The novel “The Web of Easter Island” by Donald Wandrei was published for the first time in 1948.
When Willy brings home an object found in Isling’s old cemetery, his mother harshly tells him to bring it back but the kid wants to keep it. In the night, a strange fire kills Willy and drives his mother to madness. His parents die some time later in what’s officially considered an accident caused by lightning.
When Carter Graham discovers the events of Isling, he’s reminded of research he did around the world even if he can’t really see similarities. Intrigued by the existence of the mysterious object discovered by Willy, he decides to investigate and in Isling’s cemetery he discovers an artifact but during his return journey his train derails. The artifact seems lost but a trail of death offers a new trace.
Donald Wandrei wrote an early version of the novel in 1932, titled “Dead Titans, Waken!”, but his attempts to sell it were unsuccessful. He heavily revised it and in 1948 he was finally able to publish it in a limited edition with Arkham House, a publishing house of which the author was one of the founders. The original version was published with the original title in 2012, which means posthumously since Wandrei died in 1987.
Already at the beginning of his career as a writer, in the 1920s, Donald Wandrei met H.P. Lovecraft and joined what was considered his circle, a group of writers who published in pulp magazines stories that included elements of what today are considered different genres. Lovecraft was a source of inspiration for Wandrei, to the point that after his death he helped found Arkham House in particular to keep his legacy alive.
All that inspiration can be seen in the only novel written by Donald Wandrei, so much so that for the expert readers of H.P. Lovecraft recognizing to which stories in particular some chapters of “The Web of Easter Island” resemble can be a game. Wandrei adds his own ideas with a variant of lovecraftian mythology in which instead of the Great Old Ones there are the Titans, of which the novel’s protagonist Carter Graham tries to understand the purpose.
A good part of “The Web of Easter Island” is focused on a mysterious artifact linked to a trail of deaths in which Carter Graham is involved when he discovers the ones in the village of Isling. Most of the novel has strong horror connotations but the plot has elements of what is now called archaeological science fiction while the protagonist’s discoveries about the Titans and especially the final part are indeed science fiction. The similarities with the works of H.P. Lovecraft are also seen in the mix of genres so labels are limiting.
The main problem is in the fact that “The Web of Easter Island” has a main plot of a certain type but Donald Wandrei changes style a lot in the last part. Chapter 4 is also somewhat anomalous because it’s connected to the main storyline but has two different protagonists and in particular a man on the run. Donald Wandrei had also written mystery tales and in this chapter he also tells a gallant meeting somewhat racy for the era in which it was published though it ends before anything explicit can be told.
Perhaps the author needed to make the story longer to obtain a full-fledged novel so he made some additions that individually are not bad but overall make it a little uneven with elements of different genres not very well blended. The result is still short for today’s standards so the pace is really fast shile the characters are sacrificed.
Overall, “The Web of Easter Island” maintains mostly a lovecraftian-inspired atmosphere though Donald Wandrei also added another variation to the classic more or less hallucinatory states of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories protagonists since Carter Graham’s efforts are significant. Even considering the other elements in the novel, it can probably be appreciated in particular by fans of lovecraftian stories. The real problem is that it seems impossible to find if not at a really high price, just like the novel’s first version.
