The Moon Pool (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) [Deluxe Edition] [Paperback]

A. Merritt (Author), Robert Silverberg (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Bison Frontiers of Imagination | Publication Date: March 1, 2001

On the island of Ponape in the South Pacific, the cold light of a full moon washes over the crumbling ruins of an ancient, vanished civilization. Unleashed from the depths is the Dweller, a glittering, enigmatic force of monstrous terror and radiant beauty that stalks the South Pacific, claiming all in its path. An international expedition led by American Walter Goodwin races to save those who have fallen victim to the Dweller. The dark mystery behind the malevolent force is Muria, a forgotten, mythic world deep within the earth that is home to a legendary people intent on reclaiming what was theirs long ago. This commemorative edition of The Moon Pool features an introduction by Robert Silverberg, a review of the first edition, and a glossary of the Murian language.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Students of early science fiction will welcome the University of Nebraska Press''s series Bison Frontiers of Imagination."—Times Literary Supplement

(Times Literary Supplement )

“First published as a novel in 1919, this path-breaking genre piece was praised by the New York Times. . . . Merritt was among the first . . . to speculate in fiction about the implications of the new science, archeology, and anthropology at the turn of the century. . . . An entertaining ode to love and sacrifice.”—Kirkus Reviews

(Kirkus Reviews )

“Fantasy, romance, adventure; something of mystery, something of the supernatural; a weaving together of ancient legends, older by far than any historical records, with the scientific knowledge of the present day; and side by side with these, yet far above and mastering them, the power of human love and willing self-sacrifice, the whole held together by a shimmering, glittering web of imagination . . . It marks the debut of a writer possessed of a very unusual, perhaps one might almost call it extraordinary, richness of imagination.”—New York Times Book Review

(New York Times Book Review )

Review

"Students of early science fiction will welcome the University of Nebraska Press''s series Bison Frontiers of Imagination."-Times Literary Supplement (Times Literary Supplement )

"First published as a novel in 1919, this path-breaking genre piece was praised by the New York Times. . . . Merritt was among the first . . . to speculate in fiction about the implications of the new science, archeology, and anthropology at the turn of the century. . . . An entertaining ode to love and sacrifice."-Kirkus Reviews (Kirkus Reviews )

"Fantasy, romance, adventure; something of mystery, something of the supernatural; a weaving together of ancient legends, older by far than any historical records, with the scientific knowledge of the present day; and side by side with these, yet far above and mastering them, the power of human love and willing self-sacrifice, the whole held together by a shimmering, glittering web of imagination . . . It marks the debut of a writer possessed of a very unusual, perhaps one might almost call it extraordinary, richness of imagination."-New York Times Book Review (New York Times Book Review ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 287 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; Cmv edition (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803282680
• ISBN-13: 978-0803282681
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #936,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a Classic, December 27, 2000

By 

Marian Powell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moon Pool (Paperback)

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.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERFUL FIRST NOVEL, February 11, 2004

By 

s.ferber (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moon Pool (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars classic, influential sci-fi reissued, September 6, 2004

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moon Pool (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

One of the most popular science-fiction writers in the early 1900s, Merritt had the reputation of the Lord of Fantasy. "The Moon Pool" evidences the "baroque complexities that Merritt introduced into his fairly standard plots through his use of elaborately contrived creatures, technologies, and settings," as the editor Levy remarks in his Introduction. The Dweller reawakened on the island of Ponape where an ancient civilization once existed by a Dr. David Throckmartin and his group of scientist explorers is a vampire seeking new souls to devour. Merritt's fantasy about the Manichean struggle between good and evil is colored by his interest in the mystic Madame Blavatsky. Looked on unfavorably by some leading critics of the time, Merritt never gained much notice outside of the field of science fiction. For later generations, his ornate style limited his appeal. But he holds considerable historical interest in this genre of popular literature for opening it up to diverse elements such as developments in the sciences of physics and biology, figures from folk literature, literary references of all types (e. g., Celtic literature), and philosophical and religious ideas and themes like Blavatsky's mysticism which were all a part of his eclectic erudition. One sees such effects not only in today's fantasy literature, but also the popular fantasy movies.