Read this some years ago and wasn't very interested. It is a probably fairly typical example of a particular kind of pulp fiction: mightly hewed Vikings, beautiful compliant women, trusty sidekick of a non Caucasian extraction. People are on ships, they are different groups and the groups are backed by different gods, including Ishtar. There's fighting, and the hero is a slave part of the time. That's all I remember, but I do know I wasn't very keen and there are other books by Merritt that I far prefer to this one. ( )

Cuando John Kenton descubrió la pequeña nave de piedra que procedía de los lejanos tiempos de Sargón de Akkad, no podía imaginar que estaba abriendo una puerta a través del Espacio y el Tiempo que le llevaría a un mundo de magia y aventura, de amor y amistad, pero también de odio y peligro, en el que conocería y desearía a sharane, la sensual sacerdotisa de Ishtar, pero también a Klaneth, el Sacerdote Negro del terrible dios Nergal. Dos seres empeñados en una eterna lucha a muerte, que le arrastrarán a un torbellino de horror, pasión, brujería y violencia.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Merritt-La-nef-dIshtar/16498
> BAnQ (Grand G., Le devoir, 3 mai 1975) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2775031

High fantasy, with a mediocre plot (modern man swept into a fantasy world, it has been done before), and a rather surprising ending (I must admit, I had suspected a totally different outcome).

That being said, I rather enjoyed reading this tome, for the same reason I usually enjoy this type of books: the language. It is so elaboratly descriptive, with beautiful, nowadays underused words, it gives the whole story a bit of a mystical air (like these 2 sentences found on page 163:
Kenton, climbing, heard thunderings like the clashing of armied shields; clanging of countless cymbals, tintamarre of millions of gongs of brass. Ever louder grew the clangor as he ascended; with it mingled now the diapason of mighty winds, staccato of cataracts of rain.)
( )

One of the books that turned me on to heroic fantasy fiction back in the early Seventies.

I've been a fan of Merritt's for a long time. He's little known outside a narrow field these days, but he knew how to drive a plot.

Our protagonist is "sucked" into a sculpure of a boat, finding himself part of the crew and forced to man the oars in a fantasy "Arabian Nights" setting.

That's just the start of a swashbuckling adventure worthy of a Douglas Fairbanks movie. There are sultry maidens, heroic rescues, and black magic, all you'd expect in a fantasy novel of the period.

The writing style seems pulpy and dated these days, but it's a great fast read, and should be on every fantasy reader's bookshelf, just so they can understand the history of the genre.
( )