Review Tuesday: Frozen Hell by John W. Campbell, Jr

 

 

Frozen Hell

The Book That was The First Draft of The Novella That Inspired The Thing

by John W. Campbell

When a team of scientists in Antarctica discover a magnetic anomaly, what they find is the last thing they would suspect. 

A couple years ago I decided to renew an old interest in THE THING. The movie came out during the 80s when I was a teen. I had NEVER seen it all the way through, and only the edited versions on broadcast television. Then I stumbled across an article that said that the movie THE THING, which was a "remake" of a 50s horror film called "The Thing From Another World" which was based on a novella called WHO GOES THERE? by sci-fi / horror icon, John W. Campbell, Jr. (See my review HERE). More recently it came to my attention that the original book that, eventually, was edited down into Who Goes There? by the title FROZEN HELL was released.

 

It's not too common that an early draft of some famous literature becomes available, and a work like this especially caught my interest. 

 

The book starts off with not one but TWO introductions. Basically they go over Campbell's career and how this draft was unearthed. The first giveaway that this might NOT have been a treat was the way that the intros emphasized how the first third of the book was cut out for Who Goes There? It was more like the first HALF of the book. When you read this book, you see why. It's overwhelming with all sorts of technical jargon that doesn't help the story in the least.

 

If you are really curious about this, it might be rewarding to ready, however I don't really recommend it. It's too long and drawn out and not scary at all. Just read Who Goes There? ...it got published in that form for a reason. 

 

HOWEVER...

 

At the end of the book is a few chapters of the sequel novel (a work in progress) that was really pretty good. If I can figure out if it ever came out I will let you all know.    

Get it on AMAZON