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Lädt ... The Face in the Abyss (Original 1923; 1992. Auflage)von A. Merritt
Werk-InformationenDie Schlangenmutter von Abraham Merritt (1923)
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. 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. 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. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden.
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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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. ( )