Who goes there? Book

Recently I was reading a review of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" by my GR Friend ALLEN, and that gave me the idea of reading the source novels for some of the films I've watched down the years. The 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" was the basis for the exciting 1951 sci-fi classic "The Thing from Another World", as well as the superb 1982 version, "The Thing", and a 2011 version that I haven't seen.

The 1982 film follows the novella much more closely than the 1951 version. I'd have to say some of the dialogue in the story sounded a bit forced and unrealistic to me, and it jumped a bit at times. Once or twice I had to re-read a paragraph to make sure I understood what was going on. I suppose that derives from the fact it was originally published as a magazine story - there's not much time allowed for plot development. It's really the concept that gives the story its power. The shape-shifting alien is innately sinister and threatening, and the author does convey the sense of paranoia amongst the humans on the base, faced with such a creature.

The edition I read was published in 1948, and the title story was just one of 7 short stories included. I thought most of the others were average. "Dead Knowledge" was the best of them and, apart from the title story, the only one that deserved more than two stars. Most of them seemed to be on an "end of civilisation" theme. I really read this for the title story though. Three stars for that.