Reviews for Chatty Object Lessons in Nature Knowledge: Being Companion Object Lessons to Longman's Chatt...

The average rating for Chatty Object Lessons in Nature Knowledge: Being Companion Object Lessons to Longman's Chatt... based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-19 00:00:00 Andrew Lauder Merritt was quite popular in his time. The Moon Pool originally appeared in serialized form in 1919 and was an instant hit. The breathless prose seems off-kilter today and the flip racism shines an unflattering light on a less-enlightened time. There are similarities to H.P. Lovecraft, H. Rider Haggard and the adventure story-tellers of the late 19th and early 20th century. HG Wells is mentioned by name. It was a time in which there were still many unexplored parts of the earth and Merritt did his best to fill them with his imaginings. This is a tale of lost races living beneath the earth and of battles between them, of the deepest history of our planet and of beings who populated earth long before us. It is also a tale of true love, self-sacrifice, honor, deception, greed, fantastical beings, creatures and powers. There is much in the book that makes me wonder whether the ideas were cadged from other writers of the time or were original with Merritt. I lack the depth of knowledge needed to fairly judge. Scientific concepts and technological prognostications abound. Personally I found these the most interesting. It is clear that for those of us who were captured by the strange civilization of LOST island, Merritt is the source of the smoke monster concept. How much more I cannot say, maybe the four-toed statues on the island are reflective of the lost-civilization, the old ones, that Merritt offers. But among the items here are: A boulder-door that opens when moonlight shines on special receptors – Seems to me that Tolkien might have been a fan A death ray that, except for it’s conical beam, might be a laser A notion of the moon having once been a part of earth and the hollowed out space in which the story takes place having been part of the earth from which it had been wrested is interesting. I am not certain when this theory on the origin of the moon first appeared. A fair maiden appears to the travelers in a way that very much reminds one of Princess Leia as a hologram The very walls glow with light in some scenes. This makes me think of upcoming LCD lighting technology The use of some sort of energy as a force field seems ahead of its time That I did not much care for this story is a quibble, I suppose. It is archaic in its forms. But it was interesting as a period piece, and one cannot but admire the rich mine of imagination that Merritt worked in producing his first novel.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-06-28 00:00:00 Danny Baldwin I wanted to rate this one higher, but it was something of a chore to finish. Better than three stars, but not four (3 1/2 stars). Oh, it's crammed with great descriptive writing, which is Merritt's strength. And the good stuff includes giant frog people, a dragon, two beautiful women at war, wild weapons, dwarves, an evil Bolshevik scientist (keep in mind this was written in 1919!), and a hidden world beneath the earth's surface. But at its heart the novel is a vampire story -- but with a take I've not encountered before (and I've read a bunch of vampire novels). And there's a not-to-be-missed creation story that gives you a good example of Merritt's wonderful imagination. What didn't I like? A major character named O'Keefe, who is an America-Irish British pilot! This guy switches from tough-guy American slang into a thick Irish brogue per sentence. This got to be annoying in a 400 page book, and reminded me a bit of Kevin Costner (gag) in Robin Hood, though clearly O'Keefe, unlike Costner, is quite good at it. And then there's the whole "Irish" thing (you'll see if you read the book). Hey, I've got Irish ancestors, so it has nothing to do with that. If you're a fantasy fan (as in the history of fantasy and pulp writing), you should read this book, but keep in mind, even though it's Merritt's best known book, it's also his first novel, and to my mind not his best.