The Incredible Melting Man.

by Phil Smith

He is a human time bomb. He must be stopped before he kills us all!

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Dreadlocksmile · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published back in 1978, the novel for “The Incredible Melting Man” was adapted from William Sachs’s screenplay for the 1977 movie of the same title. The film draws heavily from both Robert Day’s 1959 movie “The First Man Into Space” and Irvin S Yeaworth Jnr’s 1958 sci-fi b-movie “The Blob”.

Not exactly the most complex of plots, Phil Smith attempts to work from a film screenplay that relied heavily on the very talented Rick Baker’s gut churning special effects and make-up.

With a simplistic and somewhat linear storyline to adapt, Smith takes on the job of thickening out the novel by developing the characterization to further extents than the movie managed to. With a mixture of over descriptive splatter and exaggerated dialogue, Smith brings a whole new life to this b-movie splatterfest.

With a mind constantly on the predicted and obvious audience this book will attract, Smith keeps up a solid pace throughout this short novel via injecting gore into its pages whenever and wherever possible.

With nothing more to expect from this tale than 159 pages of light hearted and not quite tongue-in-cheek science fiction horror, the reader will find this novel simply an enjoyable read, taking you back to the hay-day of b-movie classics.

Incredibly, the novel is actually well written, with a good (although simplistic) structure that keeps the pace well.

All in all, an enjoyable read that’ll please the vast majority of splatter fans.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Movie tie-ins tend to be mixed in terms of quality : some are cheap knock-offs, rushed off the shelf and boringly retelling the plot with no flavour; others can be surprising, throwing new spins on the story and increasing the atmosphere tenfold (I’m thinking The Terminator by Shaun Hutson).

Phil Smith’s effort, based on the screenplay of the infamous gore film, is a largely derivative effort, scoring highly in some areas and proving completely forgettable in others. Smith approaches more of a science fictional approach than a horror one, and in dealing with the technicalities of the space flight and alien virus, his writing is clear and interesting and never monotonous.

However, the emotional level of this book is zero. The characters are cardboard cut-outs, either waiting to be eaten or just going through the motions. Nelson’s wife literally disappears halfway through the story without reference and others come and go without interest. Even the larger supports who die violently are uninteresting, their deaths meaningless. Smith’s world(s) are fine but the people in them are false.

The ironic exception is the lead, Steve, eaten by a virus from Mars, whose internal reflections provide more of a character to him than the dialogue of the speaking characters does to them. The horror is repetitive, with the deaths regular and non-atmospheric, but the gore flows freely and there are plenty of nasty moments for grue-fans to savour. My favourite moments are in the spaceship on Mars, where the crew are attacked by the sentient slime; truly eerie in places and quite chilling. Otherwise this seems to be a run-of-the-mill thriller.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nurse escaping from a quarantine area as an astronaut back from Mars pursues and finally with mucus dripping from him sinks his teeth into her flesh and rips her head completely off. The astronaut's face looks like a mutation like melted cheese dripping down his face. He has an alien being inside him which needs flesh to feast on. His disgusting skin will attract flies which will be poisoned by the jelly like substance oozing. He will kill a couple in a car which will have splattered blood dripping down the windows like a raging river and a farmers insides scooped out and smeared over the walls. The astronaut is a guinea pig and his cells are transmitting signals back to Mars.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

LOOK I was only 12 when I read this, give me break!

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is based on William Sachs' original screenplay and has a lot of differences from the finished movie.

The biggest difference is in the book its a mission to Mars not Saturn and Steve contracts an alien parasite. We get flashbacks of the Martian civilization - Which seems to parallel Earth's development. It all ends in the atom bomb and this parasite is created by the radiation. It seems to be a precursor for an invasion as the parasite attempts to find suitable conditions and messages its results home.

There's also an annoying reporter introduced towards the end who also gets infected???

As with a lot of pulp movie novels scenes cut very abruptly and we skip locations and time frequently. While this works in film it makes reading feel disjointed and the constant POV changes, flashbacks and stream of new characters don't make this an immersive read. However it does mean it has a breakneck pace.

I quite enjoyed it, especially noting all the differences from the movie. The Martian parasite/Invasion movie reminded me a lot of classic sci-fi movies from First Men in the Moon to more modern offerings such as Life.

[Rakie Keig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen. This is a perfectly fine pulp horror book, which is very much of its time in terms of plot, science, and opinions. It's almost a shame that the story is constrained by being so short, because there's a bunch of really interesting stuff that kinda gets breezed past, like the relationship between the main characters, or the backstory behind Steve joining the mission. The flashbacks to the ship on Mars are worthy of a whole book of their own.

I'm not usually in favour of remakes, but in this instance I'd be very interested in seeing an updated retelling of this story, with perhaps some stronger science and plot-technicalities (dear scientists: please stop leaving extremely radioactive biohazards casually lying about in unsecured rooms), and more pages to focus on the cosmic horror of the original space mission. But keep the melting flesh and the random murders, because those bits are great.

(Edited to say: I've not seen the original movie, sorry)

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

An enjoyable and fun read that is quite shocking at times. An unknown alien parasite like virus attached to a man starts taking over his body forcing him to kill for sustenance while his outer body completely shreds itself of all flesh. Must of the novel plays out in the vein of a slasher story with scenes of victims encountering the monster before being killed. In the background scientists study what is happening to the pilot. It is much better written than I might have expected

[Nick Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

More coherent and less unintentionally funny than the movie, this seems to be adapted from a more complete script than was shot. It's fast paced, simple and gory, with added insight into steve's personal hell and a slightly different ending. Other characters are flat and boring, but on the whole very capably written, with strength in describing the gooey mess of body horror.

[Chuck McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This B-grade movie novelisation, while undeniably Pulpy in nature, nonetheless manages to rise above the source material to deliver a genuinely frightening (and often desperately sad) tale of a returned astronaut slowly being possessed and consumed by a deadly alien organism, and the horrific acts of violence it drives him to. A fun and unsettling read.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Much better than the movie.

[B. Tollison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great fun, and the perfect book to have read during the recent heat wave. I remember the movie from when I was just a kid, and the horror has not palled over the years. Worth seeking out if you like cheesy horror.

[Stephen Bergstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a movie as bad as TIMM, you just know the book had to be better. Not much, but even a half-step is better than nothing.