Publishers Weekly
The Wesleyan Early Classics of Science Fiction presents the first scholarly edition of A. Merritt's celebrated lost world novel, The Moon Pool, edited and with an introduction by Michael Levy. First published as a novelette in All-Story Weekly in 1918, it remains a landmark fantasy. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
First published as a novel in 1919, this path-breaking genre piece was praised by The New York Times, whose review of Merritt (1884-1945) is appended here. Also included in this new edition: a lukewarm introduction by SF star Robert Silverberg, who admits his "fatigue" of so many fantasy cliches found in Merritt's other-world narrative. On the other hand, Merritt was among the first (with Verne and Haggard, whom he most resembles) to speculate in fiction about the implications of the new science, archaeology, and anthropology at the turn of the century. This faux memoir records a botanist's tale of life in a lost "Atlantis" in the Pacific, a fantastic nether world controlled by forces of electricity and magnetism. The stock characters-from a chatty Irish adventurer to a scheming Russian scientist-bring to life a story that resembles too many movies to name. And scriptwriters might still find much to mine in this entertaining ode to love and sacrifice.
From the Publisher
"The Moon Pool is a lost-world novel in the tradition of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, and James Hilton that manages to be spooky, spiritual, and silly all at once."—Belles Lettres
"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre."—John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius"This edition of The Moon Pool is a rare accomplishment: a scholarly edition of a piece of pulp fiction. Levy's edition does a service to the whole genre."—John Huntington, author of Rationalizing Genius"As one of the most popular early works at the very birth of pulp magazines, The Moon Pool represents the tastes of this period. The introduction constitutes the major piece of Merritt scholarship to appear in recent decades."—Gary K. Wolfe, author of The Known and the Unknown
New York Times Book Review
“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
Times Literary Supplement
"Students of early science fiction will welcome the University of Nebraska Press's series Bison Frontiers of Imagination."—Times Literary Supplement
