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Who Goes There? (2009)

by John W. Campbell Jr.(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0982332203 (ISBN13: 9780982332207)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Rocket Ride Books

review 1: A classic science-fiction horror story from the golden age of pulp fiction magazines like Weird Tales etc., and for my money one of the rare instances where the later movie adaptation (John Carpenter´s The Thing) is better then the book original.Being a big fan of the classic pulp horror tales and at the same time being someone who is fond of The Thing, it was only natural for me to try and find the source for the Carpenter´s film. I found it and I found it very dissapointing …The setting in a land of eternal snow somewhere beyond the Polar Circle is great, so is the idea of finding an alien cosmic ship that crashed aeons ago, with one of the aliens itself buried in an ice casing which was found by the explorers. But though I like the “alien-on-earth genre“ very mu... morech, I cannot but say this little novel of horror has not impressed me very much which may be generated by a little bit exaggerated expectations on my part and the fact I knew rudely what the story would be. What I did not like in reading the book was the clear fact the author leant over backwards to look sophisticated, to “show off“ and that is why he packed his story with things and scenes he could have done without. And the conclusion is totally ludicrous and ridiculous.I cannot help myself but saying this classic sci-fi tale of terror and suspense simply does not work for me.
review 2: So this was...a thing...that I read....Like any self-respecting little girl who fell in love with Kurt Russel after seeing Big Trouble, Little China, it didn't take me long to find and love The Thing. Reading the story that inspired The Thing was also a complete no-brainer. And now I have no brain.First off, I really did enjoy this story, hence the 3-star, I-Liked-It rating. It was fairly quick paced, and like most stories, it contained a good deal more information on the Thing than the movie was able to include. Also, science and scientific method was actively used to determine who needed to be blow-torched/electrocuted to death instead of just throwing out the baby with the bath water and setting fire to Antarctica. So yay! But oh my god the writing. I hate to say that I've read better written fanfiction, but it was one of my first thoughts. The first two paragraphs were devoted to describing the smells of the camp, information which was never used again in the story and only did a little to set the scene. It was so sharp in places, it cut right through needed narrative and dialogue. Another reviewer described the dialogue as characters "speeching" at each other rather than speaking to and that rang true with my reading of it. In the edition I read, it was frequently difficult tell who was even talking, and characters were added with either paragraphs of physical descriptors or their name and nothing else. Had I been able to take a red pen to it, I would have.Overall, Who Goes There was indicative of most science fiction stories I've read to date: cool story in need of an editor. less

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