Frozen Hell: The Book That Inspired “The Thing” by John W. Campbell, Jr.,  illustrated by Bob Eggleton (Amazon.com)

Wildside Press, 2019

ISBN-13: 9781479442829

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Frozen Hell is John W. Campbell, Jr.’s original and previously unpublished novel that became the novella “Who Goes There?”, and the basis for three movies (The Thing from Another World (1951), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2011)). The book includes three extra chapters at the beginning. The story opens with McReady, Vane, Barclay, and Norris arriving at a camp to investigate a magnetic anomaly that has occurred in the area. Upon their excavation, the team unearths a piece of highly polished metal and a frozen creature with blue skin and three red eyes. The description of the Thing is fantastic, and I don’t do it justice here, but I also don’t want to take away from the reader experience. Blair and Copper arrive at the camp later, and they make the decision to take the body back with them. Little do the men know that by returning to basecamp with the body the hell that will be unleashed. Paranoia and isolation run rampant through the camp after the body is found to be missing. When they do realize what is happening, it may already be too late.

Material that is included in this volume are, as mentioned, new chapters that detail the discovery of the Thing and its metal spacecraft, as well as rich description of the Antarctic landscape and atmosphere. Some reviewers felt that this took away from the story, but I felt that it added a slow burn element, and I’m a sucker for deep description of landscapes. I understand this element isn’t for everyone, however. The book includes a preview of a sequel written by John Betancourt. Alec Nevala-Lee provides a great discussion of how he found the manuscript in Campbell’s archival collection in Harvard’s Houghton Library. Robert Silverberg introduces the book, and the illustrations and wraparound full colour cover by Bob Eggleton add a nice spooky touch to the book. The text and table of contents needed an additional review by an editor, but otherwise the book was put together well. I would recommend this as a great companion piece to Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”.

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Reviewed by Lizzy Walker