DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE by A....

DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE by A. Merritt (Collier/Macmillan: $5.95). One of the most highly respected American fantasy authors, A. Merritt helped to create the sword-and-sorcery genre. “The Dwellers in the Mirage” remains one of his most exciting tales, involving a hidden valley in the Alaskan wilderness, the avatar of the priest-king who ruled Mongolia before the Gobi became a desert, and the terrible Khalk’ru, a monstrous octopus-like apparition that represents the negation of life itself. When “Dwellers” first appeared as a magazine serial, Merritt gave the story a dark ending that he changed to a haunting, more upbeat one when it was published in book form. This new edition restores the original ending, which may surprise the author’s many fans.