In the wilds of the Trans-Himalayan region, a quartet of adventurers led by Dr. Walter T. Goodwin stumbles upon a tribe of human primitives forgotten since the age of Alexander the Great, and an awesome being of living metal commanded by the exiled Norhala. As Norhalas guests, Goodwin and his team witness the mind-boggling marvels that are the Metal Monster's way of life and the unspeakable horrors it commits when Norhala takes it to war against her persecutors.
A. Merritt's second published novel, "The Metal Monster", was first serialized in a pulp fiction magazine in 1920. Its exotic setting and extravagant scientific speculations make it a landmark of lost-race fantasy fiction. Dissatisfied with its writing, Merritt kept his story from book publication until 1946, revising and reshaping it for more than twenty years. This edition reprints for the first time the tale as it was originally published, restoring close to 10,000 words of text Merritt cut from the original.