Randy A Salas
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2002
- Messages
- 1,348
Randy, not to put too fine a point on it, but John W. Campbell Jr.'s Who Goes There ... is a novella. FYI.Oh, I'm aware.
In my previous comment on the original source in another thread, I referred to it as "a short story or novella." Wouldn't you know that someone would call me on it when I went for brevity?
The original is about 50 pages (as published in modern anthologies), so it's in that tweener category. (Fifty pages is pretty short for a novella, which generally goes 75-125 pages--but it's a general, non-specific term.) Some bibliographies call "Who Goes There?" a short story, some a novella and some, probably best, as just short fiction. It was first published in the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction, where it was referred to as a novelette. So there's yet another appellation.
The point remains that it definitely is not a novel, as stated in the review.
I'd also like to repeat a tip from that other thread that anyone wanting to read the original story would be well-served by getting the outstanding compilation Reel Future, which was published by Barnes and Noble but can be had used for less than $2 through Amazon. The book compiles the original stories for many sci-fi films and is highly compelling.