11 h 13 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 13 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Moonlight falls on a still pool, and ancient ruins become the threshold of something human reason cannot measure.
Dr. Walter Goodwin trusts evidence, instruments and logic. Then his friend Dr. David Throckmartin brings him a mystery from Nan-Matal, the huge stone ruins on Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Throckmartin’s expedition does not return whole. His wife Edith’s fate gives the men a reason to act, and the ruins draw them back.
Goodwin joins Irish adventurer Larry O’Keefe in a search that leads beyond the familiar world. The Moon Pool opens onto a realm beneath the earth, lit by something other than the sun. In Abraham Merritt’s science fiction adventure, a scientist’s careful account meets strange light, growing dread and people whose world challenges everything he knows.
What you’ll discover
- Ruins under moonlight Enter Nan-Matal, where a beam of moonlight falls upon the pool at the mystery’s heart.
- A scientist facing wonder Follow Goodwin as the evidence before him strains the reach of instruments and logic.
- Courage with a grin Meet Larry O’Keefe, whose humor and love of fairy lore accompany him into the impossible.
- A world beneath ours Explore a hidden realm with its own light, its own people and its own gods.
- Wonder edged with dread Feel the pull of the unknown through rich color, strange sights and a witness’s grave account.
Who will love it
For readers who love early fantasy, lost worlds and pulp adventure told with rich color, and anyone curious about the roots of modern science fantasy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A scientist's expedition meets the ruins
- The Moon Pool and its shining visitor
- Goodwin and Larry O'Keefe join the search
- Beneath the pool lies another world
- Light, fear and the pull of the unknown
- How Merritt tells it, and what to watch for
Who’s who
- Dr. Walter GoodwinA scientist who tells the story, he trusts evidence and is pushed to face things that no instrument can measure.
- Dr. David ThrockmartinThe leader of the expedition to Nan-Matal, he is shaken by loss and driven to return to the ruins.
- Edith ThrockmartinThrockmartin's wife, whose fate at the ruins gives her husband and his friends their reason to act.
- Larry O'KeefeAn Irish adventurer with a love of fairy lore, he meets the impossible with courage and humor.
- Olaf HuldrickssonA strong and loyal Norse sailor who stands beside the party when danger grows.
- LaklaA woman of the hidden world who guides the travelers and is linked to the Silent Ones.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear The Moon Pool in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Moon Pool
by Abraham Merritt · 1919
A scientist searches for lost friends at ancient ruins, where a moonlit pool opens into a world of beauty and danger.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Moon Pool is an adventure of ruins, strange light and a world hidden beneath the Pacific. Abraham Merritt wrote it in the years just after the First World War.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A scientist's expedition meets the ruins
The story is told in the first person by Dr. Walter Goodwin, a scientist who is drawn into the affair through his friend, Dr. David Throckmartin. Throckmartin leads an expedition to the ruins of Nan-Matal on Ponape, in the Caroline Islands. These stone works are real places in the Pacific, and Merritt uses their weight and age to give his tale a base in the real world. The ruins are old, large and strange, and nobody quite knows who built them.
The tale opens with Goodwin's own voice, careful and sober. He is a man of laboratories and evidence, and he says up front that what he has to tell will test belief. That choice matters. A narrator who trusts facts makes the wonders to come feel more alarming, because he has no wish to believe in them.
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What is The Moon Pool about?
It tells of a scientist who joins a search for lost friends after a mysterious event at the stone ruins of Nan-Matal. A pool lit by the moon leads to a hidden world beneath the Pacific.
Who wrote The Moon Pool and when?
Abraham Merritt wrote it. It first ran in magazines in the late 1910s and then appeared as a book in 1919, during the early days of American pulp fantasy.
Is Nan-Matal a real place?
Yes. Nan Madol is a real group of ancient stone ruins on the island of Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Merritt uses the real site as the setting for his invented story.
The author
Abraham Merritt
1884–1943 · American fantasy writer
Abraham Merritt (1884–1943) was an American writer and journalist. He was born in Beverly, New Jersey, and worked in Philadelphia and New York City. He wrote fantasy and science fiction. The Moon Pool appeared in 1919, and The Metal Monster in 1920. He also edited The American Weekly.
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