The Web of Easter Island

The Web of Easter Island is a sci-fi horror novel by Donald Wandrei, first published in 1948 by Arkham House.
Concerning a gigantic race of extradimensional "titans" that will descend to the Earth when the stars are in the right configuration, the novel is an homage to the Cthulhu Mythos and is dedicated to Wandrei's friend and Mythos creator H. P. Lovecraft.
==Synopsis==
In the British village of Isling, a young boy finds an idol in the old Devil's Graveyard and takes it home. Soon afterwards, the boy is found dead by his parents, his body inexplicably decayed, and the parents themselves suffer the same fate later. An archaeologist named Carter E. Graham, who has traveled the world gathering evidence of an ancient alien race that might have created humanity, reads about the case and gets interested.
Graham visits the Devil's Graveyard and starts digging, first finding an ancient statuette of a monstrous god. The statuette is made of a green substance that seems to change its nature, so it can't be properly identified as stone or metal. It is surprisingly heavy, so hard that the knife can't scratch it, and gives the impression of being alive, infused with energy. Digging further, Graham also finds a large slab made of the same substance, carved with unknown symbols. As soon as he touches it, the slab changes its shape and opens up a passage to an underground crypt. Graham buries the slab again, but takes the statuette with him, planning to examine it at the Ludbury Museum, of which he is the curator.
Traveling by train, Graham hears an inhuman voice chanting in an unknown language, and loses consciousness as the train crashes mysteriously. He wakes up in a hospital and finds out that his bag with the statuette is missing. Unbeknownst to him, the bag has been stolen by a fugitive who embarks on a ship to America. The statuette has a strange effect on the thief, which makes him incapable of tossing it overboard, and similarly seems to enchant a woman named Joane Marsh. The ship is enveloped by a mysterious green mist and vanishes.
Back in Isling, Graham photographs the symbols on the green slab and asks a linguist friend named Alton to translate them. While he's doing so, Graham, along with a colleague named Liska, returns to the Devil's Graveyard and touches the slab again to open up the passage, so the two can go down while tied up in ropes. They find that the passage leads down an unfathomably deep tunnel, at the bottom of which there are thousands of skeletal remains of modern and pre-modern humans. However, the opening turns out to be time-locked, so the slab automatically returns to its original configuration, severing the rope and trapping them.
While Liska waits to see if someone will come to rescue them, Graham explores the tunnel to try to find another exit. Deep inside, he notices that the tunnel is lit by a greenish phosphorescence, and that space itself seems fluid, so that the walls shift back and forth between vertical and horizontal. Touching another slab, Graham finds himself transported to Stonehenge, from which he takes a car back to Isling and tries to rescue Liska. Unfortunately, all he finds is a fresh new skeleton.
On the next day, Graham receives news that Alton has died, but not before writing a message containing his partial translation of the symbols. The text turns out to be a ritual in praise of a race of titans who created life on Earth. From all over the world come news about certain cults celebrating the incoming return of their gods, about riots and serial killers, revolts in asylums, and artists committing suicide, including one who left a note explaining that he prefers death over being "taken" by an entity named Septhulchu. Yet the strangest news come from Easter Island, from which a plane detects strange radio disturbances and sees a greenish mist covering the ground. The plane is lost when it crashes into an invisible wall or force field.
Upon reading all this, Graham recalls a prophecy he once heard, which states that when the stars are in a certain position, the titans would descent to Earth from their extradimensional lair beyond the stars. However, their return might be prevented if someone successfully challenges the "Keeper of the Seal".
Graham takes a plane to Easter Island, which he finds to be completely deserted, with no sign of the natives. When night falls, he dreams of traveling outside the universe, to the higher dimensions inhabited by the colossal titans, which dwell in cities of shifting architecture. The titans themselves are imperceptible to human senses, and have no fixed size or shape. Graham senses that they're aware of him, but their thoughts are too alien to be comprehended.
When he wakes up, Graham heads to a crater where he sees the green statuette again. He correctly deduces that it is the "Keeper of the Seal" mentioned in the prophecy. It continually changes its shape and is now enveloped by a column of light of an unknown colour, which expands to engulf the Easter Island statues, now seemingly alive themselves, as if possessed by spirits. The chant is heard again as the titans prepare to descend to Earth, but Graham challenges the Keeper and successfully closes the passage.
Ejected from the light column, Graham finds himself on the open sea, with no sign of land. He is rescued by a mysterious aircraft piloted by humanoid creatures with large heads, spidery limbs and small bodies. After establishing communication, he finds that these creatures are descendants of humanity, and that he's been transported one and a half million years into the future.
Graham lives among the evolved humans and learns about their culture. One day, he hears news about a sharp increase in suicides all over the world. It doesn't take long for him to find out that Easter Island, although long submerged in the ocean, is again emitting the column of light, as the titans prepare for their return. Graham finally understands that the stars reach their right configuration every 1.5 million years, and that while he can stop the process again, doing so will transport him to an even more distant future, and the cycle will go on like this for eternity.
Category:Donald Wandrei works
Category:Mythos-Inspired Works
Category:Novels