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Title: History of Fantasy
Review: Very much in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, Merritt was one of the early avatars of swords & sorcery fantasy novels. He emerged from the pulp magazines of the 50s to write novels which went on to influence a generation after him._Dwellers in the Mirage_ I found to be a very nice combination of all the things that make early fantasy readable. By turns sly and frightening and full of the high-hat adventure that characterizes speculative fiction of this period.Leif Langdon feels as though he never really belonged in the modern world and this feeling is confirmed when he disappears into a separate society hidden by a natural phenomenon. He feels strangely at home with this lost society and discovers the role that he was meant to play in life.Trainspotters may be interested in noting that Merritt went on sometime after this book to co-author a story with Lovecraft. After reading about the Khalk'ru I am certainly curious who was influencing whom.
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