I discovered The moon pool short story when i randomly bought the mammoth book of fantasy and i loved it. It was one of my favourites stories there. yet i had no idea it had a sequel and later became a novel.
I just read the first chapter of the novel, and it certainly does give off a vibe of cosmic horror. The descriptions of the “thing” are very Lovecraftian, though I would argue the writing is better than much of Lovecraft that I’ve read
Due to popular demand, Merritt wrote a sequel to the Moon Pool, called Conquest of the Moon Pool, which was serialized in All-Story Weekly starting Feb 15, 1919. It ran for six episodes, clocking in at 118,000 words (Moon Pool was 19,000). Because the sequel was just as popular, Merritt was asked to combine them into a single novel for publication outside of the pulps. 'Conquest' takes place two years after Moon Pool. The novel condenses the two stories into one, and yes, it's not as good as the original unabridged stories. Forgive me for being pedantic, but Merritt is one of my favorite authors and I am a stickler for accuracy.
I discovered The moon pool short story when i randomly bought the mammoth book of fantasy and i loved it. It was one of my favourites stories there. yet i had no idea it had a sequel and later became a novel.
It was great! Yeah, and even Lovecraft himself called it one of the best Horror stories of all time.
I would love to have a Merritt collection. I'm a fan. I read the novel version and highly enjoyed it.
Glad you liked it as well!!!
I just read the first chapter of the novel, and it certainly does give off a vibe of cosmic horror. The descriptions of the “thing” are very Lovecraftian, though I would argue the writing is better than much of Lovecraft that I’ve read
Precisely!
Due to popular demand, Merritt wrote a sequel to the Moon Pool, called Conquest of the Moon Pool, which was serialized in All-Story Weekly starting Feb 15, 1919. It ran for six episodes, clocking in at 118,000 words (Moon Pool was 19,000). Because the sequel was just as popular, Merritt was asked to combine them into a single novel for publication outside of the pulps. 'Conquest' takes place two years after Moon Pool. The novel condenses the two stories into one, and yes, it's not as good as the original unabridged stories.
Forgive me for being pedantic, but Merritt is one of my favorite authors and I am a stickler for accuracy.
He's very influential too. He's in the Hall of Fame and listed in Gary Gygax;'s Appendix N as a big influence on D&D,
Never heard of this one. Do you know where I can get a copy?
Good question! I think the copyright has expired if you just want to read it without it. Yup! www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/765