One day while perusing the shelves at Bonnett’s Books here in Dayton Ohio I came upon a spine that said This Island Earth. I excitedly grabbed it. Was this a coincidence!? A novelization of the movie!? To my surprise it was indeed THAT Island Earth and it was the original novel that the 1955 movie was based on. One that I had watched many times as it was the movie that appeared in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Movie.
Video review here. Written review below.
This Island Earth was written by Raymond F Jones and originally was published as a three part serial in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Part one was titled, “The Alien Machine” and appeared in the June 1949 issue.
Part two was titled, "The Shroud of Secrecy” and appeared in the December 1949 issue.
Part three was titled, "The Greater Conflict” and appeared in the February 1950 issue.
Raymond F Jones combined the three and filled it out to make a full-length novel and in 1952 it was published in hardcover by Shasta Publishers out of Chicago. I have the hardcover Shasta Book Club Edition, and it has this absolutely terrible cover here that makes it looks like a 1950s high school science textbook. I will say I do love the giant SCIENCE-FICTION at the top. What a disappointment to go from incredible cover art of those pulp mags to this almost plain cover. The painfully basic cover art did lead me down an interesting rabbit hole as I was curious to see who this Shasta was and what their other covers looked like. So, we’re going to take a little detour because I think this story is very inspiring especially to people like us and all other fans who want to participate.
Shasta was founded in 1947 when three science fiction fans from Chicago, Erle Melvin Korshak, T. E. Dikty, and Mark Reinsberg came together to release The Checklist of Fantastic Literature compiled by E.F. Bleiler, a comprehensive list of science fiction, fantasy and weird books published before 1949. The book records over 5000 titles. Which if you needed to be reminded, this is 1947. Acquiring this kind of information would take years and the logistics are beyond my understanding. Imagine how much money was spent on stamps alone.
After they released their book and it was a well received success, they decided, well hell, we should keep going. Shasta then released a string of science fiction classics. Their next book published is in my top five favorite short stories of all time, Who Goes There? By John W Campbell with the iconic Hannes Bok cover art. Who also happened to do the cover for The Checklist.
They released seventeen more titles. The first eleven had incredible artwork. Let’s just take a min and check it out.
Slaves of Sleep, by L. Ron Hubbard (1948) H.W. Scott
The Wheels of If, by L. Sprague de Camp (1949) Bok
The World Below, by S. Fowler Wright (1949) (what happened here??)
The Man Who Sold the Moon, by Robert A. Heinlein (1950) Hubert Rogers
Sidewise in Time, by Murray Leinster (1950) Bok
Kinsmen of the Dragon, by Stanley Mullen (1951) Bok
Space on My Hands, by Fredric Brown (1951) Malcom Smith
The Green Hills of Earth, by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) Hubert Rogers
Cloak of Aesir, by John W. Campbell, Jr. (1952) (short fiction collection) Malcom Smith
And what was number twelve? This Island Earth. Cover by Robert Johnson
And here the cover art really takes a dive. Maybe they weren’t doing so well financially and couldn’t afford to have top genre illustrators do their covers anymore?
We might as well take a look at the rest of the titles since there is only seven left.
Murder in Millennium VI, by Curme Gray (1952) Robert Johnson. Please fire this guy.
The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester (1953) Mark Reinsberg (one of the Shasta owners)
Space Platform, by Murray Leinster (1953) Isaac Heilbron. This one is YA. It has a passable cover for what it is.
Revolt in 2100, by Robert A. Heinlein (1953) Hubert Rogers. They threw some money into this cover. Heinlein must have sold well for them.
Science Fiction Carnival, edited by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds (1953) Ardi Ames
Space Tug, by Murray Leinster (1953) Malcom Smith. Another YA novel but with some fun and exciting cover art.
Empire of the Atom, by A. E. van Vogt (1956) Malcom Smith
So yeah, what an impressive little run they had. What makes it more special in my eyes is that these books were released out of love. A major publisher is probably more aware of will and won’t make money and lean into the latter. Which, there is something to be said about that also because those publishers lasted for decades. Some are still going. But I do love an underdog and really appreciate people with passion who make things happen.
I’m so glad that I stumbled upon this book and took a minute to look into who released it. What an exceptional random find. And of course, today the books are even more collectible than they were back then. Who Goes There? is up on ABE books for $500 2nd edition to $1500 1st edition. Do you guys accept expired checks?
And now on to THIS ISLAND EARTH
Joe Wilson is the purchasing agent for Ryberg Instrumentation Corporation. He stares out the window, depressed. He always wanted to be an engineer but now here he is an office flunky whose sole purpose was to order mechanical parts for hunky leading man Cal Meacham. Cal is a radio engineer, a pilot, a pacifist, and an honorable scientist. He thinks science should be used to make the world a better place, not to destroy or kill. I like him already.
Joe has ordered a new condenser from his usual supplier, but when it arrives it is much more powerful than the one he ordered. Even more odd, it came from a completely different supplier than who he ordered from.
Cal is blown away with how the condenser works. This technology doesn’t exist! He asks around the other departments at Ryberg. They have also gotten parts from this mysterious new supplier and likewise they have mechanics and power that seem impossible.
Some time goes by and from the same supplier comes an instruction manual on how to build and “interocitor.” What’s an interociter? Cal wonders. He takes his time putting it together and we are there step by step with all of the fun sci-fi and electronics jargon.
Once assembled we see that Cal has built a high tech communications device. A man appears on the screen. He congratulates Cal on building the interocitor and invites him to join his group of super scientists called, The Peace Engineers. Which is great, because Cal loves peace. The Peace Engineers mission statement is basically to work on cutting edge electronic, physic, and mechanical inventions but keeping them out of the hands of world leaders and the common people as they can’t be trusted with it. Sounds very James Bond villain to me but not to Cal and he is all in.
So right off the bat there are a few differences from the movie in the first sequence but nothing major. Joe isn’t Cal’s fellow engineer who helps him build the interocitor. There’s no hint of something alien at the beginning. Cal’s plane doesn’t glow green and malfunction. The unnamed-at-this-point man who appears on the interocitor is not Exeter and is completely human looking. The time frame of events is stretched out. In fact it’s like that in the whole book. We’re talking years for this whole plot to unfold.
A plane with no pilot shows up to pick Cal up and take him to a little north of Phoenix Arizona. As he exits the plane he is met by a looker of a lady whose name is Ruth. Ruth works for The Peace Engineers as a psychiatrist ...but also a secretary/ personal assistant to Dr Warner, the man Cal spoke to on the interocitor. Cal does not recognize her like in the movie which is fine because that whole little interaction didn’t really make sense. Cal does have a hard time calling Ruth doctor though because she’s a pretty woman.
Cal meets with Dr Warner who tells him that this is an interocitor plant and he wants Cal to manage it. Being that they are working on an item that is not a weapon Cal is all in. At the facility he meets his old Swedish college roommate Ole. Right away Ruth and Ole tell Cal that something fishy is going on around this here interocitor plant but Cal is way too excited about science to listen. Then we get a huge chunk of this book where Cal is just running the plant. Exciting stuff.
Eventually we meet the leader of the Peace Engineers, Dr. Jorgasnovara. Cal instantly likes the man and completely dismisses the worries of his friends.
And there is our set up. I would imagine this is the end of the first part of the original serial, The Alien Machine. I loved it. It’s intriguing, suspenseful and mysterious. Who are these Peace Engineers really? What does the interocitor actually do? I also appreciate how drawn out the time frame is. It works better than the movie. Not that the movie is unenjoyable in the beginning. I mean, it has different story telling logistics. It HAS to move faster but with the novel you could slow down and fill in the gaps. Aside from the section where Cal start’s running the plant, the novel’s pacing isn’t slow though.
Unfortunately, here is where the book takes a bit of a dive.
Finally, Cal starts to become suspicious but there is a lot of back and forth. Unfortunately, that suspicion envelopes everything so it becomes a complete conspiracy. It’s the Peace Engineers, it’s Ruth, it’s Ole, and back and forth over and over. What starts off as intriguing becomes tiresome.The rest of the book is almost completely different from the movie.
Cal and Ruth are married by the beginning of part two.
This Island Earth is explained. Jorgasnovara explains that his people are from another world and are at war with another. He likens Earth’s part in it all to how in World War Two the warring countries would enlist the help of the “primitive people,” the locals of various small islands, to help clear forests which in turn helped the troops of the good guys to win the day. So essentially Earth people are the primitives and our planet is an island strategically located on the battlefield. And peace loving Cal who thinks science should be used only for the advancement of his world immediately flips and signs on to help battle this alien race.
It’s a strange turn of events but I’m starting to see that Mr. Raymond F Jones had some political comments and now you’re going to hear about them. Which, you know, it’s his book, totally fine. Let’s hear what you got Jones.
I would surmise that maybe Raymond F Jones thought that people who believe in peace and not getting involved aren’t being realistic. This point was written in the plotline pretty well. It made sense, he made some valid arguments. No issue with this.
On the other hand, Raymond F Jones does not like the Union. There is no surmising from me on this point. It is loud and clear. At one point the interocitor production floor is sabotaged in the middle of the night. Cal immediately blames the union. The union doesn’t want money Ole explains, “It won’t matter how much you give them. They just have to strike periodically to show things are still done the democratic way around here, and they’re just as good as the next guy.”
On page 159 moron speech.
You like unions, you don’t like unions, and you want to give your opinion in your novel? Whatever. My only stipulation is that it has to cohesively fit in the storyline and be a valid dispute. You can’t turn to the camera and give speeches. There was no compelling argument and the idea that because this interocetor union went on strike now meant the whole world would be destroyed is so outrageous.
Sorry. I don’t mean to harp on about this but not only is it mentioned over and over through the middle of the book, there is a whole chapter dedicated to it. AND spoiler alert, it wasn’t even the union that sabotaged the facility. The whole incident was created just so he could have Cal give these insane angry tirades.
As you can see we lost a lot of fun here and we are still at the plant with Cal while he tries to manage it. Yes, This Island Earth the movie is now out in space having the adventure of a lifetime and in the book Cal is trying to figure out how to triple production in a factory full of petulant child-minded laborers.
I’ll just leave the climax detail here untouched. It is nothing like the movie and proceeds on the trajectory of a whimper.
Big disappointment here but only because I have the movie to compare it to. The beginning was so promising but it at the start of the second installment it breaks down slow and steady until you get to the end and you are glad it’s over. There are enjoyable aspects to it so it’s not a complete disaster. I am glad I read it though and I am really glad that I bought this edition. After learning about Shasta I feel like I have something special here even if the story contained inside was middle of the road.
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