The Moon Pool

2014 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Originally published in 1919 The Moon Pool is a fantasy novel by Abraham Merritt (1884-1943). It originally appeared as two short stories in All-Story Weekly. The book is narrated by Dr. Walter T. Goodwin an American botanist. It begins with his chance meeting of an old colleague David Throckmartin on a ship traveling from the islands of Indonesia to Melbourne. Throckmartin is in a state of extreme agitation and - after both men witness a horrifying supernatural being pursuing the ship in the moonlight - tells Goodwin his tale. According to Dodds The Moon Pool is certainly a book which every person seriously interested in fantasy and even science fiction should read at least once. While it is easy to avoid reading The Moon Pool by simply discounting it as dated or out of style I suggest that such people while they may find the writing style not to their taste read it anyway and then seriously consider how many of the themes plot twists and other devices crop up regularly in the current fantasy they read. They may of course also discover that behind all their contempt for that old stuff lurks some admiration for one of the greatest fantasy stylists of modern times.