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One of the things for us science fiction writers and fans to be
thankful for this Thanksgiving is the greats of the genre’s golden
age which was roughly from the 1930s to ‘50s. One of those greats
is John W. Campbell. He had a big influence on science fiction and
helped popularise the genre especially as editor of his Astounding
magazine, now known as Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact.
You can also say his novella, “Who Goes There?”, eventually
influenced the mixed genre of science
fiction horror when it was adapted into the 1950s film, The
Thing from Another World, which in turn lead to two remakes: John
Carpenter’s The Thing in 1982 and director Matthijs van
Heijningen’s 2011 version (that some refer to as a “prequel”).
So when Alec Nevala-Lee uncovered
the manuscript of an earlier, unpublished,
full-length novel version of Campbell’s story, it must had been as
thrilling as it is
for the Antarctic
expedition in “Who Goes
There?”/”The Thing” when they uncover
the shape shifting alien frozen in ice which
later terrorizes
them.
Alec Nevala-Lee was doing research for his book, Astounding: John W.
Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the
Golden Age of Science Fiction,
when he uncovered themanuscript in an archives collection at Harvard. Entitled
Frozen Hell, Campbell
had derived from it the shorter, novella version that made it to
publication as “Who Goes There?”, as
explained at SyFy.com. According to The Verge, the
manuscript was fragmented when Nevala-Lee
found it. Not long after, John
Gregory Betancourt, manager of independent publishing house Wildside
Press and of Cambell’s literary property,
edited the novel manuscript into a completed
version and has
been raising funds through
Kickstarter in order to get the book published.
The funding goal of $1000
has been surpassed by more
than $100,000 (as of the
writing of this post).
Betancourt, an award winning
author, will write a sequel to the science
fiction horror novel.
The
discovery of the manuscript
is definitely a significant
addition to Campbell’s known history. I’m a fan of Campbell, the
original “Thing” movie and Campbell’s science
fiction horror novella that
it was adapted from. I read the novella only about a year ago in a
collection of his work, A New Dawn,
and it was really well-written along with other stories in the book.
However, I’m
not a fan of books completed
by people
other than the authors who
started them, since
it’s easy for contradictions in
style and
vision to show up. Even so,
Frozen Hell, being
from a manuscript started by Campbell, will probably give us some
good insight on “The Thing” story. That
being said, it
would probably have been better to market copies of the fragmented
manuscript to fans of “The Thing” story line and Campbell. With
a good introduction by the
editor and maybe some annotations, the
unfinished manuscript would
be part of a
complete book as a study of the
author’s
work.
Frozen Hell
is scheduled to release in
ebook, paperback and hardcover formats in January 2019, the dead of
“arctic” winter.
The book will have interior art by award-winning sci fi/fantasy
artist Bob Eggleton who will also be doing the art for the cover,
says Betancourt at
his Kickstarter page.
Do
you think Frozen Hell
can live up to John Campbell’s original style and vision of
storytelling after being completed by another author? Why or why not?
Feel free to leave your answers in the box below.
Until
next time . . .
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