Wifetheif
Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2012
- Posts
- 505
My reading habits are odd. I go for pulp fiction of the 20's, 30's, and 40,s mostly. Some of it is surprisingly spicy. I recently finished "The Metal Monster" by Abram Merrit first published in 1928 and could not get some of the sequences out of my mind. Partial plot summary via Wikipedia: Dr. Goodwin is on a botanical expedition in the Himalayas. There he meets Dick Drake, the son of one of his old science acquaintances. They are witnesses of a strange aurora-like effect, but seemingly a deliberate one. As they go out to investigate, they meet Goodwin's old friends Martin and Ruth Ventnor, brother and sister scientists. The two are besieged by Persians as Darius III led when Alexander of Macedon conquered them more than two thousand years ago.
The group is saved by a magnificent woman they get to know as Norhala. 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 are led to a hidden valley occupied by what they name "The Metal Monster", a strange metal city occupied by the metal animate Things Norhala commands. This city is governed by what they call the Metal Emperor, assisted by the Keeper of the Cones.
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Norhala is basically naked the entire story and those Persians eventually DO capture Ruth. Although most of what happens to her is kept off the page she does confide bitterly, "They stripped me like a slave! They stripped me like a slave! Since I have a thing for thin brunettes as Ruth is described and am fascinated by ancient slavery, I am half tempted to write a version of Ruth's story. There is so much sensuality in pulp writing that can easily be exploited for modern tastes. Does anyone know of other examples?
The group is saved by a magnificent woman they get to know as Norhala. 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 are led to a hidden valley occupied by what they name "The Metal Monster", a strange metal city occupied by the metal animate Things Norhala commands. This city is governed by what they call the Metal Emperor, assisted by the Keeper of the Cones.
---
Norhala is basically naked the entire story and those Persians eventually DO capture Ruth. Although most of what happens to her is kept off the page she does confide bitterly, "They stripped me like a slave! They stripped me like a slave! Since I have a thing for thin brunettes as Ruth is described and am fascinated by ancient slavery, I am half tempted to write a version of Ruth's story. There is so much sensuality in pulp writing that can easily be exploited for modern tastes. Does anyone know of other examples?
