Man Who Fell to Earth (Alpha Books) [Abridged] [Paperback]

Walter Tevis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alpha Books | Publication Date: August 1979

Thomas Jerome Newton is an extraterrestrial from the planet Anthea, which has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars, and whose inhabitants are twice as intelligent as human beings. When he lands on Earth - in Kentucky, disguised as a human - it's with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Newton patents some very advanced Anthean technology, which he uses to amass a fortune. He begins to build a spaceship to help the last 300 Antheans migrate to Earth. Meanwhile, Nathan Bryce, a chemistry professor in Iowa, is intrigued by some of the new products Newton's company brings to the market, and already suspects Newton of being an alien. As Bryce and the FBI close in, Newton finds his own clarity and sense of purpose diminishing.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Beautiful science fiction . . . The story of an extraterrestrial visitor from another planet is designed mainly to say something about life on this one."
--The New York Times

"An utterly realistic novel about an alien human on Earth . . . Realistic enough to become a metaphor for something inside us all, some existential loneliness."
--NORMAN SPINRAD

"Those who know The Man Who Fell to Earth only from the film version are missing something. This is one of the finest science fiction novels of its period."
--J.R. DUNN
   Author of Full Tide of Night

"Tevis writes . . . with power and poetry and tension."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Terrific . . . The Man Who Fell to Earth can be seen as the story of a very hip, space-age Passion--about a savior who comes to Earth not to save us but his own people, and who is, in effect, crucified dead and buried."
--VINCENT CANBY --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr (Sd); Abridged edition (August 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0194242315
• ISBN-13: 978-0194242318
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,824,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How it used to be..., January 26, 2002

By 

P. Nicholas Keppler "rorscach12" (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paperback)

With the endless barrages of big-budgeted, simple-minded, ray gun-blasting movies and absurdly complex, geek-aimed fantasy trilogies and tetralogies that have ruled the genre during the past decade, it is difficult to believe that science fiction stories were once compelling, introspective works that employed strange and surreal methods to carry great sociopolitical and philosophical weight. The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, first published in 1963, is a paradigmatic example of that fine, long-gone variety of space age tale. Mr. Tevis' protagonist, a tall, slender, frail humanoid that calls itself "Thomas Jerome Newton," is sent to Earth from Anthea, a planet where the only knowledge of our world is from the television broadcasts that reach it. Between the glossy commercials and the startling news reports, the Antheans see Earth as a green, watery utopia in some ways and a nuclear powder keg in others. After falling from the Kentucky sky in a one-man spacecraft, Newton embarks on a shady and ambiguous mission. The reserved and methodical stranger's true intent is way too surprising and well developed for any measly reviewer to rightfully give it away. Without letting slip too many precious details, I will tell you that the flimsy extraterrestrial discovers the darker aspects of human society, the feelings of futility, the addictions and vices, the ignorance and distrust and other stigmas not shown on TV. From Newton's fragile eyes, Mr. Tevis does nothing less than paint a striking portrait of the frustrations of being an Earthling.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A truly wonderful piece of speculative science fiction, April 14, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paperback)

I have found myself to be something of a fan of speculative fictions. And The man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis has been, for a long time now, a book that I have grown to appreciate in what it says and how it expresses it, about the human condition through an inhuman perspective. And I happen to own an edition that was published in 1963, so you can imagine my disappointment when I bought a new copy and found the revisions, which were not only unnecessary but also inconsistent. Now, I agree that some "dated" books are in need of revisions, however, when Walter Tevis (may he rest in peace) had revised his book, The man who fell to Earth, he left it lacking in it's original believability by leaving inconsistencies in the dates that the novel takes place within. The novel was always meant to take place ten years or so in the future and I believe that before his death in 1984, Mr. Tevis had intended to possibly revise it yet again but hadn't the chance due to his fatal run in with cancer.

The original novel opened with the Section Icarus Descending 1972, the revised version opens with Icarus Descending 1985. The second section of book is Rumplestiltskin, 1975, in the revised version this is 1988. The final section of the book is Icarus Drowning, 1976, and 1990 in the revised edition novel. Now this might not seem a bother at all really but here's where my qualm lies... The section called Rumplestiltskin begins in autumn of 1988. And in that December (not to spoil the plot) late on Christmas night, Thomas Jerome Newton, the protagonist of the novel confesses to the Chemistry professor, Nathan Bryce that he is in fact an alien visitor from another world. The following morning, Thomas Jerome Newton is taken captive by the American government and held for two months. It should be about February of 1989, or there about. However, he is interrogated, at the end of those two months, and the interrogator is commented as saying "It just happens that this is 1988. And 1988 is an election year." - (Page 180 of the revised edition of The man who fell to Earth.) Allowing this little flaw to slide, we move on. And Thomas Jerome Newton is carelessly blinded by his captors and for two weeks he is kept in a government hospital where nothing can be done to help him. The next section of book starts, Icarus Drowning 1990. This gives you the impression that it's at least a year later. However, according to page 197, the very first page of Icarus Drowning, it is only seven months after the end of Rumplestiltskin, let's see... From the end of 1988- Seven months, plus two weeks, plus two months, equals nine and and half months. At most it should be October of 1989. What happened to 1989? Perhaps I have not lived on planet Earth long enough but I'm fairly certain that nine and a half months is not a full year. A second thing I dislike about the revised version of The man who fell to Earth, is something that is missing from the original text. In the original novel, published in 1963, there is an allusion towards the end when Thomas Jerome Newton, our protagonist is compared to Winston Smith, the hero of George Orwell's Nineteen eighty-four. I had liked that. And I don't like that it is missing from the version currently in print. The man who fell to Earth is a wonderfully surreal novel but I just wish that someone would drop the revised version and go back to Tevis' original text from the American 1963 version. I know that it had been Walter Tevis himself to write the revisions for the novel (1976 in the UK and 1981 in the USA) but the fact is Walter Tevis had been an alcoholic and that might have impaired his reasoning when revising his novel. If anything, I feel that people should have the choice to read the original, classic, unabridged text, or the cut, shoddy, inconsistent, and overly politically correct revised edition. This novel is supposedly a science fiction classic and yet the only way anyone can actually read the whole, original text would be by buying a first edition from a used book shoppe or from ebay.com. And I think that it's a real shame, that other then seeking collectable stores or antique book markets, there is no way that anyone can really read the original book, which by the way, had consistent dates. It feels, in reality, almost like the horrific tragedy of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, that society, so obsessed with political correctness, have grown so very careless with it's "Classic" fictions. And we, as a result, lose out in beautiful works on fiction that shall, as a result, fade off in to oblivion, it's original content forgotten or painted over and we are left with cut and "revised" reprints which for all their gloss remain flawed with inconsistencies, bits and pieces missing, and abridgments. And these either insult us intellectually or give us to know that over all, our attention spans have grown so short as to not notice or care.

Ignoring the flaws and inconsistencies with the datings of the revised version of The man who fell to Earth (The only version that had ever been in print in the UK and the only edition available currently in America, since 1981), it is actually a very good, and intriguing piece of speculative- science fiction. And I just think that it's a real pity, a sin really, that no one has even tried to reprint the original, unabridged or non "revised" text for over twenty-two years, even in the USA where it was first published.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars amazingly prescient -- or is it?, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man Who Fell to Earth (Paperback)

The copyright page discloses that this book was first published in 1963, and yet on page 180 there is a reference to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. The copyright page makes no references to any revisions having been made to the original version, but obviously there have been some. I'd like to know if these revisions were made by Tevis himself, and when were they done, and why? And has anything else been added to the text since its original publication? Why does Del Rey not disclose that this is a revised edition, and not the original?