becomes a troublesome focus point in the conflict of two totally different cultures; one of warrior women led by an exotic witch and the other a race pygmies and their revered human queen. Somehow the author has Lief/Dwayanu become the lover of both ladies!

On the surface this story has all the elements of a lurid, dated piece of hackwork. Rest assured Abraham Merritt[1884-1943] was no hack. He was intelligent and knowledgeable of his subject matter but did not neglect the desires of his audience. Certainly this book was written as an entertainment and a grand one it is.

Merritt, through the use of introspective asides, ruminates on the issues of scientific explanations for apparent occult manifestations, a familiar theme if your have read any of his other novels particularly "The Moon Pool".

This novel was first published in 1932 and last reprinted in paperback in 1991. It is regrettable that Merritt's novels has not been re-printed and re-popularized like those from Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Fortunately there have been numerous editions of Merritt's novels and many copies are available for sale on Amazon.

Dwellers in the Mirage (1932) by Abraham Grace Merritt - 222 pages - rating: 5.5/10

The writing style is good and all the elements of a great story are present. If the author had simply written about two comrades descending into adventures in a hidden valley it would have been quite a fine tale. Unfortunately the plot was confused by having the main character not really know who he was half the time eventually leading him to abandon his friend completely.

The reader endures a frustrating sense of unfocused direction, forever waiting for the plot to fit back together in a way that feels right. Perhaps the author felt that a simple adventure needed a twist of some sort. Well it did feel twisted, but not in a good way.

Claus Kellermann
2006 April 15
Sci_Fi_Researcher@yahoo.com