In 1949 and 1950 a science fiction serial by Raymond F. Jones appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories. Within half a decade that serial would make history as the basis of the first science fiction movie about interstellar travel and interstellar war. The next Hollywood movie to venture to another solar system was Forbidden Planet, a wholly original construct of the prestige studio MGM. But solid, reliable Universal Studios was there first...long before Star Trek.
This Island Earth was really the first Star Wars. Colorful, spectacular, wildly imaginative, it lived up to everything its agent could possibly want, a man who was known as Mr. Science Fiction and who now brings back this classic novel: Forrest J Ackerman. A phrase he coined in another galaxy a long time ago say's it all: Gosh Wow! This story has it all.
The cover of this special edition features Jeff Morrow in the role of one of the most sympathetic aliens in 1950's science fiction film (the other is Michael Rennie in The Day the Earth Stood Still, also adapted from a literary source). In the novel he is Jorgasnovara, in the movie the less jaw Breaking Exeter. In both print and celluloid he comes to respect the Earth scientists essayed by Rex Reason and Faith Domergue.
This Island Earth is a book of heroes. The first half of the film closely follows the novel but then diverges from the intellectual challenges faced by Dr. Cal Meachem to more cinematic fare. Reading the novel now, one cannot help but marvel at how Jones' views everything from labor disputes to the predictability of computers influenced later movies and television, making This Island Earth, the novel, even more influential than-one would guess from ThisIsland Earth the movie.
Pulpless.Com is proud to bring back the printed word in hope that all who see the movie will want to read the book, and vice versa! Turn on your interocitors and prepare to receive transmission!
Ever hear of an interocitor? No? Well, don’t be surprised — neither had Cal Meacham, electronics engineer and chief of research at Ryberg Instrument. Nor had Cal ever heard of a catherimine tube with an endiom complex of plus four. Yet those, and other equally bewildering apparatus, were offered for sale in the catalogue from Electronic Service Unit 16.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single clue in the catalogue as to how an interocitor functioned, or even what it was, yet judging from the list of parts and the accompanying diagrams, it was an enormously complex piece of equipment. Cal realized that even if he ordered a set of interocitor parts, and somehow succeeded in putting one together, he would have no way of knowing if it were operating properly or not.
Was the entire catalogue some monstrous joke, of which he was the butt, or had Cal stumbled upon a technology vastly superior to our own? Cal had to know — his curiosity, both as a scientist and as a man, was aroused — and thus began Cal’s apprenticeship with the Peace Engineers. And in the surprising events that followed, Cal Meacham became involved in an adventure to stagger the imagination.
One of the truly memorable science fiction experiences of this or any other year, THIS ISLAND EARTH is that rare science fiction novel which combines a sense of social responsibility and thrilling action within the framework of a cosmic struggle to maintain a barrier against an incredible invasion.
Here is a book that will appeal to everyone who has ever stopped on a starry night to gaze in wonder at the vastness of the universe, and to ponder the place in infinity of this island Earth.
