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Who Goes There
A group of scientists. An object buried under the ice. A terrifying fight for survival.
When a group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antarctica, stumble across an alien spaceship buried in the ice it seems like an incredible opportunity.
As they transport the alien corpse back to camp several scientists
begin to experience vivid and unsettling dreams. Their fears are dismissed...but their nightmare is only beginning.
This terrifying novella, included here with other short stories by Campbell, has been the subject of three Hollywood film adaptations, including John Carpenter's THE THING
Contents:
● Who Goes There?
● Blindness
● Frictional Losses
● Dead Knowledge
● Elimination
● Twilight
● Night
When a group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antarctica, stumble across an alien spaceship buried in the ice it seems like an incredible opportunity.
As they transport the alien corpse back to camp several scientists
begin to experience vivid and unsettling dreams. Their fears are dismissed...but their nightmare is only beginning.
This terrifying novella, included here with other short stories by Campbell, has been the subject of three Hollywood film adaptations, including John Carpenter's THE THING
Contents:
● Who Goes There?
● Blindness
● Frictional Losses
● Dead Knowledge
● Elimination
● Twilight
● Night
236 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
46 people are currently reading
1655 people want to read
About the author
John W. Campbell Jr.
778 books283 followersJohn Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."
As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.
Known Pseudonyms/Alternate Names:
Don A. Stuart
Karl van Campen
John Campbell
J. W. C., Jr.
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell
Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."
As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.
Known Pseudonyms/Alternate Names:
Don A. Stuart
Karl van Campen
John Campbell
J. W. C., Jr.
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 132 reviews
August 4, 2016
John Wood Campbell (1910 – 1971) is best known as the editor of Analog Magazine from 1937 (as Astounding Magazine) until his death, although he was so important at that time that he is often credited as the shaper of the so-called ‘Golden Age of SF’, being the nurturer of Robert Heinlein, A.E. van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp and L. Ron Hubbard, as well as many other SF legends. Asimov, admittedly with a degree of bias, called Campbell “the most powerful force in science fiction” at that time, but there’s few today who would doubt his pre-eminence as an editor between the 1940’s and 1970’s.
With such a prominent editing role, it is sometimes forgotten that he was also an author, at least until editing Astounding/Analog curtailed it, mainly under the pseudonym of Don A. Stewart.
With the release of the re-imagined film, The Thing, it is perhaps not a surprise to see Campbell’s novella (though originally published as by Don A. Stewart) on which the film is based resurface, along with six other tales of SF.
First published in Astounding in August 1938 (yes, that long ago!) it is a tale of identity and survival in the Antarctic. Scientists and the military discover the body of an alien stranded there. At first assumed to be dead and buried in the ice for millions of years, the alien revives and, in its place of icy isolation, kills its enemy, taking the form of the dead human. The men on the base must kill it before it escapes to repopulate amongst the urban metropolises of Earth, but first they have to determine which one of them is the alien.
It still has a certain energy, though it is a product of its time. Science versus technology and the ethics of the survival of the fittest are all dealt with here, in lengthy dialogues expounded by what would become an Analog trademark – the knowledgeable and morally correct scientist-hero.
There are lengthy screeds of information-dump to fill in the science details and try to keep the story moving:
“I think you should know the structure of the place. There is a broad plateau, a level sweep that runs more than 150 miles due south from the Secondary station, Van Wall says. He didn’t have time or fuel to fly farther, but it was running smoothly due south then. Right there, where that buried thing was, there is an ice-drowned mountain ridge, a granite wall of unshakable strength that has damned back the ice creeping from the south.
“And four hundred miles due south is the South Polar Plateau. You have asked me at various times why it gets warmer here when the wind rises, and most of you know. As a meteorologist I’d have staked my word that no wind could blow at -70 degrees – that no more than a 5-mile wind could blow at -50 – without causing warming due to friction with ground, snow and ice and the air itself.“
Campbell was only 28 when Who Goes There? was published and it both impresses and reflects this. It is still rather pulpy in style and content, though more thoughtful than the ‘one-bound-and-he-was-free’ style of SF dominant at the time. Characters gasp rather than speak, bound when they could walk, and so on.
“It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood. from a face ringed with a writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow.
Van Wall, six feet and 200 pounds of ice-nerved pilot, gave a queer, strangled gasp and butted, stumbled his way out to the corridor. Half the company broke for the doors. The others stumbled away from the table.”
And yet, despite all of this, over seventy years on, it is still creepy. It is perhaps no wonder that the story was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written, in 1973.
And, unlike the film versions, all without a female around.
Campbell was a man with a mission at this time, tackling stories with an evangelical zeal to remove the galaxy-destroying super-science tale and replace them with stories that had a more scientific grounding.
Much of his work in Astounding/Analog did so, and this is clearly an attempt to write so, even though it involves mind-reading. Whereas Lovecraft wrote such cosmic tales about the unknowable, here Campbell lays on the science, with a trowel.
Despite the purpleness of the prose, what surprises most is that in comparison to many of today’s tales, the stories are surprisingly succinct. When writers were paid per word, it all counted, and this creates a tight, focused account. It is impressively claustrophobic and tense until its final denouement.
Those expecting something like the endings of the older films may be a little surprised, if not disappointed. As you might expect, Campbell signs it all off with a logical, if not clinical, end that has none of the ambiguousness of Hawks’ and Carpenter’s movie versions.
Of the other six stories, they have glimpses of greatness, though nothing like as impressive as Who Goes There? The rest of the stories in this collection further reflect this quest for advancement, knowledge and science, and are dated from 1934 to 1938.
Blindness tells of a scientist’s sacrifice to gain Mankind Atomic power by travelling near to the Sun, only to find that his invention to enable his spaceship to withstand the Sun’s temperatures and radiation leapfrog the need for it. It’s a reasonable character study that celebrates Man’s ability to solve problems through Science and Technology, though more lecturing and less enjoyable than Who Goes There? It is perhaps the weakest tale here.
Frictional Losses is a tale of humans surviving alien invasion, despite enormous losses, following the arrival of a hundred one-thousand-feet-long spaceships of the Granthee. Lots of atom bombs and atomic weapons here reflect the thinking at the time these tales were written: remember, this is before the first bomb was produced. Although Europe, Australia, China and India all have major losses, it is most odd to read of the tenacity of the ‘peculiar’ Japanese against the alien invaders, with kamikaze style aircraft, written a few years before Pearl Harbour. Much of the tale though is about what happens after the invasion force is destroyed, admittedly with huge human losses, and the invention of a machine to destroy the impending second invasion force. Lots of stuff here about the importance of Science and how resourceful humans are. Bit more optimistic than some of the tales in this book but still a weak story.
Dead Knowledge is a dark story. Three astronauts explore a deserted world, with objects and bodies left intact and the reasons for their disappearance/death unknown. The story tells us why. Quite atmospheric and grim to start with it all falls apart when ‘intelligent molecules’ are discovered to be reason.
In a slight change of focus, Elimination, the fifth story, is distinctly Earth based. It tells of the invention of a time-travelling machine kept secret for years and the reasons for doing so, as well of the consequences of a machine that can tell people how long they are going to live. It is a little overwrought, yet the idea of time streams and quantum universes is surprisingly well dealt with for a tale written in the 1930’s.
Of all the other tales here, the sixth tale, Twilight, is almost as famous as Who Goes There? First published in 1934, it’s a tale that starts simply as a hitch-hiker tale but one which unusually involves a visitor from the future who tells the driver of humanity’s future and its decline. It is elegiac in mood and yet full of ‘sensawunda’ science. It also goes without saying that it is also absolutely nothing to do with vampires!
Its sequel, Night, is the last story in the book and follows a similar theme. Campbell tells of a test pilot who is transported to a future where Earth is deserted and Mankind has gone. There’s lots of science-y technology mentioned – torus coils, bismuth wires, dynamotors and the like – whilst the machines continued to run the worlds without humans until they too fell into decline, with even the atoms dead. The ultimate point is that eventually all things must pass, and Night tells of humanity’s eventual decline, thus showing the relative unimportance of Man in the vast universe.
In summary, though the book is a little uneven and starts with its best tale, as a book that signposts the changes in SF in the 1930’s, as they were from Astounding to Analog, this is a good read.
For those wanting more Campbell, or rather Don A. Stewart, the NESFA Press book, A New Dawn is recommended. It also includes Who Goes There? and the other tales in this book.
With such a prominent editing role, it is sometimes forgotten that he was also an author, at least until editing Astounding/Analog curtailed it, mainly under the pseudonym of Don A. Stewart.
With the release of the re-imagined film, The Thing, it is perhaps not a surprise to see Campbell’s novella (though originally published as by Don A. Stewart) on which the film is based resurface, along with six other tales of SF.
First published in Astounding in August 1938 (yes, that long ago!) it is a tale of identity and survival in the Antarctic. Scientists and the military discover the body of an alien stranded there. At first assumed to be dead and buried in the ice for millions of years, the alien revives and, in its place of icy isolation, kills its enemy, taking the form of the dead human. The men on the base must kill it before it escapes to repopulate amongst the urban metropolises of Earth, but first they have to determine which one of them is the alien.
It still has a certain energy, though it is a product of its time. Science versus technology and the ethics of the survival of the fittest are all dealt with here, in lengthy dialogues expounded by what would become an Analog trademark – the knowledgeable and morally correct scientist-hero.
There are lengthy screeds of information-dump to fill in the science details and try to keep the story moving:
“I think you should know the structure of the place. There is a broad plateau, a level sweep that runs more than 150 miles due south from the Secondary station, Van Wall says. He didn’t have time or fuel to fly farther, but it was running smoothly due south then. Right there, where that buried thing was, there is an ice-drowned mountain ridge, a granite wall of unshakable strength that has damned back the ice creeping from the south.
“And four hundred miles due south is the South Polar Plateau. You have asked me at various times why it gets warmer here when the wind rises, and most of you know. As a meteorologist I’d have staked my word that no wind could blow at -70 degrees – that no more than a 5-mile wind could blow at -50 – without causing warming due to friction with ground, snow and ice and the air itself.“
Campbell was only 28 when Who Goes There? was published and it both impresses and reflects this. It is still rather pulpy in style and content, though more thoughtful than the ‘one-bound-and-he-was-free’ style of SF dominant at the time. Characters gasp rather than speak, bound when they could walk, and so on.
“It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood. from a face ringed with a writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow.
Van Wall, six feet and 200 pounds of ice-nerved pilot, gave a queer, strangled gasp and butted, stumbled his way out to the corridor. Half the company broke for the doors. The others stumbled away from the table.”
And yet, despite all of this, over seventy years on, it is still creepy. It is perhaps no wonder that the story was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written, in 1973.
And, unlike the film versions, all without a female around.
Campbell was a man with a mission at this time, tackling stories with an evangelical zeal to remove the galaxy-destroying super-science tale and replace them with stories that had a more scientific grounding.
Much of his work in Astounding/Analog did so, and this is clearly an attempt to write so, even though it involves mind-reading. Whereas Lovecraft wrote such cosmic tales about the unknowable, here Campbell lays on the science, with a trowel.
Despite the purpleness of the prose, what surprises most is that in comparison to many of today’s tales, the stories are surprisingly succinct. When writers were paid per word, it all counted, and this creates a tight, focused account. It is impressively claustrophobic and tense until its final denouement.
Those expecting something like the endings of the older films may be a little surprised, if not disappointed. As you might expect, Campbell signs it all off with a logical, if not clinical, end that has none of the ambiguousness of Hawks’ and Carpenter’s movie versions.
Of the other six stories, they have glimpses of greatness, though nothing like as impressive as Who Goes There? The rest of the stories in this collection further reflect this quest for advancement, knowledge and science, and are dated from 1934 to 1938.
Blindness tells of a scientist’s sacrifice to gain Mankind Atomic power by travelling near to the Sun, only to find that his invention to enable his spaceship to withstand the Sun’s temperatures and radiation leapfrog the need for it. It’s a reasonable character study that celebrates Man’s ability to solve problems through Science and Technology, though more lecturing and less enjoyable than Who Goes There? It is perhaps the weakest tale here.
Frictional Losses is a tale of humans surviving alien invasion, despite enormous losses, following the arrival of a hundred one-thousand-feet-long spaceships of the Granthee. Lots of atom bombs and atomic weapons here reflect the thinking at the time these tales were written: remember, this is before the first bomb was produced. Although Europe, Australia, China and India all have major losses, it is most odd to read of the tenacity of the ‘peculiar’ Japanese against the alien invaders, with kamikaze style aircraft, written a few years before Pearl Harbour. Much of the tale though is about what happens after the invasion force is destroyed, admittedly with huge human losses, and the invention of a machine to destroy the impending second invasion force. Lots of stuff here about the importance of Science and how resourceful humans are. Bit more optimistic than some of the tales in this book but still a weak story.
Dead Knowledge is a dark story. Three astronauts explore a deserted world, with objects and bodies left intact and the reasons for their disappearance/death unknown. The story tells us why. Quite atmospheric and grim to start with it all falls apart when ‘intelligent molecules’ are discovered to be reason.
In a slight change of focus, Elimination, the fifth story, is distinctly Earth based. It tells of the invention of a time-travelling machine kept secret for years and the reasons for doing so, as well of the consequences of a machine that can tell people how long they are going to live. It is a little overwrought, yet the idea of time streams and quantum universes is surprisingly well dealt with for a tale written in the 1930’s.
Of all the other tales here, the sixth tale, Twilight, is almost as famous as Who Goes There? First published in 1934, it’s a tale that starts simply as a hitch-hiker tale but one which unusually involves a visitor from the future who tells the driver of humanity’s future and its decline. It is elegiac in mood and yet full of ‘sensawunda’ science. It also goes without saying that it is also absolutely nothing to do with vampires!
Its sequel, Night, is the last story in the book and follows a similar theme. Campbell tells of a test pilot who is transported to a future where Earth is deserted and Mankind has gone. There’s lots of science-y technology mentioned – torus coils, bismuth wires, dynamotors and the like – whilst the machines continued to run the worlds without humans until they too fell into decline, with even the atoms dead. The ultimate point is that eventually all things must pass, and Night tells of humanity’s eventual decline, thus showing the relative unimportance of Man in the vast universe.
In summary, though the book is a little uneven and starts with its best tale, as a book that signposts the changes in SF in the 1930’s, as they were from Astounding to Analog, this is a good read.
For those wanting more Campbell, or rather Don A. Stewart, the NESFA Press book, A New Dawn is recommended. It also includes Who Goes There? and the other tales in this book.
September 3, 2018
Recently I was reading a review of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” by my GR Friend ALLEN, and that gave me the idea of reading the source novels for some of the films I’ve watched down the years. The 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” was the basis for the exciting 1951 sci-fi classic “The Thing from Another World”, as well as the superb 1982 version, “The Thing”, and a 2011 version that I haven’t seen.
The 1982 film follows the novella much more closely than the 1951 version. I’d have to say some of the dialogue in the story sounded a bit forced and unrealistic to me, and it jumped a bit at times. Once or twice I had to re-read a paragraph to make sure I understood what was going on. I suppose that derives from the fact it was originally published as a magazine story – there’s not much time allowed for plot development. It’s really the concept that gives the story its power. The shape-shifting alien is innately sinister and threatening, and the author does convey the sense of paranoia amongst the humans on the base, faced with such a creature.
The edition I read was published in 1948, and the title story was just one of 7 short stories included. I thought most of the others were average. “Dead Knowledge” was the best of them and, apart from the title story, the only one that deserved more than two stars. Most of them seemed to be on an “end of civilisation” theme. I really read this for the title story though. Three stars for that.
The 1982 film follows the novella much more closely than the 1951 version. I’d have to say some of the dialogue in the story sounded a bit forced and unrealistic to me, and it jumped a bit at times. Once or twice I had to re-read a paragraph to make sure I understood what was going on. I suppose that derives from the fact it was originally published as a magazine story – there’s not much time allowed for plot development. It’s really the concept that gives the story its power. The shape-shifting alien is innately sinister and threatening, and the author does convey the sense of paranoia amongst the humans on the base, faced with such a creature.
The edition I read was published in 1948, and the title story was just one of 7 short stories included. I thought most of the others were average. “Dead Knowledge” was the best of them and, apart from the title story, the only one that deserved more than two stars. Most of them seemed to be on an “end of civilisation” theme. I really read this for the title story though. Three stars for that.
December 9, 2018
Apart from his work as editor of Astounding/Analog magazines, John W. Campbell, Jr. deserves a place in the pantheon of the great classics of science fiction for his interesting stories. In this collection (from 1948) are some of his good short stories; excellent ones, considering the time they have been written.
There are the stories. The book has a brief prologue by the author:
Who Goes There? (1938): This is really a great story! And John Carperter's 1982 movie was a great adaptation too (I love the classic from 1951 too).
Blindness (1935): a scientific becomes an all humanity hero, but not in the way he was expecting.
Frictional Loses (1936) A post invasion Earth. We win, but will we endure a second wave?
Dead Knowledge (1938): An enigma, an entire planet defeated by the most unexpected enemy.
Elimination (1936) If we can see our own future, is this a blessing or a curse?
Twilight (1934): The death of humanity; that is, the loss of what makes us human.
Night (1938): The dead of the universe (what we know today as total entropy), only a few machines remain.
I this review I included the year of each story (the book does not). My source is here: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14
Please, you can also see this review on the blog: http://girotix.blogspot.com/2018/12/w...
There are the stories. The book has a brief prologue by the author:
Who Goes There? (1938): This is really a great story! And John Carperter's 1982 movie was a great adaptation too (I love the classic from 1951 too).
Blindness (1935): a scientific becomes an all humanity hero, but not in the way he was expecting.
Frictional Loses (1936) A post invasion Earth. We win, but will we endure a second wave?
Dead Knowledge (1938): An enigma, an entire planet defeated by the most unexpected enemy.
Elimination (1936) If we can see our own future, is this a blessing or a curse?
Twilight (1934): The death of humanity; that is, the loss of what makes us human.
Night (1938): The dead of the universe (what we know today as total entropy), only a few machines remain.
I this review I included the year of each story (the book does not). My source is here: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14
Please, you can also see this review on the blog: http://girotix.blogspot.com/2018/12/w...
October 1, 2019
I really enjoyed this but I felt like things missing like it should have been longer , missing plot points so I went online and did some searching - ive just finished reading who goes there and just found out online that an original manuscript buy the author was found and re published containing 40 or so pages cut from who goes there with and original opening to the story its available as ebook /kindle and its called Frozen Hell ( obviously the same author) just purchased it for £5 , it is available as book on ebay but didn't feel like spending £200/£300 on it , I must say after reading who goes there it felt like things were missing , that's a post I put on one of my reading groups . im sure il give frozen hell more stars
March 24, 2021
The stories in this collection are pretty solid, from the sci-fi horror of the title story and the currently topical horror of Dead Knowledge, through the maguffin-based gadget stories, to the far-future tales about the Heat Death of the universe. The tone runs from an optimistically plucky "Good Ole American Grit Will Overcome", to a decidedly pessimistic "What's the Point?", even if that end is untold billions of years in the future.
I like to do a bit of reading about authors, and looked up Campbell on Wikipedia, where I was disappointed to be reminded that he was the editor of the sci-fi magazine who rejected a Samuel R. Delany story with a Black protagonist because he considered that his readers wouldn't accept a Black character. From which, I suddenly understand that all the characters I've just read about are, without any statement as such, White. There is just one outright racist view expressed in the book, not out of keeping for the time and audience for which it was written, but jarring and shocking to see on the page now.
Reading of other writers' (including Isaac Asimov) condemnation of Campbell's racist and right-wing views reminded me of a note by Philip K. Dick for his story The Golden Man in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 3: The Father-Thing, in which he spoke of an editor who insisted that stories submitted on the subject of mutants would only be accepted if they were presented as superior to the common run of people, and ready to shepherd the "inferior" races into a utopian paradise. Sure enough, this editor turns out to be Campbell, by whom PKD refused to be constrained and sold his stories elsewhere, feeling unable to work with Campbell's supremacist views, which PKD explicitly compares to Nazi ideology and genocide.
Does it matter after all the years which have passed, and with Campbell's own passing? I think so. I'm put in mind of the Star Trek DS9 episodes in which Captain Sisko believes himself to be a 1950s sci-fi writer whose latest story, "Deep Space 9", is rejected by his editor because the captain of the space station is Black. Those episodes, surely inspired by Campbell and Delany, graphically illustrate the evil of systemic racism, of which Campbell was, as an influential editor, a significant part, and which system of oppression we clearly see continues today.
This understanding of Campbell's character and beliefs casts a different light on his stories of alien invaders determined to wipe out humanity (by which we now know he means Whites), of shapeshifting infiltrators able to pass as human instead of the sub-human beings they 'really' are, so that they can overrun us, and that "just one" instance of undisguised racism can be recognised as the tip of a most unpleasant iceberg.
Otherwise, pretty solid sci-fi.
I like to do a bit of reading about authors, and looked up Campbell on Wikipedia, where I was disappointed to be reminded that he was the editor of the sci-fi magazine who rejected a Samuel R. Delany story with a Black protagonist because he considered that his readers wouldn't accept a Black character. From which, I suddenly understand that all the characters I've just read about are, without any statement as such, White. There is just one outright racist view expressed in the book, not out of keeping for the time and audience for which it was written, but jarring and shocking to see on the page now.
Reading of other writers' (including Isaac Asimov) condemnation of Campbell's racist and right-wing views reminded me of a note by Philip K. Dick for his story The Golden Man in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 3: The Father-Thing, in which he spoke of an editor who insisted that stories submitted on the subject of mutants would only be accepted if they were presented as superior to the common run of people, and ready to shepherd the "inferior" races into a utopian paradise. Sure enough, this editor turns out to be Campbell, by whom PKD refused to be constrained and sold his stories elsewhere, feeling unable to work with Campbell's supremacist views, which PKD explicitly compares to Nazi ideology and genocide.
Does it matter after all the years which have passed, and with Campbell's own passing? I think so. I'm put in mind of the Star Trek DS9 episodes in which Captain Sisko believes himself to be a 1950s sci-fi writer whose latest story, "Deep Space 9", is rejected by his editor because the captain of the space station is Black. Those episodes, surely inspired by Campbell and Delany, graphically illustrate the evil of systemic racism, of which Campbell was, as an influential editor, a significant part, and which system of oppression we clearly see continues today.
This understanding of Campbell's character and beliefs casts a different light on his stories of alien invaders determined to wipe out humanity (by which we now know he means Whites), of shapeshifting infiltrators able to pass as human instead of the sub-human beings they 'really' are, so that they can overrun us, and that "just one" instance of undisguised racism can be recognised as the tip of a most unpleasant iceberg.
Otherwise, pretty solid sci-fi.
September 15, 2016
Una raccolta che attira per il titolo: chi non conosce il racconto "La Cosa da un altro mondo" avrà perlomeno visto o sentito parlare della famosa trasposizione cinematografica di John Carpenter "La Cosa" ("The Thing"). "Who goes there?" (il titolo originale), è uno splendido esempio di fantascienza di prima classe che incontra il genere horror. Ma è nella lettura degli altri racconti che emerge la cifra stilistica di Campbell: una fantascienza più scientifica che favolistica, una continua speculazione sui possibili scenari del futuro, anche i più impensabili, sempre ancorati al rigore della scienza e alle leggi della fisica, anche quando queste ultime vengono meno. Per tali motivi alcuni passaggi possono risultare ostici, troppo tecnici, ma la bravura di Campbell sta proprio nel riuscire a portare con sé anche il lettore meno esperto, verso panorami lontani nel tempo e nello spazio, alla ricerca dell'uomo del futuro. È questo in fondo il fine della fantascienza, cercare di immaginare tutti gli scenari possibili che l'umanità dovrà affrontare, e come essa si rapporterà al suo stesso progresso. I racconti "Crepuscolo" e "Notte" sembrano legati dalla stessa visione lontana nel tempo del destino della razza umana, e sono profondamente pessimisti. Nei racconti successivi, "Cecità", "OTP", "Perdita d'attrito", protagonisti sono il progresso scientifico e le sue implicazioni, ma vi emerge un tema interessante: l'importanza di un singolo, isolato colpo di genio, un "miracolo" scientifico con la forza propulsiva equivalente a secoli di ricerca, che fa compiere all'umanità un enorme balzo in avanti o ne salva in extremis le vestigia ormai condannate all'oblio. In tutto ciò si respira una maggiore "fiducia"nelle possibilità della razza umana. Concludono la raccolta i racconti "Il pianeta del silenzio" e il già citato "La Cosa". In questi troviamo la stessa impostazione di fondo: un gruppo di scienziati isolati dal resto dell'umanità che incontrano una pericolosa forma di vita senziente e lottano con ogni mezzo fornitogli dalla propria conoscenza per sconfiggerla ma soprattutto per non essere sconfitti, perché ciò che rischiano non è la morte ma la "cancellazione" del loro essere "Umani", la "sostituzione" con qualcosa che imita l'uomo, ne scimmiotta l'aspetto ma ne annienta l'essenza. E questo è quanto la fantascienza, con le sue "visioni del futuro" cerca di scongiurare, stimolando l'immaginario dei lettori e attraverso esso le sue doti dormienti, perché il futuro ci trovi preparati.
March 16, 2019
“May be that things from other worlds don’t have to be evil just because they’re different. But that thing was! Child of nature, eh? Well, it was a hell of an evil nature.”
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell is a novella about a group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antartica at the end of winter, discover an alien spaceship buried in the ice which crashed millions of years ago. In this discovery they thaw the spaceship which destroys it however they manage to thaw the alien pilot who can assume the shape, memories and personality of any living thing by devouring it. The group decide to kill the Thing in order to maintain it from the threat against humanity.
This incredible novella has been turned into a movie three times with one by my favourite director John Carpenter. His interpretation has been very well received over the years making it an iconic movie. The novellas itself was a fun and interesting read. It took me until now to finally get a hold of this book and I’m so glad I did. It gives a deeper background story and I enjoy the way in which it was written, it feels very old school and so the claustrophobic atmosphere and the constant dread felt quite unsettling. I have heard that it feels outdated for some readers however I enjoyed the nostalgia of it.
In this edition there is an introduction by the author as well as a collection of other sci-fi stories which were equally great to read. These include:
Blindness
Friction Losses
Dead Knowledge
Elimination
Twilight
Night
I also enjoyed reading these and felt some were quite visceral compared to others and they all had similar themes of fear, claustrophobia and science fiction.
This is a great collection which I recommend to everyone, especially those who are fans of the movie. Naturally I now have to go watch it for the millionth time.
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell is a novella about a group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antartica at the end of winter, discover an alien spaceship buried in the ice which crashed millions of years ago. In this discovery they thaw the spaceship which destroys it however they manage to thaw the alien pilot who can assume the shape, memories and personality of any living thing by devouring it. The group decide to kill the Thing in order to maintain it from the threat against humanity.
This incredible novella has been turned into a movie three times with one by my favourite director John Carpenter. His interpretation has been very well received over the years making it an iconic movie. The novellas itself was a fun and interesting read. It took me until now to finally get a hold of this book and I’m so glad I did. It gives a deeper background story and I enjoy the way in which it was written, it feels very old school and so the claustrophobic atmosphere and the constant dread felt quite unsettling. I have heard that it feels outdated for some readers however I enjoyed the nostalgia of it.
In this edition there is an introduction by the author as well as a collection of other sci-fi stories which were equally great to read. These include:
Blindness
Friction Losses
Dead Knowledge
Elimination
Twilight
Night
I also enjoyed reading these and felt some were quite visceral compared to others and they all had similar themes of fear, claustrophobia and science fiction.
This is a great collection which I recommend to everyone, especially those who are fans of the movie. Naturally I now have to go watch it for the millionth time.
August 5, 2017
I've only read the title story online (the book is surprisingly hard to find.) I had heard the ultra-squeamish and still nightmare-inducing John Carpenter flick The Thing was more faithful to this, its source material, than the 1950's film version. I haven't seen The Thing From Another World so I can't say. And by the way, am I or am I not reviewing a book here?
I enjoyed the arguments over the science of the Thing and the story was enjoyably creepy. There were too many characters to really keep track of (other than the obvious Blair and MacReady, also known as Snake Pliskin's brother from another mother) and some of the writing teetered on the pulpy precipice-you'll know exactly what I mean when you read it. It seems clear it's a parable of 50's style paranoia. Also, the novella explains exactly how the Thing is able to make such realistic copies of people. It reads minds and causes bad dreams just like that canister of green Satan goop in another John Carpenter flick, Prince of Darkness. I wonder if Carpenter discarded that idea for The Thing, regretted it and plugged it into Prince a few years later.
I enjoyed the arguments over the science of the Thing and the story was enjoyably creepy. There were too many characters to really keep track of (other than the obvious Blair and MacReady, also known as Snake Pliskin's brother from another mother) and some of the writing teetered on the pulpy precipice-you'll know exactly what I mean when you read it. It seems clear it's a parable of 50's style paranoia. Also, the novella explains exactly how the Thing is able to make such realistic copies of people. It reads minds and causes bad dreams just like that canister of green Satan goop in another John Carpenter flick, Prince of Darkness. I wonder if Carpenter discarded that idea for The Thing, regretted it and plugged it into Prince a few years later.
November 7, 2021
I read this because of Scott Bryants‘ glowing review. I liked this a lot, I think the ‘82 movie is more tense but this was more thrilling than the 1951 or 2011 movies.
July 25, 2024
Aliens, time travelers, and dead cities!
A few rather bleak but very interesting takes on the future of Earth and the Galaxy. Really liked the title story and reading the inspiration for The Thing.
A few rather bleak but very interesting takes on the future of Earth and the Galaxy. Really liked the title story and reading the inspiration for The Thing.
January 21, 2008
John W. Campbell, Who Goes There? (Astounding, 1938)
A story which inspired a generation, and twice changed the face of filmmaking, reprinted in its original form after far too long a time. Who Goes There?" was, of course, the basis for the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, remade more true to form by John Carpenter as simply The Thing in 1982. Both were, arguably, the best work of each director involved, as Campbell's story is arguably his finest moment.
Those who saw the first film and not the second are likely not to recognize much of anything about the story at all. An observation post in Antarctica finds the remnants of a spacecraft, and in attempting to get it out of the ice destroy it accidentally. They also find something with the spaceship, but separate from it: an alien lifeform. They get this out of the ice, bring it, back, and thaw it out for the biologist to study. Bad idea, because as it turns out, the thing is capable of assimilating the forms of creatures it eats. Including humans.
To be brutally honest, Carpenter's revision and expansion of the story jacks the paranoia level up far higher than the original material, and the somewhat predictable ending is a bit too gung-ho. Also, in Campbell's attempts to keep most of that whole eating bit offscreen, he goes over the brink of subtlety into confusion in more than one place, though the problems are relatively quickly rectified. The story itself is well worth reading simply for its archival value as the progenitor of two excellent films, but it will grab ahold and keep you interested even if you already know what's going to happen. *** ½
A story which inspired a generation, and twice changed the face of filmmaking, reprinted in its original form after far too long a time. Who Goes There?" was, of course, the basis for the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, remade more true to form by John Carpenter as simply The Thing in 1982. Both were, arguably, the best work of each director involved, as Campbell's story is arguably his finest moment.
Those who saw the first film and not the second are likely not to recognize much of anything about the story at all. An observation post in Antarctica finds the remnants of a spacecraft, and in attempting to get it out of the ice destroy it accidentally. They also find something with the spaceship, but separate from it: an alien lifeform. They get this out of the ice, bring it, back, and thaw it out for the biologist to study. Bad idea, because as it turns out, the thing is capable of assimilating the forms of creatures it eats. Including humans.
To be brutally honest, Carpenter's revision and expansion of the story jacks the paranoia level up far higher than the original material, and the somewhat predictable ending is a bit too gung-ho. Also, in Campbell's attempts to keep most of that whole eating bit offscreen, he goes over the brink of subtlety into confusion in more than one place, though the problems are relatively quickly rectified. The story itself is well worth reading simply for its archival value as the progenitor of two excellent films, but it will grab ahold and keep you interested even if you already know what's going to happen. *** ½
December 6, 2009
What a good story.I am suprised that I haven't read this before.
This story has all you could want in a horror story.Long,drawn-out suspence,terror and a monster.
It is also surprising that the original movie The Thing used so little of the book.The re-make in the 1990' was much better and more gruesome.
This story I couldn't put down to the end because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen to all of the people and the monster.I think that this novella is really one of the best ever written for horror or sci-fi.I can't imagine anyone one not being scared at least sometime in the story.
This story is also best enjoyed when sitting against a wall so that nothing can sneek up behind you.Creepy!
This story has all you could want in a horror story.Long,drawn-out suspence,terror and a monster.
It is also surprising that the original movie The Thing used so little of the book.The re-make in the 1990' was much better and more gruesome.
This story I couldn't put down to the end because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen to all of the people and the monster.I think that this novella is really one of the best ever written for horror or sci-fi.I can't imagine anyone one not being scared at least sometime in the story.
This story is also best enjoyed when sitting against a wall so that nothing can sneek up behind you.Creepy!
October 25, 2025
I will begin this review with a slight apology – I am actually reviewing only the title story, not the entire volume. I took it out from the library mainly so that I could finally read that story all the way through, not in snatches in the distracting environment of the Internet. I did give the next couple of stories a try, and found them not particularly to my taste, and now the book is due back, so I’ll just review the “important” part, and maybe return to it sometime in the future to give the full review.
So as a horror movie fan, I know about this story because of its cinematic interpretations, primarily the 1951 production by Howard Hawks (and credited, somewhat dubiously, as directed by his friend Christian Nyby) and the 1982 interpretation by John Carpenter. I have referred to the Carpenter version as the “most successfully Lovecraftian” movie of all time – even though it wasn’t based on Lovecraft. Well, there’s something interesting going on here that isn’t obvious at first, that relates the story more than I thought to HPL after all. This story was first published in “Astounding” just two years after the remarkably similar novella, “At the Mountains of Madness” was printed there as well. Even if Campbell hadn’t read it, which I can’t say for sure, the editors had to have noticed the following similarities in the tales:
Both are set in Antarctica
Both are about scientific expeditions, with all characters being men of learning.
Both involve the discovery of aliens who came to this planet in the prehistoric past.
Both have an “ultimate horror” which is formless and able to shape its body in imitation of life forms it encounters or observes.
It’s very easy for me to imagine Campbell’s story as being a kind of comment or critique on Lovecraft’s, maybe a sort of “look, this is how this should be done” kind of response. From reading just a bit of Campbell, I can well imagine him being bored by Lovecraft’s lengthy, adjective-riddled exposition and his largely action-free writing (which is actually what I prefer) and feeling that the basic idea was too good to just let go of. Or maybe it really is just coincidence – that Antarctica and shapeless aliens were just in the air at the time.
At any rate, what the story does emphasize first and foremost is paranoia and witch-hunting. It’s about each character looking up at the others and asking “my God, why are you looking at me like that?” This would seem to make it a good fit for the 1950s, which we remember today for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and other alien replacement films like “It Came from Outer Space” and “Invaders from Mars.” But all of those came after the Hawks “The Thing” (“From another World,” as the modern revisionists would append), which is mostly about a humanoid vegetable being that kills the men one at a time. Some similarities to the story include the fact that it attacks the stockpile of blood (in this version for vampiric reasons) and that the men do divide into warring camps, because the scientists are here pitted against the military men – with the military portrayed as the heroes, surprisingly for science fiction but less so for Howard Hawks.
It was thus for Carpenter to resurrect the true essence of “Who Goes There,” using advanced practical effects to give us a Shoggoth-like entity that steals peoples’ bodies and minds, changing shape to defend and attack. His ending is more nihilistic than Campbell’s – although Campbell’s evidently successful men end with a bit of a pause of uncertainty in their final victory. In merging Campbell with Lovecraft, Carpenter may have rediscovered a missing piece of the literary story – or else he just managed to luck into something that worked for the screen.
So as a horror movie fan, I know about this story because of its cinematic interpretations, primarily the 1951 production by Howard Hawks (and credited, somewhat dubiously, as directed by his friend Christian Nyby) and the 1982 interpretation by John Carpenter. I have referred to the Carpenter version as the “most successfully Lovecraftian” movie of all time – even though it wasn’t based on Lovecraft. Well, there’s something interesting going on here that isn’t obvious at first, that relates the story more than I thought to HPL after all. This story was first published in “Astounding” just two years after the remarkably similar novella, “At the Mountains of Madness” was printed there as well. Even if Campbell hadn’t read it, which I can’t say for sure, the editors had to have noticed the following similarities in the tales:
Both are set in Antarctica
Both are about scientific expeditions, with all characters being men of learning.
Both involve the discovery of aliens who came to this planet in the prehistoric past.
Both have an “ultimate horror” which is formless and able to shape its body in imitation of life forms it encounters or observes.
It’s very easy for me to imagine Campbell’s story as being a kind of comment or critique on Lovecraft’s, maybe a sort of “look, this is how this should be done” kind of response. From reading just a bit of Campbell, I can well imagine him being bored by Lovecraft’s lengthy, adjective-riddled exposition and his largely action-free writing (which is actually what I prefer) and feeling that the basic idea was too good to just let go of. Or maybe it really is just coincidence – that Antarctica and shapeless aliens were just in the air at the time.
At any rate, what the story does emphasize first and foremost is paranoia and witch-hunting. It’s about each character looking up at the others and asking “my God, why are you looking at me like that?” This would seem to make it a good fit for the 1950s, which we remember today for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and other alien replacement films like “It Came from Outer Space” and “Invaders from Mars.” But all of those came after the Hawks “The Thing” (“From another World,” as the modern revisionists would append), which is mostly about a humanoid vegetable being that kills the men one at a time. Some similarities to the story include the fact that it attacks the stockpile of blood (in this version for vampiric reasons) and that the men do divide into warring camps, because the scientists are here pitted against the military men – with the military portrayed as the heroes, surprisingly for science fiction but less so for Howard Hawks.
It was thus for Carpenter to resurrect the true essence of “Who Goes There,” using advanced practical effects to give us a Shoggoth-like entity that steals peoples’ bodies and minds, changing shape to defend and attack. His ending is more nihilistic than Campbell’s – although Campbell’s evidently successful men end with a bit of a pause of uncertainty in their final victory. In merging Campbell with Lovecraft, Carpenter may have rediscovered a missing piece of the literary story – or else he just managed to luck into something that worked for the screen.
May 26, 2022
Stupisce pensare che questi racconti siano stati pubblicati negli anni 30/40, c'è già tanto do quello che poi costituirà la base della SF classica, le macchine che sopravvivono all'uomo, gli alieni invasori a cui l'uomo oppone l'astuzia, la fantasia, forme di vita talmente diversa dalla nostra che nemmeno possiamo concepirle. Chissà se già allora Campbell risentiva dei venti di guerra, alla fine di questo libro rimane un'angoscia, una malinconia per una specie che sembra non essere in grado di sopravvivere e di trovare uno scopo.
September 11, 2020
Utterly boring. Try as I might, I could not get into any of these stories. The only positive that I took away was the authors want for alternate safe fuels for the future. Other than that tiny glimmer of interest, it was bush league childish rambling writing at best. Avoid, unless you like crap.
November 14, 2018
I'll be curious to see what comes of the recently rediscovered manuscript of the supposedly novel-length version of Who Goes There?, entitled Frozen Hell. For now, we have the novella version known to generations of sci-fi fans, of course best remembered for John Carpenter's 1982 adaptation as 'The Thing'.
In this case I read it within the context of John W. Campbell's 1948 collection alongside five other stories all first published between 1934 and 1938. All will be of interest to those with an appetite for pulp or 'golden era' sci-fi.
'Twilight' in particular is perhaps his most acclaimed story, and - along with its sequel 'Night' - raises pertinent questions about self-sustaining machinery, AI and post-humanism on which many authors would build. That he did so at a time of such relatively primitive technology is all the more impressive.
'Blindness' is a delightfully quaint pre-space age adventure imagining an ambitious voyage to the Sun itself in order to pursue a dream of unlimited clean energy for Earth. In some ways it presages later works such as Samuel Delany's 'Nova' and Danny Boyle's film 'Sunshine', as well as contemplating the massive changes that would occur on Earth were a revolutionary new power source to be found.
'Frictional Losses' is an early example of Atomic age post-apocalyptic and alien invasion fiction, so mainly fascinating as a cultural artifact. 'Dead Knowledge' is an effective combination of claustrophobic space horror and a Mary Celeste-style mystery on a planetary scale. One could name a dozen films that make use of similar concepts.
'Elimination' is a surprisingly sophisticated and complex cautionary tale of an invention that can predict a range of possible futures, and the inevitably tragic and mind-meltingly paradoxical consequences of scientists messing with it. Even the best modern timeloop movies are more an incremental advance on this story rather than a revolutionary improvement.
The title story holds up well in my estimation, providing a winning combination of action, mounting dread, and an imaginative conception of alien life. Carpenter's version is actually quite close to it, considering the necessary differences of medium and an intervening four and a bit decades.
Campbell's 1948 introduction is brief but efficiently insightful. Collectively these stories give an impression of a mind well ahead of its time, and one laying foundation stones for much of the science fiction (and some of the horror) to come.
In this case I read it within the context of John W. Campbell's 1948 collection alongside five other stories all first published between 1934 and 1938. All will be of interest to those with an appetite for pulp or 'golden era' sci-fi.
'Twilight' in particular is perhaps his most acclaimed story, and - along with its sequel 'Night' - raises pertinent questions about self-sustaining machinery, AI and post-humanism on which many authors would build. That he did so at a time of such relatively primitive technology is all the more impressive.
'Blindness' is a delightfully quaint pre-space age adventure imagining an ambitious voyage to the Sun itself in order to pursue a dream of unlimited clean energy for Earth. In some ways it presages later works such as Samuel Delany's 'Nova' and Danny Boyle's film 'Sunshine', as well as contemplating the massive changes that would occur on Earth were a revolutionary new power source to be found.
'Frictional Losses' is an early example of Atomic age post-apocalyptic and alien invasion fiction, so mainly fascinating as a cultural artifact. 'Dead Knowledge' is an effective combination of claustrophobic space horror and a Mary Celeste-style mystery on a planetary scale. One could name a dozen films that make use of similar concepts.
'Elimination' is a surprisingly sophisticated and complex cautionary tale of an invention that can predict a range of possible futures, and the inevitably tragic and mind-meltingly paradoxical consequences of scientists messing with it. Even the best modern timeloop movies are more an incremental advance on this story rather than a revolutionary improvement.
The title story holds up well in my estimation, providing a winning combination of action, mounting dread, and an imaginative conception of alien life. Carpenter's version is actually quite close to it, considering the necessary differences of medium and an intervening four and a bit decades.
Campbell's 1948 introduction is brief but efficiently insightful. Collectively these stories give an impression of a mind well ahead of its time, and one laying foundation stones for much of the science fiction (and some of the horror) to come.
July 1, 2024
This is the second time I've tried to read this collection, ugh, with similar results. Bummer. If each story had been a scientific or SF essay, with John W. Campbell Jr explaining his phenomenal concepts step-by-step, I probably would have been enthralled. However, his fantastic concepts don't work for me in these stories because his plotting and characterisation are just woeful.
THE THING (1982) is one of my favourite horror films - as is THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1952) - but this source material is lacking in everything beyond its core concept. (How many times was McReady described as a bronze giant?)
Throughout this collection, I longed for characterisation and genuine human emotion, but didn't get any. Even the dialogue is stilted. So annoying, because I wanted to love these stories!
THE THING (1982) is one of my favourite horror films - as is THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1952) - but this source material is lacking in everything beyond its core concept. (How many times was McReady described as a bronze giant?)
Throughout this collection, I longed for characterisation and genuine human emotion, but didn't get any. Even the dialogue is stilted. So annoying, because I wanted to love these stories!
January 5, 2009
The edition I read is from Buccaneer Books, and is a reprint of the 1948 book of the same name. It contains seven short fiction pieces originally published in "Astounding Science Fiction" between November of 1934, and August of 1938. They were originally published under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. This collection was tied for 13th with four other books on the Arkham Survey in 1949 as one of the 'Basic SF Titles'. In addition, on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time - Book' polls in 1952 and 1956 it was rated 5th and tied for 13th respectively.
John W. Campbell (1910-1971) was undoubtedly best known as the editor of "Astounding Science Fiction" from 1937-1971, but he also wrote quite a few books and short fiction pieces along the way. This collection includes perhaps his best known stories: "Who Goes There?", "Twilight", and "Night".
"Who Goes There?" is the classic story of a group of scientists in Antarctica who discover an alien who was frozen there millions of years ago. The "Thing" revives when thawed, and due to telepathy and the ability to take other shapes it replaces members of the group as well as their animals without being easily detected by the remaining humans. Fear and paranoia spread through the outpost as the remaining humans try to wipe out the aliens before they are able to escape out into the rest of the world. There were two films based on this story: "The Thing From Another World" (1951), and "The Thing" (1982). The story was first published in "Astounding" in August of 1938, and is probably Campbell's best known work. The story was tied for 6th on the 'Locus All-Time Poll - Novella' in 1999. It tied for 1st (with Twilight) on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971, and was 26th overall for Short Fiction regardless of year. This story works as well today as ever.
"Blindness" was first published in March of 1935. It is the story of a scientist who wants to leave a legacy by solving man's energy problems by discovering how to produce atomic energy. He determines that to solve the problems he has encountered in his research, he needs to examine the Sun more closely. He works through the problems of getting a spaceship close enough to the sun for his research, and he and his assistant spend over 3 years in isolation studying the Sun before he finally finds a solution. This story does suffer from its age, but putting aside the historical and scientific problems, the story still delivers its message. There is more than one kind of blindness.
"Frictional Losses" was published in July of 1936. It is the story set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where an old man tries to keep civilization and technology alive. Humans were nearly wiped out by an alien invasion, and there is rumored to be a second expedition of aliens coming. Old Hugh, spends his time searching through ruined cities for old tubes, pieces of metal, whatever he can find to keep his radio transmitter working and keep communications alive between the few outposts of humanity that still have the technology. He accidentally makes a discovery that could save the human race. This story is a bit dated as well, but not too bad.
"Dead Knowledge" was published in January of 1938. Three human explorers to another world find that all the inhabitants have killed themselves. They are unable to determine the reason why, as they cannot decipher the alien culture's written language. When one member of the crew commits suicide, the other two fear that he learned the secret of what drove the inhabitants of the planet to suicide, and that they too are all doomed to the same fate.
"Elimination" was published in June of 1936. A patent attorney tries to explain to a close friend's son why a fantastic invention would be better forgotten. He relates the story of the greatest invention in the history of man, which ultimately destroyed its inventors and could never be used. The premise for this story is definitely contrived, and it doesn't work well. However, the story related within the story is quite well done, and that makes this an enjoyable read.
"Twilight" was the first piece in this collection to appear in "Astounding", published in November of 1934. It finished tied for 1st (with "Who Goes There?") on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971, and 21st overall for Short Fiction of any era. It is a story related third hand, about an experimenter who is sent forward 7 million years in time after an accident. He has returned to "modern day" (1934) in an attempt to get back to his own era. He relates to a man who gives him a ride the tail of his adventure where he witnessed the twilight of humanity.
"Night" is the sequel to "Twilight", and was published in "Astounding" in October of 1935. It was rated 5th on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971. In this sequel, an experimenter in current times (1935), gets sent far forward to the future, he relates his adventure when he returns. The future he witnesses is the "night" to the previous story's "twilight", after man has disappeared, and only machines remain at the death of the universe.
John W. Campbell (1910-1971) was undoubtedly best known as the editor of "Astounding Science Fiction" from 1937-1971, but he also wrote quite a few books and short fiction pieces along the way. This collection includes perhaps his best known stories: "Who Goes There?", "Twilight", and "Night".
"Who Goes There?" is the classic story of a group of scientists in Antarctica who discover an alien who was frozen there millions of years ago. The "Thing" revives when thawed, and due to telepathy and the ability to take other shapes it replaces members of the group as well as their animals without being easily detected by the remaining humans. Fear and paranoia spread through the outpost as the remaining humans try to wipe out the aliens before they are able to escape out into the rest of the world. There were two films based on this story: "The Thing From Another World" (1951), and "The Thing" (1982). The story was first published in "Astounding" in August of 1938, and is probably Campbell's best known work. The story was tied for 6th on the 'Locus All-Time Poll - Novella' in 1999. It tied for 1st (with Twilight) on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971, and was 26th overall for Short Fiction regardless of year. This story works as well today as ever.
"Blindness" was first published in March of 1935. It is the story of a scientist who wants to leave a legacy by solving man's energy problems by discovering how to produce atomic energy. He determines that to solve the problems he has encountered in his research, he needs to examine the Sun more closely. He works through the problems of getting a spaceship close enough to the sun for his research, and he and his assistant spend over 3 years in isolation studying the Sun before he finally finds a solution. This story does suffer from its age, but putting aside the historical and scientific problems, the story still delivers its message. There is more than one kind of blindness.
"Frictional Losses" was published in July of 1936. It is the story set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where an old man tries to keep civilization and technology alive. Humans were nearly wiped out by an alien invasion, and there is rumored to be a second expedition of aliens coming. Old Hugh, spends his time searching through ruined cities for old tubes, pieces of metal, whatever he can find to keep his radio transmitter working and keep communications alive between the few outposts of humanity that still have the technology. He accidentally makes a discovery that could save the human race. This story is a bit dated as well, but not too bad.
"Dead Knowledge" was published in January of 1938. Three human explorers to another world find that all the inhabitants have killed themselves. They are unable to determine the reason why, as they cannot decipher the alien culture's written language. When one member of the crew commits suicide, the other two fear that he learned the secret of what drove the inhabitants of the planet to suicide, and that they too are all doomed to the same fate.
"Elimination" was published in June of 1936. A patent attorney tries to explain to a close friend's son why a fantastic invention would be better forgotten. He relates the story of the greatest invention in the history of man, which ultimately destroyed its inventors and could never be used. The premise for this story is definitely contrived, and it doesn't work well. However, the story related within the story is quite well done, and that makes this an enjoyable read.
"Twilight" was the first piece in this collection to appear in "Astounding", published in November of 1934. It finished tied for 1st (with "Who Goes There?") on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971, and 21st overall for Short Fiction of any era. It is a story related third hand, about an experimenter who is sent forward 7 million years in time after an accident. He has returned to "modern day" (1934) in an attempt to get back to his own era. He relates to a man who gives him a ride the tail of his adventure where he witnessed the twilight of humanity.
"Night" is the sequel to "Twilight", and was published in "Astounding" in October of 1935. It was rated 5th on the 'Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll - Pre-1940 Short Fiction' in 1971. In this sequel, an experimenter in current times (1935), gets sent far forward to the future, he relates his adventure when he returns. The future he witnesses is the "night" to the previous story's "twilight", after man has disappeared, and only machines remain at the death of the universe.
April 4, 2023
I definitely enjoyed “Who Goes There?”, but the other short stories within the book were quite boring, and had pretty terrible endings.
March 31, 2024
Fantastic tale!
I listened to the audiobook edition published in 2020 by Author's Republic Edward E. French's narration was excellent.
I listened to the audiobook edition published in 2020 by Author's Republic Edward E. French's narration was excellent.
February 6, 2024
Wanted to read the book that inspired The Thing. I actually enjoyed the movies better, but still a good novella. I actually loved the other stories that dealt with the end of time and/or the distant future. Very fascinating and vivid word pictures.
June 28, 2022
Who Goes There? is one of those cases, when writer was unable to properly execute his idea. First thing first - you do need to read this novella. Just because it's way too important to the pop culture. Who Goes There? was the story that popularized the "enemy within" concept. All those stories where characters can't trust each other since one of them can be an alien in disguise... this novella is what inspired them all. One way, or another. And after the movie adaptations began to appear, Who Goes There? quickly got itself a cult status. Movies like Horror Express, TV shows like The X-Files (7th episode from the 1st season is a nice example), all sorts of video games (from Men in Black to Alpha Polaris)... It's all Who Goes There?
Unfortunately, the original novella itself suffers from one certain problem - it's absolutely terribly written. And the fact that the author clearly didn't do enough research beforehand and therefore made a lot of really stupid scientific mistakes isn't even the worst thing here. It's just that - the entire thing is terribly written. Dialogues feel forced and unnatural, the story progression feels way too random and chaotic... It's a really, really poor job. And still, there's that awesome feeling of cold ice and deep suspense to make this novella special..
The other stories in this book are suffer from the similar problems, but far less important to the popular culture. So, all in all I don't feel like I want to give this one more than two stars. And still, you do need to read this. Just because.
Unfortunately, the original novella itself suffers from one certain problem - it's absolutely terribly written. And the fact that the author clearly didn't do enough research beforehand and therefore made a lot of really stupid scientific mistakes isn't even the worst thing here. It's just that - the entire thing is terribly written. Dialogues feel forced and unnatural, the story progression feels way too random and chaotic... It's a really, really poor job. And still, there's that awesome feeling of cold ice and deep suspense to make this novella special..
The other stories in this book are suffer from the similar problems, but far less important to the popular culture. So, all in all I don't feel like I want to give this one more than two stars. And still, you do need to read this. Just because.
December 12, 2013
For someone who considers Carpenter’s The Thing to be one of the best movies ever made, it’s taken me a couple of decades to actually read the book it is based on. However, watching The Thing from Another World last month gave me the push I needed. The book might be the most sciency sci-fi book I've ever read; it’s full of scientific talk, especially about biology, which I enjoy, so no problem there. Nice to have biology and not engineering or astrology for a change.
My favourite bits were the ones I had taken to be Carpenter’s additions: that scene, described in just a few lines, where the kill the thing in mid-transformation as it was turning into a dog is incredible. It happens very soon in the story, too, which comes as a real shock. Its biggest asset is the fact that the alien can mutate into any creature and that people don’t know whether their friends have been infected and mutated into aliens or not. It’s something I missed in the 1951 adaptation, which, as wonderful as it is, feels rather naive in comparison.
Now I want to watch The Thing once again. Still can’t be bothered with the 2011 prequel, though. Has anyone seen it?
My favourite bits were the ones I had taken to be Carpenter’s additions: that scene, described in just a few lines, where the kill the thing in mid-transformation as it was turning into a dog is incredible. It happens very soon in the story, too, which comes as a real shock. Its biggest asset is the fact that the alien can mutate into any creature and that people don’t know whether their friends have been infected and mutated into aliens or not. It’s something I missed in the 1951 adaptation, which, as wonderful as it is, feels rather naive in comparison.
Now I want to watch The Thing once again. Still can’t be bothered with the 2011 prequel, though. Has anyone seen it?
August 13, 2010
I only read the novella "Who Goes There." This is the story that the two movies The Thing were based on. I was impressed with how faithful Carpenter's version was to the story. As a reading experience it can be a bit choppy, as Campbell throws buckets of science at you, no doubt in order ground the story in a believable way. But that works! Where it does falter is in its descriptions of some of the men. Most of them seem to be strapping giants from Robert E. Howard land. For example, McReady (the Kurt Russell character) is a virtual Viking of "bronze." Still, the overwhelming "B-ness" of this is forgivable when you take in the obvious Pulp context. (And the monster is one nasty sucker.) With all of that in mind, the story holds up pretty well, and if you're a fan of sci-fi & horror, you probably should read it. It's a pretty influential story.
December 6, 2012
From a golden age of science fiction which could imagine 1970 as a distant future and life on Mars was quite acceptable as an idea.
Who goes there? (the flm The Thing being based on) was the weakest of the stories for me.
It starts the book and is obviously the reason most will read it.
I nearly gave up at that point and now very glad I did not.
Elimination seemed the most interesting and must have a film in it somewhere.
This is a time when sci-fi writers could not see past vacuum tubes and atomic energy and it is easy to scoff at how dated it all is.
Then he drags you up short by describing a satnav.
This book is not just a sci-fi curiosity but it still has something to teach a modern reader.
Who goes there? (the flm The Thing being based on) was the weakest of the stories for me.
It starts the book and is obviously the reason most will read it.
I nearly gave up at that point and now very glad I did not.
Elimination seemed the most interesting and must have a film in it somewhere.
This is a time when sci-fi writers could not see past vacuum tubes and atomic energy and it is easy to scoff at how dated it all is.
Then he drags you up short by describing a satnav.
This book is not just a sci-fi curiosity but it still has something to teach a modern reader.
August 29, 2013
Too many adverbs and stilted dialogue made what would otherwise have been a very enjoyable collection of short stories into something that felt like a chore to read. Campbell explains things to death. The last story I was ready to give up after the hundreth repetition of "cold and dead". It was exhausting. And the infodumps! Dear lord! I read science fiction partly to be intrigued, mystified, and to explore the unknown. I do not need nor want infodumps - I like to find my bearing and understanding of what is going on at a slow pace, while the story unfolds naturally. Campbell explains everything at once, killing what could be an interesting mystery right off the bat.
His ideas are good, the execution of those ideas is lacking.
His ideas are good, the execution of those ideas is lacking.
March 1, 2022
The Thing est devenu un film tellement culte, qu’il a occulté le livre dont il est tiré … A raison. C’est un livre bien ancré dans son époque, et qui a donc incroyablement mal vieilli. Personnages au mieux inconsistants, au pire inutiles, dialogues franchement forcés, j’ai été plutôt déçue par cette nouvelle. Oui, l’histoire reste géniale dans l’idée -ce n’est pas pour rien qu’elle a été adapté par des un maitres du film d’horreur / à ambiance. L’idée de l’Autre caché dans ce qui nous ressemble, insidieux au possible, est génial, et aurai pu donner un livre poignant, si seulement on avait pu avoir un peu plus sur la psychée et l’état d’esprit des personnages. Dommage, donc.
January 26, 2009
The BBC did an absolutely horrifying radio drama of this so I naturally had to read the work.
Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy it much - perhaps the scare factor had been taken away by the vivid audio presentation and that just left a slightly expanded storyline - not enough to grip me with any force.
Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy it much - perhaps the scare factor had been taken away by the vivid audio presentation and that just left a slightly expanded storyline - not enough to grip me with any force.
December 1, 2008
A little disappointed with this story as I am a huge fan on John Carpenter's The Thing which is based on "Who Goes There?". Not the greatest prose but "Thing" fans may want to seek it out just because.
December 26, 2023
I don’t read much science fiction 🛸, but I think what makes John W. Campbell, Jr.‘s 1948 collection of short stories entitled Who Goes There? ❄️🛸🧫 ☀️🌃🤖 good is that they largely focus on human concerns, despite being quite wordy about scientific 🧪 matters.
Of course, his 1938 story, Who Goes There? is undoubtedly the most famous of them, having been filmed The Thing from Another World (1951) 🧟♂️, The Thing (1982) 👹 and The Thing (2011) 🧊. Naturally, as a written story, we get more explanation and character development than in the film versions, but it’s also easy to see why it stands out amongst the other stories here: it is a truly unsettling idea.
His 1938 short story, Dead Knowledge 🧠 is a genuinely compelling mystery story 🔎 for most of its length, although the resolution seems a bit trite, as if Campbell was running out of space and needed to tie things up quickly.
His 1936 short story, Elimination 📺 also reads as something somewhere between a psychological thriller, a mystery story and a morality tale as two scientists strive to learn too much about things that are better left alone.
The last two stories in this anthology, 1934’s Twilight 🌃 and 1935’s Night 🌌 are a bit too similar to be memorable on their own merits. However, 1935’s Blindness ☀️ reads like a fascinating mini biography, whilst 1936’s Frictional Losses 📻, although involving a lot of technical references, has its amusing moments and ultimately suggests that hope itself should not be given up on.
Overall, if you like sci-fi fiction framed through other genres, such as horror 🧟♂️, mysteries 🔎 and morality tales ⚖️, or if you’re simply curious about where the film adaptations of The Thing 🧊 came from, then you are likely to enjoy this anthology.
Of course, his 1938 story, Who Goes There? is undoubtedly the most famous of them, having been filmed The Thing from Another World (1951) 🧟♂️, The Thing (1982) 👹 and The Thing (2011) 🧊. Naturally, as a written story, we get more explanation and character development than in the film versions, but it’s also easy to see why it stands out amongst the other stories here: it is a truly unsettling idea.
His 1938 short story, Dead Knowledge 🧠 is a genuinely compelling mystery story 🔎 for most of its length, although the resolution seems a bit trite, as if Campbell was running out of space and needed to tie things up quickly.
His 1936 short story, Elimination 📺 also reads as something somewhere between a psychological thriller, a mystery story and a morality tale as two scientists strive to learn too much about things that are better left alone.
The last two stories in this anthology, 1934’s Twilight 🌃 and 1935’s Night 🌌 are a bit too similar to be memorable on their own merits. However, 1935’s Blindness ☀️ reads like a fascinating mini biography, whilst 1936’s Frictional Losses 📻, although involving a lot of technical references, has its amusing moments and ultimately suggests that hope itself should not be given up on.
Overall, if you like sci-fi fiction framed through other genres, such as horror 🧟♂️, mysteries 🔎 and morality tales ⚖️, or if you’re simply curious about where the film adaptations of The Thing 🧊 came from, then you are likely to enjoy this anthology.
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