THE SHIP OF ISHTAR by A....

THE SHIP OF ISHTAR by A. Merritt, illustrated by Virgil Finlay (Collier Books: $4.95). Merritt ranks among the creators of the fantasy genre, and his opulent visions of imaginary worlds rarely have been equaled. Originally published in 1924, “The Ship of Ishtar” transports a wealthy amateur archeologist from his modern New York apartment to an enchanted sailing vessel where he witnesses the struggle between two of the gods of ancient Babylonia: Ishtar, the goddess of love and vengeance, and Nergal, the Lord of Dead. The beautiful maidens in bejeweled costumes and the iron-thewed swordsmen that Merritt employed have become standards of the genre. But the richness of his language remains unsurpassed, as the description of the hero passing through the temple of the god Shamash suggests: “Here are the altars of opal set with diamonds and the altars of gold set with amber and yellow sunstones. Upon the altars of Shamash burn sandalwood and cardamom and verbena. He goes by the altars of opal and gold; he goes by the birds of Shamash whose heads are wheels of flame and who guard the wheel that turns within the House of Shamash and is a potter’s wheel upon which all the souls of men are shaped.” Like J. R. R. Tolkien, Merritt drew his inspiration from ancient mythology, which imbued his fantasies with a power that recent sword-and-sorcery novels sadly lack.