Other editions of book The Metal Monster

Abraham Merritt's second novel, "The Metal Monster," first saw the light of day in 1920, in "Argosy" magazine. It was not until 1946 that this masterful fantasy creation was printed in book form. In a way, this work is a continuation of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool" (1919), as it is a narrative of America's foremost botanist, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, narrator of that earlier adventure as well. As Goodwin tells us, he initially set out on this second great adventure to forget the terrible incidents of the first; if anything, however, the events depicted in "The Metal Monster" are at least as mindblowing as those in the earlier tale. While Goodwin had encountered underground civilizations, frogmen, battling priestesses and a living-light entity in the earlier tale, this time around he discovers, in the Trans-Himalayan wastes of Tibet, a surviving Persian city, a half-human priestess, AND an entire civilization made up of living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction. As in the earlier tale, Goodwin is joined in his epic adventure by a small group of can-do individuals that he meets in the most unlikely, godforsaken areas of the world. This time around, it's a brother-and-sister team of scientists, as well as the son of one of Goodwin's old science buddies.

Before the narrative which follows was placed in my hands, I had never seen Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, its author. When the manuscript revealing his adventures among the pre-historic ruins of the Nan-Matal in the Carolines (The Moon Pool) had been given me by the International Association of Science for editing and revision to meet the requirements of a popular presentation, Dr. Goodwin had left America. He had explained that he was still too shaken, too depressed, to be able to recall experiences that must inevitably carry with them freshened memories of those whom he loved so well and from whom, he felt, he was separated in all probability forever.

The Association's President forced him gently back into his chair. "Dr. Goodwin," he said, turning to me, "is not entirely recovered as yet from certain consequences of his adventures. He will explain to you later what these are. In the meantime, Mr. Merritt, will you read this?" I took the sheets he handed me, and as I read them felt the gaze of Dr. Goodwin full upon me, searching, weighing, estimating. When I raised my eyes from the letter I found in his a new expression. The shyness was gone; they were filled with complete friendliness. Evidently I had passed muster. "You will accept, sir?" It was the president's gravely courteous tone. "Accept!" I exclaimed. "Why, of course, I accept. It is not only one of the greatest honors, but to me one of the greatest delights to act as a collaborator with Dr. Goodwin." The president smiled. "In that case, sir, there is no need for me to remain longer," he said. "Dr. Goodwin has with him his manuscript as far as he has progressed with it.

In the wilds of the Trans-Himalayan region, a quartet of adventurers led by Dr. Walter T. Goodwin stumbles upon a tribe of human primitives forgotten since the age of Alexander the Great, and an awesome being of living metal commanded by the exiled Norhala. As Norhala's guests, Goodwin and his team witness the mind-boggling marvels that are the Metal Monster's way of life, and the unspeakable horrors it commits when Norhala takes it to war against her persecutors.

The Metal Monster is a fantasy novel by American writer Abraham Merritt. It was first serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1920 and features the return of Dr. Goodwin who first appeared in The Moon Pool.The epic adventure starts with a foreword where Merritt is assigned the duty to relay Dr. Walter T. Goodwin's incredible tale of his encounter in the Trans-Himalayan mountains to the world, to let everyone know the terrible fate Goodwin's group barely escaped and the possibility of other such monsters out there.

In the wilds of the Trans-Himalayan region, a quartet of adventurers led by Dr. Walter T. Goodwin stumbles upon a tribe of human primitives forgotten since the age of Alexander the Great, and an awesome being of living metal commanded by the exiled Norhala. As Norhala’s guests, Goodwin and his team witness the mind-boggling marvels that are the Metal Monster’s way of life, and the unspeakable horrors it commits when Norhala takes it to war against her persecutors

In this great crucible of life we call the world-in the vaster one we call the universe-the mysteries lie close packed, uncountable as grains of sand on ocean's shores. They thread gigantic, the star-flung spaces; they creep, atomic, beneath the microscope's peering eye. They walk beside us, unseen and unheard, calling out to us, asking why we are deaf to their crying, blind to their wonder. Sometimes the veils drop from a man's eyes, and he sees-and speaks of his vision. Then those who have not seen pass him by with the lifted brows of disbelief, or they mock him, or if his vision has been great enough they fall upon and destroy him. For the greater the mystery, the more bitterly is its verity assailed; upon what seem the lesser a man may give testimony and at least gain for himself a hearing. There is reason for this. Life is a ferment, and upon and about it, shifting and changing, adding to or taking away, beat over legions of forces, seen and unseen, known and unknown. And man, an atom in the ferment, clings desperately to what to him seems stable; nor greets with joy him who hazards that what he grips may be but a broken staff, and, so saying, fails to hold forth a sturdier one. Earth is a ship, plowing her way through uncharted oceans of space wherein are strange currents, hidden shoals and reefs, and where blow the unknown winds of Cosmos.

The Metal Monster is a fantasy novel written by Abraham Grace Merritt in 1920. The book continues to follow the adventures of Dr. Goodwin, who first appeared in The Moon Pool, as he journeys into the Trans-Himalayan Mountains. Abraham Grace Merritt was an American writer and editor best known for his fantasy fiction. Merritt's books have remained influential and he was one of the first to be inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999.

In this visionary writers controversial magnum opus, a small band of explorers--including the famed Dr. Goodwin, Ruth Ventnor, her brother Martin, and the scientific adventurer Alvin Drake--finds itself face to face with a sentient, collective intelligence composed of billions of living geometric metallic forms! Spawn of an alien race that moves among the stars, seeding their kind on likely planets, the metal being intends to replace all biological lifeforms on Earth.

"THE SUPREME FANTASY GENIUS!" That's how The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy hails A. Merritt, author of The Lightning Witch. Isaac Asimov simply describes him as, "The most famous of fantasy writers." In this visionary writers controversial magnum opus, a small band of explorers--including the famed Dr. Goodwin, Ruth Ventnor, her brother Martin, and the scientific adventurer Alvin Drake--finds itself face to face with a sentient, collective intelligence composed of billions of living geometric metallic forms! Spawn of an alien race that moves among the stars, seeding their kind on likely planets, the metal being intends to replace all biological lifeforms on Earth. Between it and humanity, between it and the group of adventurers that have inadvertently stumbled into its lair, stands only Norhala, the lightning witch, a mysterious, unearthly woman of incredible beauty and power, who seems at once the metal intelligence's handmaiden, keeper, and secret enemy. In the Lightning Witch, writes Sam Moskowitz, Merritt "pulled out all the stops," creating a rare masterpiece with "inspired cosmic passages in which the author envisions a world of metal intelligences?" Hugo Award winning SF historian Alexei Panshin, writes that, "The farthest reaches of Merritt's vision of mystery simultaneously scientific and spiritual are to be found in [The Lightning Witch]. "with a direct testimonial to the ubiquity of mystery." See for yourself why The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy says, "The othersness and mystery that Merritt expressed has seldom been conveyed in SF with such an emotional charge."

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