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A review by saareman
WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell Jr., John W. Campbell Jr.
3.0
A Defrosted Thing
Review of the Avarang Books kindle edition (May 30, 2023) of the original novella published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine (1938).
Scientists in Antarctica defrost an alien found in a crashed spaceship from "20 million years ago" and discover that the creature is still alive and can transform itself and assume the shape of any other living thing. They seek to identify which of them is the creature in disguise, as they are picked off one by one.
I'll have to admit that I found parts of this quite confusing. I never really understood the blood test business and some of the other scenes make rather inexplicable jump cuts. Perhaps it was the fault of the cheap $1.35 Kindle public domain edition that I grabbed, rather than wait to source a more authoritative print version. It was still an interesting early "Alien" precursor.
The cover for the original extended version of "Who Goes There?" discovered and finally published as "Frozen Hell" (2019). It gives an artist's impression of the three-red-eyed monster of the novella. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Trivia and Links
Who Goes There? has been adapted for film three times as:
1. The Thing From Another World (1951) dir. Christian Nyby. You can see the trailer for it here.
2. The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter. You can see the trailer for it here.
3. The Thing (2011) dir. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.. You can see the trailer for it here.
Review of the Avarang Books kindle edition (May 30, 2023) of the original novella published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine (1938).
Scientists in Antarctica defrost an alien found in a crashed spaceship from "20 million years ago" and discover that the creature is still alive and can transform itself and assume the shape of any other living thing. They seek to identify which of them is the creature in disguise, as they are picked off one by one.
I'll have to admit that I found parts of this quite confusing. I never really understood the blood test business and some of the other scenes make rather inexplicable jump cuts. Perhaps it was the fault of the cheap $1.35 Kindle public domain edition that I grabbed, rather than wait to source a more authoritative print version. It was still an interesting early "Alien" precursor.
The cover for the original extended version of "Who Goes There?" discovered and finally published as "Frozen Hell" (2019). It gives an artist's impression of the three-red-eyed monster of the novella. Image sourced from Goodreads.
Trivia and Links
Who Goes There? has been adapted for film three times as:
1. The Thing From Another World (1951) dir. Christian Nyby. You can see the trailer for it here.
2. The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter. You can see the trailer for it here.
3. The Thing (2011) dir. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.. You can see the trailer for it here.