WARNING: ***ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEED TO SPOIL "THIS ISLAND EARTH"
FOR YOU IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET!***
Truly fascinating article I found: http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Horror/ThisIslandEarth.html
for committed FANS OF THE MOVIE ONLY, WELL VERSED WITH THE PLOT
ALREADY as it comprehensively GIVES IT ***ALL*** AWAY!!!
"Oh look - a lovely spider! And it's eating a butterfly!"
'' ,,
I'm reading the book slowly, rationing it out. I've just reached the part where Cal is less than thrilled to be making pushbuttons. Not bad, though it IS a lot different than the movie. Also, the nitpicker in me is appalled at the typographical errors. God knows I make them myself, but I like to think if I were putting out a BOOK I might be extra careful, and of course after I finished I'd have someone else check it again for me. I thought it was interesting that it was only Cal who had to put together an Interocitor. Another scientist found, after he'd passed his own aptitude test, that he could recall word for word everything he read, every diagram he glanced at. I don't know whether that would be a handy thing to be able to do, or a nightmare.
shareSounds like you must have obtained the reissue paperback copy of THIS ISLAND EARTH published by NeoPress in 1997 or the electronic downloadable version offered online by Pulpless.com in 1999?
I noticed these versions contained a lot of typo errors.
These were authorized by Forrest J. Ackerman and featured a picture of Exeter on the cover, from a movie still. However, Forry Ackerman was very disappointed when he noticed the typos. Some copyist had reproduced a copy of the novel by re-typing the original novel instead of photo-copying it.
However, the original hardbound editions, published in the 1950s, had no typo errors.
The original first edition, novelization by Raymond F. Jones from his "Peace Engineers" Trilogy of sci-fi short stories printed in 1949 and 1950 in the pages of pulp magazine THRILLING WONDER STORIES, was published by Shasta Press in 1952, with a green binding, and a green dust jacket cover with two white ellipses on it with the title, and no graphic art. Original copies can be obtained for reasonable prices online.
This was re-pressed in a special second "movie edition" in 1955 with ad art
from the movie on the cover, now very rare and valuable. Some copies were sold by Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club when it was first in business in 1955.
A British edition was also published in 1955, with graphic sci-fi art on the cover which had nothing to do with the content of the story, which I also have.
I read with interest the referenced article and it was very interesting and informative, although Rick Kennett was wrong about the release date of the movie.
I enjoyed reading the novel, and it would make an interesting film if Universal makes good on its consideration to remake this movie now, if they stick to the original novel and not wander off into some alternate world.
Dejael
"...if they stick to the original novel and not wander off into some alternate world."
A supervisor of mine used to say, when presented with something next-to-impossible, "Figure the odds."