The Ship of Ishtar: The Legendary Romantic Fantasy

"A GLITTERING, SHIMMERING WEB OF THE IMAGINATION." THE NEW YORK TIMES. A classic of fantasy that transports the reader across worlds to mystery and romance beyond compare. John Kenton receives a ship, carved from a weird gem, unearthed in the ruins of ancient Babylon. Soon the ship has transported him to a mystic realm created by the Gods for a special vengeance. For the ship is the battleground for an age old conflict between Ishtar, Goddess of Life and Love, and Nergal, Dark God of Death. Those on board the ship have sailed the uncounted centuries since Babylon. Unless John Kenton is that hope, sent by Nabu, God of Justice to resolve the conflict once and for all. But John Kenton knows he is only a man, and wants to escape the ship - until he makes friends with Gigi, the ships frog-like, good-hearted drummer, Sigurd the Viking, and other members of the crew, dredged up through time, and sees Sharane, handmaiden and priestess of Ishtar, as courageous and beautiful as the goddess herself. Then Kenton is swears to battle the God of Death, if that's what it takes to win Sharane. It's a promise he will have to keep, and his only hope is for the birds -- the doves of Ishtar! The New York Times hailed The Ship of Ishtar as, "A glimmering, glittering web of imagination." The Saturday Review of Literature says Merritt's work is "genius, unique, eerie and compelling..." The Science Fiction Encyclopedia writes that Merritt's stories possess "genuine imaginative power in the creation of alternate worlds and realities," and that The Ship of Ishtar's "highly colored descriptive passages have a strong effect reader."