= This_Island_Earth

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= This_Island_Earth_(novel) =
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Introduction
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'This Island Earth' is a 1952 science fiction novel by American writer
Raymond F. Jones. It was first published in 'Thrilling Wonder Stories'
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 'This Island Earth'. It became the basis for the 1955
Universal-International science fiction film also titled 'This Island
Earth'.

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.

Plot
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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 condensers
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 catalog calls an "interocitor".

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 and factory complex in a 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.

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 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.

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. 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 World War II.

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 sleeper agent. As a consequence of the
interocitor-mediated battle that destroys Ole and his non-human
henchmen, Jorgasnovara also dies.

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. 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.

Title
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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
Second World War. 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 Robert Graves' poem,
"Darien" ("It is a poet’s privilege and fate/To fall enamoured of the
one Muse/Who variously haunts this island earth".)

Publication history
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The story was originally published as three stories in 'Thrilling
Wonder Stories' (published by Standard Magazines, Inc.):
* "The Alien Machine" (June 1949)
* "The Shroud of Secrecy" (December 1949)
* "The Greater Conflict" (February 1950)
The story was subsequently published in book form:
* 1952, USA, Shasta Publishers, December 1952, Hardcover (220 pp)
* 1953, USA, Shasta/SFBC, Pub date Sep 1953, Hardcover (220 pp)
* 1954, Sweden, Lindqvist (Atomböckerna), Hardcover (208 pp), as
Universum Ockuperat (Universe Occupied)
* 1955, UK, T.V. Boardman, Hardcover (220 pp)
* 1955, USA, Shasta, Hardcover (220 pp)
* 1955, Italy, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (I Romanzi di Urania #96),
Paperback digest (128 pp), as Il cittadino dello spazio (The Citizen
of Space)
* 1956, France, Gallimard (Le Rayon Fantastique #37), Paperback (253
pp), as Les survivants de l’infini (The Survivors of the Infinite)
* 1956, Germany, Pabel Verlag (Utopia Grossband #37), Paperback digest
(89 pp), as Insel zwischen den Sternen (Island Between the Stars)
* 1957, Spain, Editora y Distribuidora Hispano Americana, S.A.
(Colección Nebulae #41), Paperback, as Esta Isla la Tierra (This
Island Earth)
* 1977, Italy, Libra Editrice (I Classici della Fantascienza #28), Pub
date Oct 1977, Hardback (280 pp), as Il cittadino dello spazio (The
Citizen of Space)
* 1991, UK, Grafton Books, , Pub date Mar 1991, Paperback (191 pp)

Reviews
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At 'The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction' (May 1953)
Boucher and McComas 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)".

In the publication 'Kirkus Reviews', the reviewer wrote:

In the 'Saturday Review' for June 13, 1953 Fletcher Pratt wrote:

Adaptations
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Universal-International produced a film version of 'This Island
Earth', released on June 1, 1955.

External links
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*
*
*
[https://archive.org/stream/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v34n02_1949-06#page/n73/mode/2up
"The Alien Machine"],
[https://archive.org/stream/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v35n02_1949-12#page/n63/mode/2up
"The Shroud of Secrecy"], and
[https://archive.org/stream/Thrilling_Wonder_Stories_v35n03_1950-02#page/n91/mode/2up
"The Greater Conflict"] on the Internet Archive

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Island_Earth_(novel)