Customer Reviews

This Island Earth (Forrest J Ackerman Presents)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Island Earth, the novel, is indeed different from the movie in the second half -- better, in my opinion, although less special-effects-driven. I don't remember the movie explaining the title, either; Jones is comparing Earth to the Pacific islands in World War II where the fighting washed back and forth, and the inhabitants were dragooned into helping build airstrips and such for either side. Here it's a war involving numberless galaxies (where the movie's was just between two planets).

The novel is good, but the book is terrible. Pulpless.com's typesetters put in more typos than Raymond F. Jones could have made in a couple of centuries of writing. And the editors let it all slip by. But I don't believe there was any mass-market paperback, so this is the only game in town.

I was born in 1947 and first read this book when I was in junior high school. I also saw the movie around the same time (say, age 10-13), but it was not as good as the book. Leonard Maltin said of the movie something like "lacks the existential ending of the book." This *really* made me want to reread the book. About 10 years ago, I found a used copy, read it and loved it, then gave it to a friend. So I was thrilled to find this re-issue, produced by Forrest Ackerman, who was the literary agent of Jones and several other science-fiction writers of that era. Jones has a dark view of humanity. As someone who came of age in the '60s, I'm surprised to hear characters in the book (written 1952) express some of the thoughts my friends and I thought were so new during the anti-war movement. Jones is also intrigued by randomness and statistics. This fascination figures in the ending of this book as well as in the theme of his "Non-statistical Man" (also quite worthwhile). As for the existential ending, well, I agree, until we get to the last sentence, which Sartre never could have written. But read it and decide for yourself. Once you do, hook up your interociter and we can trade thoughts.

This is a true Science Fiction classic. I first read it when I was in Middle School, and it made quite an impression on me as a fantastic story with a wild premise, well-told. Picking it up thirty-five years later, the novel has lost none of its punch or impact. This is a true science fiction classic.

The premise of the novel is simple enough: Earth is being visited by warring factions of a monstrously large inter-galactic conflict. Each side views Earth as an obscure planet of limited importance, much as the US Navy might have viewed certain obscure islands in the Pacific during the Second World War. The protagonists become caught up in this conflict in a very interesting way. More would be telling, but suffice to say, this is a really interesting story, and its premise has not been done better (to my knowledge) in any science fiction novels that have come later.

This one is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys good science fiction.

This book is great if anyone saw the movie and wants to read the book you won't be dissapointed. Although it gets diffrent halfway you can still see parts that the movie did put in. If you are a fan of the movie you can tell that in the book they realy picked out the right actors for the movie. It is an interesting way how Russel Johnsons' character (the professer) blew up in the book than he did in the movie. The interociters also can pick up brain waves. There are typos however that make it anoying. But just the fact that Raymond F. Jones' fun story is available you can surpass that. Prepare to find out what is going on out there over are heads above THIS ISLAND EARTH!

I never knew that there was a book until I bought the movie from Amazon last month; however; I did see the movie when it first came out. My parents took me to see it at a Drive In waay back "in the day". I have remembered that movie for years and watched it on TV when I could. I even ordered one on EBay alas it was a fast copy, rip-off - the guy got shut down pretty quickly.

But, I would like to find the serial version that appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories. It seems to me that this is the very first Star Trek Book. If the Great One read this book (and I can not believe that he did not), you can even see where the idea for one episode came from. I am not saying what, because I don't want to spoil it for new buyers/readers.

I would like to see the move remade and this time follow the book.

Finally, I do have to agree with regard to the typos. Does PulPless have proof readers? If so, they need to be replaced. This was without a doubt the worst job of proofing or typesetting that I have ever seen. This is why the low stars.

You want it short and sweet? Fine. If you're a fan of 50s era sci-fi, this is not a novel to be missed.

You want the longer version?

Here goes...

One of the most interesting things to me about this work is the stylistic contrast with modern adult science fiction. This Island Earth was originally published in serial form in a science fiction magazine of the day. It does seem to have been written so that a child of 10 or maybe 12 could quite easily follow it. I'm guessing that people of that age probably did constitute a fairly sizable portion of the magazine's readership. Perhaps as a result, the writing style is extremely clean and simple, and the basic story - while not without its twists and turns - is essentially straightforward.

But even given all this, it would be a mistake to categorize this work solely as juvenile fiction. For me, the most obvious thing that lifts this novel up to be more than just another tale of interplanetary adventure is the underlying dialectic between pacifism on the one hand, and the possibility of a just or even necessary war on the other. That said, for me at least this dialectic is somewhat let down by the fact that it is premised on the idea of an enemy that is wholly and simply evil. That does seem more than a tad on the juvenile side; at least from a contemporary perspective.

Even so, this is a work with a significant political consciousness, and one that goes well beyond the "reds under the bed/saucers in the sky" metaphor that was to become such a cliché of the era. Its political content essentially leans towards the center-right. However, for me personally, the specific direction of such leanings is of less significance than the simple fact that this is at least a book that actually has an underlying political philosophy; and one that does remain consistent throughout the work in its treatment of both Earthly and extra-terrestrial conflicts alike.

Finally, it's worth adding this is perhaps one of the pioneering works of its generation to move towards a more realistic appraisal of the likely true place of humanity in the cosmos. Another reviewer (writing simply as "A Customer") has even suggested an existential interpretation that I confess did not occur to me.

And... even if it were nothing else, This Island Earth is still at the very least an unusually well executed tale of interplanetary adventure.

Today, most will come to This Island Earth via the film of the same name (This Island Earth), made six years later. I am a fan of the film myself, but I will say that like so many Hollywood films, it diverges considerably from the novel on which it was "based". Of course, today we would be far more likely to use a more flexible term like "reimaged" to describe how the second telling was derived from the first. In this case, "reimagined" would certainly be the more accurate way of putting it. For while there is no shortage of common ground between the two works, there are also major differences. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so that's all I'll say!

In conclusion, no serious fan of 1950s science fiction should miss either the book or the film. Both are classics in their own right.

Theo.

This is a fun book to read if you are into 50's science fiction. The movie is equally entertaining and if you have seen it yet it's worth a try. Order a pizza, pop some popcorn, and curl up with your woman and enjoy a fun movie.

I have been trying to order an Interociter from "Technical Service Unit Ten" since the first time I read this book in the mid 1950's. Sigh .... It has a great theme which is excellently explained by other reviewers here. I want to comment on the quality of the printing. I don't know who "Forrest J. Ackerman" is, but I would bet that either he or his Bean Counting Accountants have dictated a book that looks and feels just like one of the Tiajuana Sex books from the late 1940's. Cruddy paper, muddled printing and so many typographical errors I wonder if they even HAVE proof readers? Well, OK, maybe they print this over in Boola-Boola Land or Eastern Fredonia where the English Language is not well known. I think it is outrageous that there is a list price of almost 20 bucks for this lousy printing and binding job. My recommendation is to wait until the PDF version comes out and download it and print it off on your home laser printer. At least then you can run spell check and format it properly without "Widows and Orphans" and other awful mistakes of style.