Face in the Abyss

What It's About

Nicholas Graydon, an American mining engineer, joins three ruthless companions in search of lost Inca treasure hidden somewhere in the Andes. Their expedition brings them into contact with Suarra, handmaiden to the Snake Mother of Yu-Atlanchi, a hidden civilisation of extraordinary wonders. Graydon's greedy companions are led to a golden mask in a cavern, the "Face in the Abyss," which imprisons Nimir, the Lord of Evil - and pay for their avarice with their lives. Suarra and the ageless Snake Mother, Adana, save Graydon, and he is drawn deeper into Yu-Atlanchi and its long war against Nimir, culminating in a battle between good and evil for the fate of the hidden kingdom.

Key Concepts

The novel is a fix-up of two Merritt stories written seven years apart - the 1923 novelette "The Face in the Abyss" and the 1930 serial "The Snake Mother" - and the join is visible in its structure: a straightforward treasure-hunt opening gives way to a much longer lost-world fantasy. It sits firmly in the "lost civilisation" tradition popularised by H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, built around the twin themes of the corrupting lure of gold and the treasure-hunt quest. True to Merritt's style, the fantastic is given a pseudo-scientific gloss throughout, with the story's stranger creatures and powers rationalised in the language of speculative science rather than pure magic.

About the Author

Abraham Grace Merritt (1884-1943), who published as A. Merritt, was an American author and longtime magazine editor, best known for his work as Sunday editor of The American Weekly. He was one of the most popular fantasy and science-fantasy writers of the American pulp era, admired for his richly atmospheric, densely descriptive prose style.