Costigan's Needle

by Jerry Sohl

Jerry Sohl believed Costigan’s Needle (Rinehart & Company, New York, 1953) to be his best science-fiction Dr. Costigan invents a device which appears to produce an opening into a different world. Since his first model is not large enough to actually explore this different world he secures the backing of a large mid western electronics company to build one large enough for a human to go through. When a fanatic damages the “needle”, everyone within two hundred yards of the machine are transported to this different world. They find themselves in a place that is fresh, clean and unpopulated. Everyone is called upon to do what he or she does best in-order to make this new world a comfortable place and to rebuild technology to the point where they can return to the world they left.Costigan’s Needle is fast paced and entertaining. It contains complete characters who develop a personal a sense of purpose, something that people in 1953 were discouraged from doing.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Gerald Allan Sohl Sr. (December 2, 1913 - November 4, 2002) was a scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone (as a ghostwriter for Charles Beaumont), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and other shows . He also wrote novels, feature film scripts, and the nonfiction works Underhanded Chess and Underhanded Bridge in 1973.

His 1955 Point Ultimate is a piece of Cold War invasion literature: in 1999, a faraway future history at the time of writing, the US lies under a cruel Soviet occupation, reinforced by a deadly artificial disease which makes conquered Americans dependent on the conquerors for the injections which keep them alive. But a dashing Illinois farm boy breaks out in revolt, killing a degenerate soviet governor and his "Commie" American collaborators. Eventually, he becomes a leading member of a very formidable resistance organization which is capable of breaking at will into the occupiers' security headquarters and springing prisoners out, and which had already established a clandestine space program under the Soviets' noses and established a sizeable colony on Mars.

In the far more low-key The Time Dissolver (1957) Sohl tells the story of a man and a woman who wake up one morning to find that, inexplicably, they had lost all memory of the past eleven years including any memory of how they ever came to meet and become married to each other, and who embark on a quest to find what happened and to trace back these eleven lost years. Aside from the science fiction aspects, the book captures the atmosphere of late 1950s America.

Reviews

[Oscar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una importante compañía de electrónica, decide hacerse con un nuevo invento. Resulta que el doctor Costigan, el inventor, ha ideado un pequeño aparato que abre una puerta interdimensional. A partir de aquí se decidirá crear un aparato más grande que haga lo mismo.

‘La aguja del doctor Costigan’ (Costigan’s Needle, 1953), de Jerry Sohl, tiene una buena primera parte, pero la verdad es que a partir de cierto punto, un giro inesperado realmente interesante, ha dejado de gustarme lo que estaba leyendo.

[CW Hawes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this novel decades ago. Perhaps 45 to 50 years. It has stayed with me all this time. In fact, I'm probably due for a re-read. It is a wonderful tale of pulling together for a common cause and then realizing maybe things are okay as they are. It is also a story which reminds us we can't go back we can only go forward. The past is the past. We are here now and the future awaits.

Classic science fiction. Well worth reading.

[David Tindell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and visited it again recently. What struck me about Sohl's book is how much different the story would be if it was written today. The people who go through the Eye of the Needle are, in Sohl's story, an inventive and cooperative slice of early-50s Americana. Those who survive the transition quickly band together and get organized, and within months have built a functioning society literally from scratch. A writer today would have to include racial tensions, a power grab by the police lieutenant, sex that is more explicit than implied, overall a much darker version. Frankly I prefer the way it was originally written.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10. Media de los 2 libros leídos del autor : 5/10

Mediocre.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting book. I loved the tension in the first part - reminded me a lot of House of Leaves. Once the big transition event happens it really kicked it up a notch in ways I was not expecting.

In the second half of the book I was expecting a lot more conflict than there was. War with the religious folks, rebellions, social problems, infighting, sexual tensions, etc. Instead everything just kind of... worked. Which was also kind of nice, just unexpected. I guess it was a different time.

The ending was a little silly but was more of a fable than a sci-fi story at that point anyway.

Not perfect, but interesting.

[David Rojas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cuando comenzó la novela me entusiasmé mucho por el planteo original respecto a los portales hacia otras dimensiones. Luego, cuando viajaron hacia el otro lado, una porquería. Para leer sólo la mitad.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salvando el hecho de ser un libro de su época, me ha resultado entretenido, y con un mensaje final digno de contar. También, el protagonista es un ingeniero, y eso siempre suma ;-)

[John Teske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Costigan's Needle - a gift from a dear friend.

This was the second time I read it, the first reading being over 25 years ago.

I remembered about halfway through how it ends.

The book itself is dated, and I can't put my finger on it, but there is something amiss with the premise of the Needle as presented. In any case, an entertaining story for the first half, and after that I skimmed it.

The dilemma - how to handle a "gate" into the unknown, and then, once on the other side, what to do next? Not sure that this is really a spoiler, since the "gate" idea is put forth within the first few chapters of the novel.

In any case, the idea is interesting, and certainly reworked in subsequent sci-fi literature.

The ethics and moral dilemmas presented are also entertaining.

Glad to have re-read it; I will be passing this book along.

[Winnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1953 and we have the original 1953 hard back (along with hundreds of other SF hardback books from 60s, 70s, etc.) My husband has started re-reading his old science fiction books as he doesn’t like the more recently published books. He’s pretty old school. - age 86. I’m sure he originally read this when he was in his teens. As a scientist it would have appealed to him and in re-reading it, he still thought it was excellent. He suggested I read it as he considers it unique. For 1953 it must have been original and unique. I tried to read it with that in mind. Mostly it was okay for me. I did have a little trouble imagining how “New Chicago” was built up in a mere ten years. Gave it a three because I liked the ending.

[kevin browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jerry Sohl's Costigans Needle is a fun meat and potatoes scifi story. It's preposterous, more fantasy than sci-fi, but has an interesting ending with a good message. It feels like an episode of twilight zone or outer limits than a science based story. I can see why he wrote for television. He has a bold imagination and knows how to write stories that the audience can enjoy, even though they are simplistic and more plot based than character based. Overall, it's a good novel if you don't want to think too much.

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"In countless Star Trek episodes a shattered piece of technology is miraculously resurrected (or a non-related piece of technology is transformed into an inter-dimensional portal) rescuing stranded one-time antagonists who learn, through their shared struggles, to finally get along. Jerry Sohl’s Costigan’s [...]"

[Tex-49 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante per l'idea (l'apparecchiatura che lancia in universi paralleli) ed il suo sviluppo (la reazione dei protagonisti ed il loro rimboccarsi le maniche) e quindi per l'attenzione alla psicologia dei personaggi, bello il finale!

[Kaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really quick and fun sci-fi read. I do think they took a long time to get to the coolest part which was life after the needle and it could have been a lot better if that happened early. But it was still neat and I liked the overall message.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic.

[Roberto]

Urania 65 e Classici Urania 158

[Roberto]

Anche Urania 65.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced science fiction novel from the early 1950's, Dr. Costigan, a physicist, invents his "needle", a missile shaped device with an opening at the bottom which, when you go through it, you find yourself in another place and time. So a bunch of people, including Dr. Costigan, do just that, most of them not meaning to. What happens next is the story of how they survive and how they work to get back to where they came from. One of the quaint features in reading this novel is how much of the culture of the early 1950's is just taken for granted, for instance lots of people are smoking, as if it's just the natural thing to do - an attitude that has changed pretty drastically in the past 60 years.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old school SF - 50's. Fun. Sometimes a bit much in what the people managed to do with no base technology, but still interesting. Predictable but OK ending. Worth read if you like classic SF.

[Facedeer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't remember a lot of details about this one, read it a long time ago. But I do remember liking it.