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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Turns out "The Thing" was actually a pretty faithful adaptation. As one of my favorite movies I knew I had to check this out. This short story holds up quite well and is worth the read for any horror or sci-fi fan
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A team of scientists find a wreck of some sort of vehicle and inside, a frozen entity with blue "hair" and three red eyes near their outpost in Antarctica. After some discussion, they decide to bring the entity inside to thaw, which is just the first bad decision in a string of bad decisions. This is the story that inspired the John Carpenter movie, The Thing.
I was hoping to like this story more than I actually did. I do not like science fiction because it always seems that I miss something or something goes way over my head and I end up feeling stupid for the rest of the book. Such was the case for this story. I was more or less able to follow the story but still feel like I missed some key point or another. In this case, I think I would probably like the movie version better.
I was hoping to like this story more than I actually did. I do not like science fiction because it always seems that I miss something or something goes way over my head and I end up feeling stupid for the rest of the book. Such was the case for this story. I was more or less able to follow the story but still feel like I missed some key point or another. In this case, I think I would probably like the movie version better.
John W. Campbell Jr's extended version of Who Goes There? is a masterclass in paranoia and suspense. The high drama style of writing typical to pulp magazines combined with the hard, scientific investigation that Campbell was so enamored with creates a fantastic dynamic between the characters and emphasizes the isolation they all feel, both due to their location and their circumstance. Paranoia's such a powerful emotion, and this story captures it in a way I haven't seen as effectively in speculative fiction outside of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. Even the title of its shortened version - Who Goes There? - evokes the discomfort of hearing what you could've sworn is a footstep outside your door. The structure is an enjoyable one, it's a series of tests the scientists try to come up with to figure out first what the Thing is and then how to identify/destroy it before it makes it out of Antarctica, and it's a great race against the clock. The novella falls victim to a few issues that nearly all pulps suffer from - the level-headed scientists go insane almost comically fast, the story's too short to give us a good sense of each main character's personality, and most importantly I would've liked to see their interpersonal paranoia play out a little more, like how we see in John Carpenter's 1982 film adaptation rather than just the typical madness caricature - but it manages to hold its own, making it a really strong, much more cosmically optimistic companion to H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thoroughly enjoyable hard sci-fi read. It’s a little dated in some areas (e.g. the macho masculine descriptions of the bronzed, massive McReady; “underwear” referring to long johns), but its overall quite charming and maintains some good tension. The existential, lovecraftian horror of the Thing is so so enjoyable.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
A powerful punch of a novella. Almost every great moment in John Carpenter's The Thing is here, with tight, tense prose fitting the grim, icy setting.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In case you were wondering McReady is bronzed
The idea is brilliant, and is a perfect blueprint for cosmic horror. The psychological aspect works, but could have been better.
The dialogue is good, but can be hard to follow.
There are sometimes few dialogue tags attached to several, gigantic paragraphs of dialogue.
The big issue with this novella is the prose. Some sentences are way to long for the purpose they surve, and to make it even worse -- other sentences are so deeply infested with adverbs, that it sometimes looks as if a novice had written them.
Honestly, if you want to see this idea utilised to the fullest -- watch John Carpenter's 'The Thing'.
The dialogue is good, but can be hard to follow.
There are sometimes few dialogue tags attached to several, gigantic paragraphs of dialogue.
The big issue with this novella is the prose. Some sentences are way to long for the purpose they surve, and to make it even worse -- other sentences are so deeply infested with adverbs, that it sometimes looks as if a novice had written them.
Honestly, if you want to see this idea utilised to the fullest -- watch John Carpenter's 'The Thing'.
“…And we have what you, your other world race evidently doesn’t. Not an imitated, but a bred-in-the-bone instinct, a driving, unquenchable fire that’s genuine. We’ll fight, fight with a ferocity you mate attempt to imitate, but you’ll never equal.”
Interesting ending as opposed to the movie. Cannot tell which ending is scarier, to not know who is the monster and to not know if it will infiltrate the human race after it is the last standing or to know it was smart enough to attempt flying to America and thinking there might be others coming.
Interesting ending as opposed to the movie. Cannot tell which ending is scarier, to not know who is the monster and to not know if it will infiltrate the human race after it is the last standing or to know it was smart enough to attempt flying to America and thinking there might be others coming.