Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Thing [Book Review]

"The Thing" is a novel written by Alan Dean Foster. It was published in 1982 alongside the movie of the same name. It is far more based on the film's story than the original story "Who Goes There?" which got this whole thing started. I've already written a review of "Who Goes There?" so I won't dwell too much on it.

This book was a teeny bit difficult to get ahold of. It's considered a collectable now, and that is mainly because the movie it was based on is considered one of the best horror movies ever made. Whenever that happens, the literature adaptation tends to get bought up by collectors. I did find a way to read it digitally though with the help of a friend.

This version is so much better written then "Who Goes There?" which tended to lean too heavily on dialog to make its point. Alan did a great job in just telling the story though an equal mix of narrative and dialog which brought the whole story to life. Really quite good.

The story is something you may already know, but I'll summarize it like this: a extraterrestrial creature that can copy living beings is hiding among a group of people in Antarctica. It's very selectively trying to kill and copy them with the end goal to get into the main body of the human race and essentially replace them over time. The idea that any one of your companions might not be himself leads to paranoia, and that concept is the very core of what makes "The Thing" so interesting.

The book is very well written, and I am so happy I had the chance to read the adaptation of my favorite horror movie. I had a difficult time separating the different people apart in the original short story, but Alan did this amazing repetitious thing where he would constantly mention the profession of each man so you could tell them apart. It was a brilliant idea, and he deserves so much credit for it.

If you can get a hold of this book, I would highly recommend you go for it. It's a bit of a rarity these days, but that happened for a reason. It's probably the best literary version of this phenomenon and it may also be based on an early version of the script too. I noticed some interesting callbacks to the old 50's movie (which wasn't very good) that added a nice touch to the telling.  Definitely check this one out if you can.

This blog was written on May 24, 2023.

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