The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt, © 2009, trade paperback, Planet Stories
This is the 29th in my series of Forgotten Books
Abraham Merritt is one of the gods of early 20th century fantasy. I first encountered his work when reading Sam Moskowitz’s history of early science fiction and fantasy EXPLORERS OF THE INFINITE. The chapter on Merritt indicated Moskowitz’s high esteem for his work so I sought it out. Avon Books put out a nice set of Merritt in the 1960’s and THE SHIP OF ISHTAR was the first of his novels I managed to find. I read it then and I was hooked.
This is the story of John Kenton, amateur archaeologist, while recovering from an injury received in World War I receives a package in the mail from an old friend. In it he finds a stone block of Babylonian origin. The block appears solid, but is curiously light. There is a note from his friend telling him it is from the reign of Sargon of Akkad and that its use has not yet been fathomed. The inscriptions on the block refer frequently to the goddess Ishtar and the god Nabu as well as Nergal and others. Kenton examines the block and can determine nothing until the block begins to crumble. Kenton gets his tools and chips away at the stone. Soon there is a small ship on his floor. One side of the ship was white ivory; the other side was ebony black. The toy ship was three feet long and had a pit wherein set rowers and tiny figures were there. Mists begin to swirl and Kenton suddenly finds himself on the deck of the ship which is moving across the waters of some sea. Slaves are manning the oars. He finds that the ship is divided into two sections. The white side is devoted to Sharane, a priestess of Ishtar, the Mother Goddess, Goddess of Love, Goddess of War and Wrath and Vengeance. The other side of the ship is devoted to Nergal, God of the Assyrian Underworld and his priest Alusar. There is a conflict between the priest and priestess, between God and Goddess. Kenton finds himself in the middle of the conflict and in love with Sharane.
There are many wonderful encounters and fights, battles and intrigues throughout the book and amazing characters including Sigurd the Norseman, Gigi and Zubran who serve Alusar reluctantly, the warrior maidens of Sharane, and more.
I have maintained over the years that A. Merritt’s works should have been filmed. They are as exciting as any Indiana Jones film and more. They are filled with magic, thrills and a sense of wonder like no other.
If you were to ask how much I enjoy this book. I would point out that I have a hardback edition, an Avon paperback, this Planet Stories trade paperback and an electronic copy on my Kindle and I do not plan to give any of them up.
The Planet Stories copy has the wonderful Virgil Finlay illustrations throughout that grace the hardback copy I own. They are worth the price of admission. This trader paperback has a nice cover from Kieran Yanner as well as an introduction by Tim Powers who found this book about the same time I did in the late 60’s and has loved it as well.
The prose may be a little purple by modern standards (it was originally published in 1924), but the action and thrills make it more than palatable. This is the real deal and it is readily available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure. Following this, you should check out THE MOON POOL and DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE as well as his short fiction collected in THE FOX WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES. His story “The Women of the Wood” had the title of the most popular story ever published in WEIRD TALES which is saying a lot.
Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
I read all the Merritt novels I could find back when I first started to read SF. I loved ‘em. Haven’t read one since, but one of these days . . . .
I know that in the 60′s they reprinted most of the novels but not BURN WITCH BURN and maybe one other. But I read SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN, THE SHIP OF ISHTAR, DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE, THE MOON POOL, THE FACE IN THE ABYSS, and THE METAL MONSTER then. I had to wait until the mid 70′s to get THE FOX WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES.
In the independent grocery in Londonderry, NH, which I frequented between 1976 and 1979 (after Connecticut and before Hawaii), the rack jobbers were clearly Hearst’s people, inasmuch as only Avon paperbacks were in the spinner racks…so I got to see and begin to read Gregory McDonald, Saul Bellow…and A. Merritt. But I wasn’t swept up, nor have I returned much to his work, despite the endorsement through the years of the likes of Jack Williamson, and latterly Elizabeth Hand, Tim Powers, and now Cupp and Crider. Though I gather his non-fantastic FOOTPRINTS might be his most widely-admired work, and I might just try that, along with one of his fantasies, sometime soonish…
By modern standards Merritt’s prose could veer into the sickly sentimental whenever one the beautiful and virtuous heroines would appear on stage, and even his muscular heros would be dumbstruck by these visitations. The hero’s evil alter ego Dwayanu and the villainess Lur, in Dwellers in the Mirage, would probably strike more readers nowadays as exemplars of what a hot relationship should feature. But Merritt could also toss off some truly inspired sequences. Ship of Ishtar has two chapters that are just daft but brilliant, “The Gods and Man’s Desire” and the one with the nihilistic ditty about “tis better never to be”. The feast of Ladnophaxi in The Face in the Abyss seems unnaturally prescient about the evils of television and ever more immersive media. And the first vision of the Shining One drifting in across the water in The Moon Pool is an outstanding piece of writing. Merritt and Edgar Rice Burroughs could both provide plenty of thrills, covering pretty similar territory, but Burroughs was less of a stylist–Merritt went overboard on style and sometimes it worked amazingly and other times made one’s eyes glaze over, but the best scenes from his books are more memorable than the best of Burroughs, enjoyable as both of them are.
Thanx for the reminder. As a 12 year old, I discovered Merritt through the “colorful” paperback covers in my aunt’s Wichita Falls huge paperback collection which contained large chunks of just about every type of paperback published from ~ 1940 – 1960. The Moon Pool remains my favorite. It still amazes me how well Merritt’s “purple” prose worked most of the time.
I think you’re right about the untapped film potential of much of Merritt’s work.
Couple of weeks ago found a hardback edition fron the face inthe abyss
Its one of the latest editions or so i guess
The artowrk just blew my mind describing scenes with dinosaurs and the fierce lantlu
Or watching the two colossus fighting with suns at the ladnophaxi was just the est
Had to reas it, only problem its thats i haven’t found anotjer book -i found this one at a thrift store-