10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER WINNING FANTASY BY A. MERRITT, March 8, 2004
This review is from: The Metal Monster (Lovecraft's Library) (Paperback)
Abraham Merritt's second novel, "The Metal Monster," first saw the light of day in 1920, in "Argosy" magazine. It was not until 1946 that this masterful fantasy creation was printed in book form. In a way, this work is a continuation of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool" (1919), as it is a narrative of America's foremost botanist, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, narrator of that earlier adventure as well. As Goodwin tells us, he initially set out on this second great adventure to forget the terrible incidents of the first; if anything, however, the events depicted in "The Metal Monster" are at least as mindblowing as those in the earlier tale. While Goodwin had encountered underground civilizations, frogmen, battling priestesses and a living-light entity in the earlier tale, this time around he discovers, in the Trans-Himalayan wastes of Tibet, a surviving Persian city, a half-human priestess, AND an entire civilization made up of living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction. As in the earlier tale, Goodwin is joined in his epic adventure by a small group of can-do individuals that he meets in the most unlikely, godforsaken areas of the world. This time around, it's a brother-and-sister team of scientists, as well as the son of one of Goodwin's old science buddies.
The sense of awe and wonder so crucial to good adventure fantasy is of a very high order in this book. Goodwin & Co., in one of the book's best set pieces, explore the living city of metal, and witness the life forms feeding off the sun, reproducing, and preparing for war. Later on, Merrittt treats us to a titanic battle between the metal folk and the lost Persians, as well as an hallucinatory cataclysm at the novel's end. Indeed, much of the book IS hallucinatory, with the metal shapes coalescing and morphing like crazy Transformers gone wild. A book by A. Merritt would be nothing without his hyperstylized, lush purple prose, and in this tale, his gift for somewhat prolix prose is given full vent. At times these incessant descriptions wear a bit thin, and at others they paradoxically fail to stir up pictures in the reader's mind eye. (I defy anyone, for example, to say that he/she was able to fully visualize Goodwin & Co.'s initial nighttime entry into the city of the metal people.) For the most part, though, these descriptions are amazing. Just take this one small sample. Whereas other writers might simply say that Goodwin entered a chamber with multicolored lights, here's what Merritt gives us:
"...a limitless temple of light. High up in it, strewn manifold, danced and shone soft orbs like tender suns. No pale gilt luminaries of frozen rays were these. Effulgent, jubilant, they flamed--orbs red as wine of rubies that Djinns of Al Shiraz press from his enchanted vineyards of jewels; twin orbs rose white as breasts of pampered Babylonian maids; orbs of pulsing opalescences and orbs of the murmuring green of bursting buds of spring, crocused orbs and orbs of royal coral; suns that throbbed with singing rays of wedded rose and pearl and of sapphires and topazes amorous; orbs born of cool virginal dawns and of imperial sunsets and orbs that were the tuliped fruit of mating rainbows of fire...."
Almost like prose poetry, isn't it? With writing like this, a well-thought-out plot, exotic settings and some great action sequences, "The Metal Monster" does indeed live up to its rep as a fantasy classic. There ARE some unanswered questions by the book's end, but that only adds to the aura of cosmic mystery that Merritt has built up. The book is a winner, indeed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A "must own" Lost Race novel for Weird Fiction fans, July 14, 2005
This review is from: The Metal Monster (Lovecraft's Library) (Paperback)
5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. 237 pages.
Of great important to readers of weird fiction is the first installment in Hippocampus Press' Lovecraft's Library series. Aimed at reprinting texts that H. P. Lovecraft read and admired, the inclusion of Abraham Merritt's The Metal Monster should come as a shock to no one.
Set in the Trans-Himalayan mountains, a group of four explorers uncover a lost-race, their power-crazed leader Norhala, and the metal homunculus Norhala controls. More akin to the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard than to Lovecraft, Merritt's concept of writing a "nexus where scientific theory and occult mystery intersected" seems philosophically aligned with Lovecraft's own aesthetic of the weird. Readers will surely notice certain similarities between Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness and The Metal Monster.
Though The Metal Monster should feel dated, it surprisingly seems as innovative and fresh today as it must have upon first publication. The lesson learned, it would seem, is that a great author is able to create works that transcend time.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Futurist poetry, October 16, 2008
This review is from: The Metal Monster (Lovecraft's Library) (Paperback)
The plot is nonsense even by pulp standards. The ending is extremely unsatisfying. The protagonist is passive and reactive. THe interpersonal drama is wooden and extremely hokey.
But the book is BRILLIANT. Page after page of super-imaginative futuristic poetry -of the highest quality. It reminds me of Untameables.
I would highly recomend this book to painters, artists, and those with an interested in futurism.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
