Face in the Abyss

Rating:
Summary: A BOOK OF REAL MERRITT
Review: Abraham Merritt's "The Face in the Abyss" first appeared as a short story in a 1923 issue of "Argosy" magazine. It would be another seven years before its sequel, "The Snake Mother," appeared in "Argosy," and yet another year before the book-length version combined these two tales, in 1931. It is easy to detect the book's provenance as two shorter stories, as the first third of the novel is pretty straightforward treasure-hunting fare, while the remainder of the book takes a sharp turn into lost-world fantasy, of the kind popularized by H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In this novel we meet Nick Graydon, an American miner, who is searching for lost Incan loot with three of the nastiest compadres you can imagine. In the Peruvian wastes, they come across a mysterious girl, and are led by her toward Yu-Atlanchi, the so-called Hidden Land. Graydon's cohorts suffer a mysterious fate, but Graydon himself goes on to discover Yu-Atlanchi's many wonders. He meets the Snake Mother, one of Merritt's finest creations: a half snake/half girl entity who is countless aeons old and possessed of ancient wisdom. The Snake Mother is similar in nature to the Silent Ones of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool," but is a much more fleshed-out character. It seems that Graydon has stumbled into Yu-Atlanchi just as civil war is about to break out there. Nimir, an evil lord whom the Snake Mother had imprisoned ages ago, has returned, and is intent on using his weapons of mind control and superscience to rule the world. Merritt does ultimately treat us to a nifty battle between the forces of Nimir (aided by his lizard men, dinosaurs and various weapons) and the Snake Mother (aided by her invisible flying lizards and assorted way-out armaments). But before we get to that battle, Merritt also dishes out a dinosaur hunt, a dinosaur race, a tour through the Cavern of Lost Wisdom, a garden of evil, mind control, spirit possession, spider-men (and NOT of the Peter Parker variety!), and some fascinating history of and philosophizing by the Snake Mother. It's all wonderfully pulpy and improbable stuff, but Merritt throws quite a bit into the book to keep the reader well entertained.
On the down side, "The Face in the Abyss" does not feature as much of the wonderful purple prose that made earlier Merritt works such as "The Moon Pool" and "The Metal Monster" so special. This book seems to have been written more quickly and, in some places, almost carelessly. For example, in one scene, the moon is said to be rising from the west! In another, Graydon is said to have only one pistol, under his arm, although the pistol he's had at his waist is never mentioned again. That Cavern of Lost Wisdom seems so easy to come across that it's impossible for the reader to believe that it has been undiscovered for thousands of years. Merritt is also guilty of occasional fuzzy writing in "Face" (such as when he refers to a "three foot parapet"; is that three feet high or three feet wide, or what?), and much of the geography of the incessant tunnel crawling that takes place in the book is hard to follow. But perhaps this is deliberate on Merritt's part. Not all of our questions are concretely answered by the novel's end, and Graydon's theorizing is apparently meant to suffice. But I suppose that this is all nitpicking. What "Face" ultimately does succeed at is in providing action-packed escapism, constant imagination and colorful wonders. What an incredible Hollywood blockbuster this would make! Anyway, as it is, this is yet another fine fantasy from Abraham Merritt.

Rating:
Summary: A BOOK OF REAL MERRITT
Review: Abraham Merritt's "The Face in the Abyss" first appeared as a short story in a 1923 issue of "Argosy" magazine. It would be another seven years before its sequel, "The Snake Mother," appeared in "Argosy," and yet another year before the book-length version combined these two tales, in 1931. It is easy to detect the book's provenance as two shorter stories, as the first third of the novel is pretty straightforward treasure-hunting fare, while the remainder of the book takes a sharp turn into lost-world fantasy, of the kind popularized by H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In this novel we meet Nick Graydon, an American miner, who is searching for lost Incan loot with three of the nastiest compadres you can imagine. In the Peruvian wastes, they come across a mysterious girl, and are led by her toward Yu-Atlanchi, the so-called Hidden Land. Graydon's cohorts suffer a mysterious fate, but Graydon himself goes on to discover Yu-Atlanchi's many wonders. He meets the Snake Mother, one of Merritt's finest creations: a half snake/half girl entity who is countless aeons old and possessed of ancient wisdom. The Snake Mother is similar in nature to the Silent Ones of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool," but is a much more fleshed-out character. It seems that Graydon has stumbled into Yu-Atlanchi just as civil war is about to break out there. Nimir, an evil lord whom the Snake Mother had imprisoned ages ago, has returned, and is intent on using his weapons of mind control and superscience to rule the world. Merritt does ultimately treat us to a nifty battle between the forces of Nimir (aided by his lizard men, dinosaurs and various weapons) and the Snake Mother (aided by her invisible flying lizards and assorted way-out armaments). But before we get to that battle, Merritt also dishes out a dinosaur hunt, a dinosaur race, a tour through the Cavern of Lost Wisdom, a garden of evil, mind control, spirit possession, spider-men (and NOT of the Peter Parker variety!), and some fascinating history of and philosophizing by the Snake Mother. It's all wonderfully pulpy and improbable stuff, but Merritt throws quite a bit into the book to keep the reader well entertained.
On the down side, "The Face in the Abyss" does not feature as much of the wonderful purple prose that made earlier Merritt works such as "The Moon Pool" and "The Metal Monster" so special. This book seems to have been written more quickly and, in some places, almost carelessly. For example, in one scene, the moon is said to be rising from the west! In another, Graydon is said to have only one pistol, under his arm, although the pistol he's had at his waist is never mentioned again. That Cavern of Lost Wisdom seems so easy to come across that it's impossible for the reader to believe that it has been undiscovered for thousands of years. Merritt is also guilty of occasional fuzzy writing in "Face" (such as when he refers to a "three foot parapet"; is that three feet high or three feet wide, or what?), and much of the geography of the incessant tunnel crawling that takes place in the book is hard to follow. But perhaps this is deliberate on Merritt's part. Not all of our questions are concretely answered by the novel's end, and Graydon's theorizing is apparently meant to suffice. But I suppose that this is all nitpicking. What "Face" ultimately does succeed at is in providing action-packed escapism, constant imagination and colorful wonders. What an incredible Hollywood blockbuster this would make! Anyway, as it is, this is yet another fine fantasy from Abraham Merritt.

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected but still a great book
Review: By the title and the chapter names of this book, I expected it to be set in a more Tolkien setting. This book starts out in what I believe to be 20th century South America. When you first read it, you expect a sort of Indiana Jones storyline. Boy does that change in a hurry. I won't spoil the whole story but I will say this, the imagery is fantastic. I was able to picture vividly, so much of what Merritt describes in this book. I will also say that for me, this book went very quicly. Though not a simple book, it is easy to read. What I mean to say is, you can immerse yourself in this title and find yourself finishing it very quickly. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected but still a great book
Review: By the title and the chapter names of this book, I expected it to be set in a more Tolkien setting. This book starts out in what I believe to be 20th century South America. When you first read it, you expect a sort of Indiana Jones storyline. Boy does that change in a hurry. I won't spoil the whole story but I will say this, the imagery is fantastic. I was able to picture vividly, so much of what Merritt describes in this book. I will also say that for me, this book went very quicly. Though not a simple book, it is easy to read. What I mean to say is, you can immerse yourself in this title and find yourself finishing it very quickly. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The Face In The Abyss
Review: Graydon and some plunder-hungry friends are foraging about in the some South American jungle, when Suarra the beautiful mystery-woman appears...and you know there's got to be yet another Lost Civilization tucked away somewhere. After Graydon is forced to turn on one of his colleagues when the fella makes unseemly advances on poor Suarra, Merritt does a bit of house-cleaning--that is, pitting our noble protagonist against his materialistic buddies--and then we proceed to the main agenda: Trouble, right here in Yu-Atlanchi, with its despot, rebels, spider-men (Peter Parker ain't got nuthin' on wall-climbing Kon and his brethren), magic-wielding Serpent Mother, hoardes of dinosaurs, malevolent, body-craving Shadow menace threatening to escape from ancient imprisonment with the help of a nasty Lord of Evil, and of course, the Face itself, where all are judged before the Abyss.

Graydon allies with the rebels--likeable Regor the gigantic, even more impressive Huon, and the Lord of Folly, he of the age-wracked face with the young eyes. There's much to be done to get this particular Lost Civilization all sorted out properly; the Gates of Life and Death need to be opened so everyone can stop being so Deathless and decadent, Suarra needs to be saved (frequently) so breathless romantic scenes can continue to intersperse all the hacking with swords and globular light-magic antics, the Shadow needs to be slapped down again before it claims Graydon's fine physical form, and the yoke of tyranny must be smashed, if that's hoary and dramatic enough for you.

Despite flimsy attempts to relate any of this to science--apparently it's a no-no to dabble in eugenics and make spider-men (no matter how nice a guy Kon is), and according to the Snake Mother it's not magic she does, just manipulation of atoms (oh, sure, yah, okay)--here we have frothy fantasy. This is about the most I've liked A. Merrit, along with The Ship Of Ishtar. Enthusiasts of the genre who want to go pre-Tolkien should strongly consider at least one Merritt pit-stop, and The Face In The Abyss delivers the goods.