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The Face in the Abyss von A. Merritt
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The Face in the Abyss (Original 1923; 1992. Auflage)

von A. Merritt

MitgliederRezensionenBeliebtheitDurchschnittliche BewertungDiskussionen
304785,644 (3.48)8
The tale is brilliant It is full of weird imagination, marvelous writing, horror, beauty, and it may well be called the most visual book ever written for the world of fantasy. It is a grand book with a grand cast of characters. Visualize, if you are able, a monstrous head that cries tears of gold, locked deep in a cavern out of time forgotten. Consider also the incredible, Snake Mother, who is both human and reptilian, and her battle with the thing called the Lord of Evil.… (mehr)
Mitglied:jfclark
Titel:The Face in the Abyss
Autoren:A. Merritt
Info:Scribner Paper Fiction (1992), Board book, 288 pages
Sammlungen:Deine Bibliothek, Lese gerade
Bewertung:***
Tags:Early fantasy

Werk-Informationen

Die Schlangenmutter von Abraham Merritt (1923)

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A lost world fantasy, reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World), featuring dinosaur survivals in a remote area of Peru, cut off from contact with the outside world, but with an early genetic engineering vibe - a race who originated in the South Pole before a polar shift made that area uninhabitable have somehow banished death (while at the same time making it impossible to have children, in order to keep their numbers in check), and have manipulated others into particular physical types such as humanoid spiders called Weavers.

The protagonist stumbles upon this remnant of an advanced civilisation as part of an expedition looking for fabled riches. He falls out with the expedition leader when the latter assaults a young woman who originates from the hidden race. She later returns to lead them to the riches the other expedition members crave, though the protagonist cares only for her welfare, having instantly fallen in love with her. The riches then turn out to be a form of judgement. After that, the story takes a different turn as the hero becomes entangled with an imminent civil war between factions in the lost world, the apparent good guys being led by an apparent human-reptilian hybrid, the Snake Mother, who may be less human than she leads him to perceive.

The story concentrates on action, but flags in places, and has very little character development. The protagonist and his would-be girlfriend are particularly cardboard. The book has elements which later would become fantasy tropes such as a dark lord (it was published in 1931, apparently based on magazine stories dating from the 1920s). In some ways it better fits the label of science fantasy, as the various ray-weapons etc are, we're told by the Snake Mother, all products of the former civilisation of which she is the only direct member, and not magical. Obviously it cannot avoid being dated by today's viewpoints, though, to the author's credit, manages to avoid racism in relation to the Native Americans who form the labour force and are the spear carriers in the armies of the various factions. But it rather loses impetus by the end and fizzles out, and has rather too rambling a plotline to always hold interest, hence only 2 stars for me. ( )
  kitsune_reader | Nov 23, 2023 |
Completely over the top pulp adventure with dinosaurs and ray guns, force fields and genetic engineering, a Dark Lord and a Snake Goddess. This is great stuff, i'm not a big fan of pulps but this has a more descriptive style than most. Its sort of like half-way between Burroughs and H.P.Lovecraft.
In structure its a bit like the 'Chronicles of Riddick' in that it started out as a short story and years later the author expanded it into other crazyness. Unlike 'Pitch Black' however its the crazy over the top part of this which is really enjoyable. There is the usual princess and blank slate protagonist but some of the side characters have real personality which makes up for the card board cutout hero.
Also you might get a strong 'Lord of the Rings' vibe in places, i'm assuming thats coincidence and that Tolkien never read this but you never know :) .
The author throws absolutely every idea he can into this story, if you ever wanted to try a pulp this is the one to start with. ( )
  wreade1872 | Nov 28, 2021 |
The first quarter of this novel is a readable adventure story: a group of men come together to explore the South American jungle in search of riches. There is even some decent character development and nice imagery. Then . . . things completely fall apart. It becomes science fiction/fantasy. It becomes monotonous, with long passages constantly describing rays, mists, caverns, crypts, passageways, pools, flashes, and other vague terms applicable to the hidden world of spidermen, tame dinosaurs, lizard people, snake goddesses, and dark lords. Oh, yea. There is a big battle at the end. You'll never guess who wins.

There is also the matter of the writing. As with the storyline, it's a tale of two stories. The first quarter of the book is acceptable. But the sf/fantasy is messy. Its prose is tortured. Word choices become repetitive. And even the simple syntax is clumsy and confusing. It's simply bad writing. ( )
1 abstimmen PaulCornelius | Apr 12, 2020 |
A classic. Merritt is one of the classic authors in the genre and I cannot imagine that any devotee of fantasy/science fiction wouldn't want to have his works in their library. ( )
1 abstimmen Felurian | Jun 11, 2014 |
Of all of Merritt's books, I think this one really impressed me the most. Although "lost worlds" fantasy is a relic of the 40s, this one is still a great story and rich in both detail and diversion. ( )
2 abstimmen Shadowharper | May 31, 2009 |
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AutorennameRolleArt des AutorsWerk?Status
Abraham MerrittHauptautoralle Ausgabenberechnet
Chwat, PaulÜbersetzerCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Dameron, NedUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Feder, BenUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Horne, DanielUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Maroto, EstebanUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Matthews, RodneyUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Punchatz, DonUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Spencer, PaulVorwortCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Stahr, PaulUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Straßl, LoreÜbersetzerCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Vallejo, BorisUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Walker, HughVorwortCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
Woodroffe, PatrickUmschlagillustrationCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt
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Novel consisting of the novella of the same name and its sequel The Snake Mother
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Wikipedia auf Englisch (1)

The tale is brilliant It is full of weird imagination, marvelous writing, horror, beauty, and it may well be called the most visual book ever written for the world of fantasy. It is a grand book with a grand cast of characters. Visualize, if you are able, a monstrous head that cries tears of gold, locked deep in a cavern out of time forgotten. Consider also the incredible, Snake Mother, who is both human and reptilian, and her battle with the thing called the Lord of Evil.

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Buchbeschreibung
Von der Hoffnung erfüllt, mit Hilfe einer seltsamen Landkarte einen Schatz der alten Inkas zu finden, macht sich Nicholas Graydon, ein Bergbauingenieur, zusammen mit drei Abenteurern auf den Weg in ein Gebiet der Kordilleren, das bisher noch kein Weißer betreten hat. Habgier, Goldfieber und Hass machen die Expedition zu einem Fiasko. Nur Graydon überlebt - und er gelangt nach Yu-Atlanchi, dem verbotenen Land. Dort, unter Geschöpfen, die zeitlos sind und die den Tod nicht kennen, lernt Graydon, der Mann des 20. Jahrhunderts, die Wunder und Schrecken eines Volkes kennen, das viel älter als die Menschheit ist. (Rückentext)
Zusammenfassung in Haiku-Form

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