Who Goes There

by John W. Campbell Jr.

Book Overview

The tie-in to the upcoming blockbuster prequel to John Carpenter's THE THING - the never before told story of the original doomed Norwegian expedition. When a group of scientific researchers, isolated... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0575091037
• ISBN13: 9780575091030
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Gollancz
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Not Free SF Reader

A discovery of a lifeform buried in the Antarctic ice causes serious problems for an isolated research team.

Groundbreaking...

John W. Campbell's novella "The Thing" is an excellent science fiction/horror story in its own right. That this story was written at a time when sci-fi/horror was considered primarily as the subject matter for B (as in bad) Movies and "pulp fiction" books and magazines establishes this story as a pioneering effort that helped to establish science fiction and sci-fi/horror as legitimate, worthwhile literary and cinematic subject matter.Besides that, this really is a great story. It's so simple in concept and well executed in effort that it makes you wonder why you didn't think of it in the first place while at the same time acknowledging that you could never have written it this well.The two motion pictures based on the story do a good job (each in their own right)bringing the story to the screen. Still, I wonder if there isn't another movie to be made which emphasizes more of the paranoia and suspense of "Who Goes There" which, to me, is the real strength of the story - not knowing who is real and who isn't, not even knowing whether or not you yourself have been absorbed... Hollywood are you listening?

A Collection of Stories by a Grandmaster

This collection is a superior value. It contains not only Campbell's superb novella of sci/fi terror (Who Goes There?) but six other stories! All in a quality hardback! John W. Campbell, Jr. was one of the great science fiction writers in history. His approach to his craft in his all too brief career as a writer, and his long career as an editor (his employer would not allow him to both write and edit, so when he started as an editor he quit writing) were of incalculable influence. Many of sci/fi's greatest honed their craft at his feet. Unfortunately (indeed the word is disgracefully) very little of Campbell's work remains in print. Happily, Buccaneer Books has published this excellent collection. It opens with an interesting forward by Campbell himself. It contains the novella "Who Goes There?", and the stories "Blindness", "Frictional Losses", "Dead Knowledge", "Elimination", "Twilight", and "Night." 230 pages all told, nicely hardbound in blue cloth, and well worth your time and money.

Who Goes There? Shines

I first read this short book back in 1960, when I was ten. Coming off of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, this one grabbed me by the short hairs and dangled me above the floor. Then someone told me they had made a movie of it. You can't imagine how disappointed I was to see James Arness as a humanoid plant. What riles me more is how John Carpenter's remake was lambasted by both the critics and the director of the previous film for its excessive violence. Carpenter had only remained faithful to the original novella. For fifties-era SF, this was not your typical pre-teen reading, and it still packs a strong punch even today.

original treatment of "The Thing from Another World"

Science fiction devotees have long enjoyed viewing Howard Hawks' "The Thing," the classic 1951 film which helped usher in that decade's output of great and not-so-great sci-fi literature and films. This Hollywood effort, which ended as a dated cautionary tale warning of the perils from the skies (read: Russian menace) was remade by John Carpenter in 1982 as "John Carpenter's The Thing," an excellent and chilling revisitation of the theme of alien invasion, both planetary and corporeal. I had assumed that this film's graphic depiction of another life form's assimilation and extermination of humans was the pinnacle (in 1982) of sci-fi horror; that is, until I read the novella upon which these two films were based. John W. Campbell, Jr.'s "Who Goes There?" is literally a story that takes hold of one from the first paragraph and refuses to let go until the last. A narrative in the tradition of Lovecraft's "At The Mountains of Madness" and E.A. Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," this is one of those increasingly rare books which can frighten one more readily than the most overtly obvious visual media, such as film or television. I cannot recommend this book enough; it will satisfy the hardcore science fiction fanatic (in which category this reviewer decidedly does NOT fit), the mystery buff, and the average reader who enjoys a well-crafted story. Purchase this modest novella, and prepare to read it in one sitting, most probably as I did: casting nervous glances around the room while trying to maintain my position on the edge of the seat.