552:; fixup 1952) begins with beleaguered Aliens secretly using human scientists in order to resist an enemy in an intergalactic war which threatens to engulf Earth. The protagonist finally persuades them that, by allowing their tactics to be dictated by vast Computers, they have become predictable to the enemy. But he may be too late. The film version, This Island Earth (1954), begins well but loses interest when it diverges – perhaps inevitably – from the book, which became quite famous, all the same, due to the commercial impact of the movie.
215:
There
Jorgasnovara tells Cal, Ruth, and Ole that Peace Engineers is actually run by his people, aliens called "the Llanna", and that the Llanna are engaged in a millennia-long intergalactic war with aliens called "the Guarra". Earth is now being used in that war in a similar way to how certain small Pacific islands were used during
207:
valley north of
Phoenix, Arizona. He is greeted by Dr. Ruth Adams, a psychologist who seems to be afraid of something. Dr. Warner, the man he spoke with over the interocitor tells him that he will be in charge of the interocitor assembly plant. He also meets Ole Swenberg who was his roommate in college.
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Cal and Ruth are taken to
Jorgasnovara's home world and told that Earth is to be completely abandoned, that the Guarra will destroy it as they have destroyed so many other worlds. Cal protests, but the Llannan Council tells him that their war computers have predicted that they would not defend Earth.
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Cal believes that all of Earth should be participating in the war that the Peace
Engineers have somehow gotten us into so he gathers documents and samples, takes a small airplane and flies to Washington. Halfway there he and his plane are snatched out of the air by a spaceship and taken to the Moon.
210:
Six months later he meets the Chief
Engineer, Mr. Jorgasnovara, who describes the Peace Engineers as a secret society of the world's greatest scientists and engineers, toiling to rationally control the world. Later, he overhears Jorgasnovara's thoughts through the interocitor in his laboratory. One
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An incredible bit of technology lures engineer Cal
Meacham to work for Peace Engineers and soon leads him to track down the truth behind the organization. He is apprised of the great, ageless conflict being waged for the universe, is unable to fend off the threat of the Guarra but turns the tables
206:
When he switches on the completed interocitor he is confronted by the appearance on its screen of a man who invites him to join a group called Peace
Engineers. Knowing that he would not refuse the group sends a pilotless airplane to pick him up and take him to a small village/factory complex in a
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that he ordered. Thinking it a joke he tests them anyway and finds that they work just as well as what he had ordered. He orders more and with them gets a catalog filled with electronic apparatus completely unfamiliar to him. His interest piqued, he orders the parts necessary to build what the
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magazine as a serialized set of three novelettes by Jones: "The Alien
Machine" in the June 1949 issue, "The Shroud of Secrecy" in the December 1949 issue, and "The Greater Conflict" in the February 1950 issue. These three stories were later combined and expanded into the 1952 novel
189:
The story revolves around a race of aliens who, in recruiting humans for a group called "Peace
Engineers", are actually using Earth as a pawn in an intergalactic war. While the film starts out in a very similar manner to the novel, the film's storyline quickly goes its own way.
230:
But the
Guarran war computers would tell the Guarra the same thing so Cal points out to the council that the very best tactic is to do what the Guarra would never expect. The Llannans agree to defend Earth and Cal and Ruth look forward to returning home.
40:
242:. He explains that the natives could not comprehend the conflict raging around them, but that they can, nonetheless, contribute something to the war effort, such as by building airstrips. Jones had taken the novel title from a line in
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night he and Ruth discover that the interocitors are being shipped out not by truck, but by spaceship. Again overhearing Jorgasnovara's thoughts Cal learns that the Peace Engineers are involved in an intergalactic war.
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found the novel disappointing; after starting "with some fine technological gadgetry", it "becomes ultimately incredible in its galactic wildness (and offensive in its extreme labor-baiting)".
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Returning to Earth, Cal, Ruth, and Ole find the plant being sabotaged. The Llannans decide to abandon it but before they leave Cal and Ruth discover that Ole is a Guarra
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1977, Italy, Libra Editrice (I Classici della Fantascienza #28), Pub date Oct 1977, Hardback (280 pp), as Il cittadino dello spacio (The Citizen of Space)
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1955, Italy, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (I Romanzi di Urania #96), Paperback digest (128 pp), as Il cittadino della spazio (The Citizen of Space)
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1957, Spain, Editora y Distribuidora Hispano Americana, S.A. (ColecciĂłn Nebulae #41), Paperback, as Esta Isla la Tierra (This Island Earth)
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1956, Germany, Pabel Verlag (Utopia Grossband #37), Paperback digest (89 pp), as Insel zwischen den Sternen (Island Between the Stars)
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1956, France, Gallimard (Le Rayon Fantastique #37), Paperback (253 pp), as Les survivants de l’infini (The Survivors of the Infinite)
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321:
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In explaining the cosmic war his people are waging, Jorgasnovara compares Earth to a small Pacific island in the recently concluded
246:' poem, "Darien" ("It is a poet’s privilege and fate/To fall enamoured of the one Muse/Who variously haunts this island earth".)
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At Ryberg Instrument Corporation, engineer Cal Meacham has received a quartet of bead-like devices that are meant to replace the
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226:. As a consequence of the interocitor-mediated battle that destroys Ole and his non-human henchmen, Jorgasnovara also dies.
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when he does persuade the Llanna to change their tactics and defend the Earth. United nations – stellar division".
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1954, Sweden, Lindqvist (Atomböckerna), Hardcover (208 pp), as Universum Ockuperat (Universe Occupied)
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Handling: Galactic; fast pace, but with too many loose ends left dangling.
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The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923–1998
533:. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 593.
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1953, USA, Shasta/SFBC, Pub date Sep 1953, Hardcover (220 pp)
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418:"A Comparison of "This Island Earth" with its Pulp Origins"
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This Island Earth (stories June 1949 – February 1950
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The story was originally published as three stories in
394:Universal-International produced a film version of
278:The story was subsequently published in book form:
161:is a 1952 science fiction novel by American writer
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379:Theme: What happens when machines are in control.
538:Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (October 23, 2014).
497:"Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction"
560:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy
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558:Tuck, Donald H. (1974). "This Island Earth".
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654:Works originally published in Wonder Stories
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336:The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
295:1955, UK, T.V. Boardman, Hardcover (220 pp)
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385:Rating: Buildup dandy; resolution ho-hum."
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664:Science fiction novels adapted into films
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271:"The Shroud of Secrecy" (December 1949)
274:"The Greater Conflict" (February 1950)
644:Novels first published in serial form
591:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
562:. Chicago: Advent. pp. 247–248.
298:1955, USA, Shasta, Hardcover (220 pp)
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544:The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
286:, December 1952, Hardcover (220 pp)
176:. It became the basis for the 1955
659:American novels adapted into films
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180:science fiction film also titled
203:catalog calls an "interocitor".
649:American science fiction novels
268:"The Alien Machine" (June 1949)
27:1952 novel by Raymond F. Jones
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400:, released on June 1, 1955.
165:. It was first published in
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457:"Title: This Island Earth"
316:1991, UK, Grafton Books,
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262:Standard Magazines, Inc.
257:Thrilling Wonder Stories
168:Thrilling Wonder Stories
611:"The Shroud of Secrecy"
480:"Recommended Reading,"
178:Universal-International
615:"The Greater Conflict"
589:series listing at the
529:; Mark Owings (1998).
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356:, the reviewer wrote:
501:www.kirkusreviews.com
634:1952 American novels
607:"The Alien Machine"
540:"Jones, Raymond F."
371:for June 13, 1953
350:In the publication
250:Publication history
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33:This Island Earth
597:This Island Earth
586:This Island Earth
397:This Island Earth
284:Shasta Publishers
183:This Island Earth
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506:March 1,
483:F&SF
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