Public reader discussion about The Moon Pool in the WeRead Catalog by Abraham Merritt.
By AmberPanther
What are some of the best books you’ve read in the past decade that actually stuck with you the most? I don’t really care when they were first published, just what made them memorable. One of mine is Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.
By EchoClock52
I’m trying to pick my next book, and honestly I figured I’d ask the public domain people here. Something that’s not super obvious or easy to stumble across on my own would be great.
By JessInBrooklyn
I figured I’d go with something lighter this time and I ended up picking up this early 1910s sci-fi because it sounded fun. I liked how the story moved and I thought the way it connected the South Pacific with the Irish was really interesting. The characters and plot are pretty simple, but there’s still a lot of imagination there. That said, the whole explanation for the underworld and the Moon Pool felt a little rushed and I didn’t love it as much. I also think I had more fun in the first few chapters. The last chapter does wrap things up in a nice way though and gives a decent ending. Overall I’d say 7.8/10—definitely not bad sci-fi, but it wasn’t gripping me the whole way through.
By jamie_austin
I just started reading this, and it’s the first real scholarly edition of the classic sci-fi novel. I’m not totally sure how “lost world” books stack up overall, but this one feels like it has that intense, old-school romantic vibe and kind of poetic nostalgia that I usually only get from Merritt-type writing. It takes place on Ponape with all these ancient ruins, and a group of explorers ends up finding a whole underground world they didn’t even know existed—full of weird people and super-sciency stuff. And of course, they accidentally set loose this “Dweller” monster from down there, which then threatens the islands in the South Pacific. Also, I didn’t realize until now that Merritt didn’t really invent the lost world idea himself—he was building on stuff other writers like Doyle and Burroughs were doing—but he definitely goes way bigger with it. This edition also has a biography and an intro that talks a lot about his influences, even getting into occult and myth stuff alongside the science-y stuff of the time.
By GlimmerBrocaded
I’m guessing you want a real physical copy, but if you’re cool with ebooks, Delphi Classics (delphiclassics.com) has Merritt’s complete works for dirt cheap. And The Moon Pool is free too on Project Gutenberg.
By footnote
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