I've been re-reading "Doc" Smith's classic space-opera "Lensman" series recently. In "Grey Lensman" I ran across a passage I'd never bothered to really understand, at a point when hero Kimball Kinnison is confronting an enemy agent:
This time, I looked it up, and found a treat: one Abraham Merritt and Dwellers in the Mirage.He could not even pray, with immortal Merritt's Dwayanu, "Luka - turn your wheel so that I need not slay this woman!"
As imaginative fantasy-fiction, Wapsi Square has a very solid foundation. Many of the themes that Paul has so adroitly adapted and flavored, were favorites of pulp and literary fiction authors throughout the first part of the 20th century. Strange hidden locations, expeditions to "lost worlds", ruins, relics of forgotten civilizations, hidden tribes, strange rituals, and eldritch horrors from beyond the dawn of time whose visages would freeze all those not already inured to daytime television talk-shows... these were staples of the trade. Much of this fiction is now largely forgotten, and few of the authors are widely remembered. Some names you may or may not know: H. Rider Haggard, HP Lovecraft, "John Taine" (Eric Temple Bell)... and Abraham Merritt.
According to Wikipedia, Merritt was heavily influenced by Haggard, and he himself was a major influence on Lovecraft. After reading Dwellers, I can believe it... the extradimensional kraken Khalk'ru could almost be an elder cousin of Lovecraft's squid-deity Cthulhu.
Lost civilizations, yes (in the Gobi Desert and in an hidden valley in Alaska)... not one, but two different "hidden tribes" (descendents of the Uighur empire in Mongolia, and a strange "Little People" once known to the Cherokee)... an adventurer who realizes that his hidden, secret ancestry brings with it memories and an alter-identity which are crucially important but which could dominate and destroy him... love interests (two competing ones)... sorcery and witchery... armies of warrior-women... bloodsucking monsters... and more.
Merritt's writing style is a bit quirky, adjective-laden, and stylized (and it's amusing to read the points of obvious omission which mean "we had sex" - typical for the day but a trifle jarring by today's conventions
) but I found it to be a worthwhile and fun read!My guess is that other people who are into Wapsi Square might also enjoy it.
Originally published in 1932, it's currently available through Project Gutenberg in Australia and it also seems to be available through Amazon (electronic and hard-copy)
[EDIT: Author's name corrected - thanks, FairportFan!]
