Arguably the great existential science fiction novel, Tevis' deeply intelligent and visionary story of an alien integrating with humanity on Earth in order to save what remains of his race endures as a stark parable about otherness and solitude.
The remarkable novel upon which the stunning cult film was based.
Thomas Jerome Newton is an extraterrestrial from the planet Anthea, which has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars, and whose inhabitants are twice as intelligent as human beings. When he lands on Earth - in Kentucky, disguised as a human - it's with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Newton patents some very advanced Anthean technology, which he uses to amass a fortune.
He begins to build a spaceship to help the last 300 Antheans migrate to Earth. Meanwhile, Nathan Bryce, a chemistry professor in Iowa, is intrigued by some of the new products Newton's company brings to the market, and already suspects Newton of being an alien. As Bryce and the FBI close in, Newton finds his own clarity and sense of purpose diminishing.
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781473213111
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 184 g
Dimensions: 196 x 134 x 16 mm
Beautiful science fiction...(Newton) acquires a moving, tragic force as the stranger, caught and destroyed in a strange land... The story of an extraterrestrial visitor from another planet is designed mainly to say something about life on this one - NEW YORK TIMES
An utterly realistic novel about an alien human on Earth ... realistic enough to become a metaphor for something inside us all, some existential aloneness - Norman Spinrad
Tevis writes ... with power and poetry and tension - WASHINGTON POST
One of the finest science fiction novels of its period - J R Dunn, author of Full Tide of Night
A short science fiction book that realistically portrays life for an extraterrestrial humanoid on Earth. Beautifully written and set in 1985 twenty years ahead of its publishing date it does not feel outdated 50 years... More
This book was read on a whim and it does not feel as if it were written many years ago, the pacing and the prose are readily accesible today.
The tale which is on the outside an original think on the life that an...
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The story follows an Anthean as he arrives on Earth with the intention of building a craft to rescue those of his people remaining on their devastated planet. Utilising his skill, he works tirelessly to build the... More
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