Present Based On Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
Title | : | The Man Who Fell to Earth |
Author | : | Walter Tevis |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 209 pages |
Published | : | September 28th 1999 by Del Rey (first published February 1963) |
Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Classics |
Walter Tevis
Paperback | Pages: 209 pages Rating: 4.04 | 6111 Users | 643 Reviews
Commentary During Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Man Who Fell to Earth is my second Walter Tevis novel and unfortunately I didn’t like it anywhere near as much as I did The Queen’s Gambit.Superficially it’s a sci-fi novel: the protagonist is Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from the planet Anthea (Venus?), who comes to Earth to make enough money to build a rocketship to send back home and bring his people over to water-rich Earth. Alright, fine, that’s the premise and, very loosely, the plot. What it is in actuality? About a sad and lonely alcoholic who happens to be an alien.
What frustrated me the most was how little happened. Newton gets rich patenting alien tech. Then he continues to amass wealth. And he continues to amass wealth. He meets a couple people along the way. And he continues to amass wealth. He starts drinking. And he continues to amass wealth. And he continues to amass wealth. And… zzz…
It’s not a long novel (just under 200 pages) but it felt way longer because there’s almost nothing here to engage the reader. Knowing what little I do about Tevis’ life, I get that it’s basically about his lifelong battle with alcoholism and how having been a sickly child kept him weak and away from school so he couldn’t make friends which must’ve felt lonely and depressing.
Loneliness and depression lead to substance abuse - as an explanation for addiction, that’s totally believable if hardly revelatory. Except overstating this without exploring any deeper isn’t just unsatisfying but it’s also immensely tedious to read.
I wonder if the phrase “feeling like an alien” as a way of describing having trouble relating to others/social isolation originated with this book. Tevis also takes a dim view of the US government but that feature’s par for the course when it comes to alien stories.
It’s well-written and parts of it are mildly interesting - when Newton is interrogated by Federal agents at the end - but The Man Who Fell to Earth was mostly repetitive and very, very boring!
Specify Books In Pursuance Of The Man Who Fell to Earth
Original Title: | The Man Who Fell to Earth |
ISBN: | 0345431618 (ISBN13: 9780345431615) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Thomas Jerome Newton, Nathan Bryce |
Rating Based On Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
Ratings: 4.04 From 6111 Users | 643 ReviewsEvaluation Based On Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
Who would have thought that a book about an alien coming to Earth could be so sad?? I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it."He began to see a kind of beauty in the strangeness of the field, too. It was quite different from what he had been taught to expect as he had already discovered, were many of the things in this worldyet there was pleasure for him now in its alien colors and textures, its new sights and smells. In sounds, too; for his ears were very acute and he heard many strange and pleasant noises in the grass, the diverse rubbings and clickings of those insects that had survived the cold weather of early
no ray guns are fired or space battles waged in this poignant novel. there is a spaceship yes, but it is incapacitated after it deposits its passenger on earth. the passenger is an alien from a dying planet named anthea and he's looking for an escape - a place for the remnants of his people. his name on earth will be t.j. newton (sometimes called tommy) and this novel is his story, of how our world affects him, physically and emotionally, as he tries to achieve his mission.there's not much more
I had nearly forgotten why people start reading in the first place: the joy of an honest story. I'm so used to the writer as the essential protagonist, the writing as his conflict, and whether or not I want to throw away his book as his comedic or tragic end. But this just unfolds cleanly, without seeming consciously written at all. Never an "ohhh that was beautiful" and very rarely a distracting wince. I got deeply engaged without any self-discipline at all. It's lightening-quick and so
This novel follows an extraterrestrial, arriving on Earth to see if he can find a way to bring his drought suffering people into the planet so that they might live. This is one of my favourite science-fiction classics, and is truly worth the read, as an exploration, not only of science, but of the human nature and politics. We get a deep understanding of the main character, as he suffers for being an alien in a planet that will hurt him if they discover who he is, and the pressure of thinking of
Great - if you love the movie, read it, it stands as a great book in it's own right, it has a life of it's own. If you didn't like the movie, the same applies. It has (as the title suggests) an elegant parable-like simplicity, and contains an elegiac meditation on loss, of home, of potential, friendship, family ... Matters of conspiracy and corporate-politico hanky panky are touched upon. Placing an extra terrestrial in a contemporary setting lends the book a timeless quality (some with
The Man Who Fell to Earth is my second Walter Tevis novel and unfortunately I didnt like it anywhere near as much as I did The Queens Gambit. Superficially its a sci-fi novel: the protagonist is Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from the planet Anthea (Venus?), who comes to Earth to make enough money to build a rocketship to send back home and bring his people over to water-rich Earth. Alright, fine, thats the premise and, very loosely, the plot. What it is in actuality? About a sad and lonely
0 Comments