Review
If you're like me, the name Jerry Sohl conjures up only memory of the scathing review Damon Knight gave to Sohl's Point Ultimate (1955) in In Search of Wonder (1956). If so, that's a shame, because Sohl was a talented writer in many ways, including the scripting of some classic Twilight Zone episodes. Now we all have a chance to remedy our ignorance by reading Filet of Sohl (BearManor Media, trade paper, $16.95, 261 pages, ISBN 0-9714570-3-4). This volume includes ten stories, several appreciations (by William Nolan, Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, and Sohl's children) and two never-before-seen scripts for Twilight Zone that were purchased but never produced. In a story such as 'Death in Transit,' Sohl exhibits some real emotional depth, while 'The Ultimate Error' delivers surreal thrills stemming from the strange, unprovoked attacks on an innocent child. Editor Christopher Conlon deserves a lot of credit for compiling this volume and keeping fresh the memory of one of the many journeyman writers whose work accreted the corpus of SF. --Asimov's Science Fiction
Sohl, for those unaware, wrote, among other things, teleplyas for the television shows The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, so he's a definite big deal. And a fine writer. His opening of "The Seventh Order," a story that was adapted later for radio's X-Minus One (a terrific show, by the way) is something else ("His eyes began glowingâ¦"). Included with the assorted stories are some TV rarities you won't find anywhere else: TWO UNPRODUCED TWILIGHT ZONE SCRIPTS and another unproduced script for Hitchcock. Amazing finds, only to be read here. If Sci-Fic, horror and fantasy are your bag, this collection is a safe bet. Written by a truly classic Writer. --Classic Images
About the Author
JERRY SOHL (1913-2002) was one of the most successful science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writers of his time. A prolific author of novels (Costigans Needle, Point Ultimate) and films (Die, Monster, Die! with Boris Karloff), he is perhaps best-known today for his teleplays for The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. You hold in your hands the first-ever collection of this masters scripts and stories!