Murray Leinster (William F Jenkins) was a writer of genre fiction but mostly known for science fiction.
Anywhere online that this book is mentioned it is inevitably compared to John W Cambell’s sci-fi/horror masterpiece, Who Goes There? The story that the movies The Thing, The Thing From Another World and Horror Express were based off of. So, we’ll go ahead and get that out of the way now. My two cents is that it is most influenced by the 1951 movie The Thing From Another World. It’s one of my favorite movies so it was hard not to picture the actors from the movie as the characters in the book.
The basic premise: There is a small island located between Antarctica and Valparaiso Chile called Gow Island. It is a refuel and supply station for crews that work in Antarctica. On it there are less than twenty people who live and work. A plane coming from Antarctica with groundbreaking biological finds is set to land. There is trouble in the plane. It lands on its belly. The passengers are missing, there are bullet holes and the sole survivor, the pilot, puts a bullet in his head immediately after landing. The plane is blocking the runway so no one can get in or off the island easily. An invisible monster begins attacking the inhabitants at night.
Though the terror is science based this is purely a horror book. The isolation of the island creates a claustrophobic atmosphere. There’s nowhere to run to baby, there’s nowhere to hide. Not only is there hundreds of miles of ocean between them and any kind of help, in the midst of trying to kill off the invisible stalker, they accidently burn down their radio cabin along with all the equipment, so now they can’t even communicate with the outside world to tell them they’re in trouble.
Our hero is Drake. He’s the administrator of the island and is responsible for the people on it. Don’t worry about remembering it, he will remind you of his position many times throughout the book. There is a silly side romance plot between him and his assistant Nora. They are always at arm’s length because it wouldn’t be proper for them to be together. It seems trivial to me but it was a different time, I guess.
There is an unhinged boss wannabe named Spaulding to add extra tension. A nerve wracked biologist, Beechum. A young and steadfast right-hand man, Tom Belden. And then a few more minor players like the mechanic, the cook, the radio operator. Mostly the story revolves around Drake, Nora, Spaulding, Beechum and Belden. I appreciated that we didn’t have to remember all nineteen members of the island.
The mystery is slowly unveiled as you get hints to what the monstrosity could be. If you’re paying attention and can hypothesize you might be able to get it. I’m not going to comment on the monster as I don’t want to give even a hint away. It was a lot of fun to try and figure it out along with Drake and ultimately that’s the main appeal of this novel for me.
This was total B-movie goodness. It’s not groundbreaking at all. I mean, as previously mentioned, it is very Who Goes There? and even more so The Thing from Another World. It’s fun, eerie, exciting, quick paced and I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery.
Upon further research, it looks like it was made into a movie in 1966 called Navy vs. The Night Monsters. I watched it after reading the book and though I was surprised to see that though there were differences it was very similar to the book. Unlike the book though which was incredibly enjoyable, it was not a good movie. It tries to have some comedy in it for some reason. The music in it is wacky and completely takes away from any horror feeling the movie might have had. Obviously from the title they changed the islanders into military which wasn’t as fun. The best thing though, Mamie Van Doren plays Nora (who is a nurse in the movie) and my lord was she a looker. Incredibly beautiful.
Fawcett Gold Medal 1959
Cover art: Muni
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