The Metal Monster

Abraham Merritt (1884 -- 1943) was an American fantasy writer and editor. Originally trained in law, he became a journalist, first as a correspondent, and later as editor. Merritt was assistant editor of The American Weekly from 1912 to 1937. He was very successful as a journalist. His high salary allowed him to travel abroad and study horticulture. He especially liked learning about plants related to witchcraft. Merritt's stories revolve around conventional pulp magazine themes: lost civilizations, hideous monsters, etc. His heroes are gallant Irishmen or Scandinavians, his villains treacherous Germans or Russians and his heroines often virginal, mysterious and scantily clad. The Metal Monster, published in 1920, begins with Merritt assigned the duty of relaying 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. Dr Goodwin is on an expedition when he meets Dick Drake. They are witness to an aurora effect that seems to be quite unnatural. Eventually a magnificent woman known as Norhala saves them.She commands the power of lightning and controls strange metal animate Things, 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. They travel to a valley where there is a strange metal city they name the Metal Monster.