2008 books

[peteryoung]

37) Joseph Millard, The Gods Hate Kansas, 1964
Invisible aliens arrive in meteorites that crash in Kansas, turn scientists into zombies who are then transported to the moon as slave labour to fix their spaceship, and zombified female scientist is rescued by non-zombified boyfriend. This first appeared in Startling Stories more than twenty years earlier in 1941, is pure pulp now, and provides a case study in how spectacular titles can make weak stories look like good books while giving them extra shelf-life too: this was later filmed as They Came From Beyond Space, and this first edition cover has since become something of a pulp icon.

Comments

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

What a great title!

I seem to recall...

[godelescherbach.livejournal.com]

...the movie version, and it being a pretty good (for low-budget) effort. The book looks absolutely classic!

Re: I seem to recall...

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

I've just watched it on DVD. Set in England with British actors but still fairly faithful to the book. Very 1960s!

Re: I seem to recall...

[godelescherbach.livejournal.com]

The link you gave was kind of sketchy on details: But is this the one where the meteors land in a "V", seem to be taking over people, there's a mysterious facility being built, rockets being launched to the Moon (now there's something easily hid!), and The Master in the Moon who releases his captive human in order to extend the hand of peace, etc.?

If so, one of my favorite low-budget British efforts, along with the movie version of Leinster's "The Wailing Asteroid", plus the various Dr. Who and Quatermass movies (the only way us poor colonials saw either, for years and years).

Re: I seem to recall...

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the one...

Must look out for the movie of The Wailing Asteroid. I have the book somewhere.

Re: I seem to recall...

[godelescherbach.livejournal.com]

The book is out of copyright, IIRC, so you should be able to get it at Project Gutenberg and the like.

The movie is a lot of fun. In many ways, it parallels "This Island Earth" (the movie, not the original book). And there's even a touching scene with the demise of a robot that still brings a tear to my eye...

:)