The Reel Stuff

Meer over het boek

Editor Brian Thomsen admits that film was his entrée into the world of science fiction. After watching classics such as Fantastic Voyage and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, he discovered that many of the most dramatic presentations were based on written stories. So he sought out the authors, read their works, and became enthralled by the golden word as well as the silver screen. Years later he decided to compile an anthology of stories that were translated to film, and the result is The Reel Stuff. The book contains 12 works by writers such as Philip K. Dick and John Varley; some writers are well known and others are not as readily recognizable. Included in the anthology are Dick's "Second Variety" and "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," which turned up on screen as Screamers and Total Recall, respectively. Also included, but less well known, is Robert Silverberg's "Amanda and the Alien," which was turned into a made-for-cable movie of the same name. There's even an H.P. Lovecraft story here, "Herbert West: Reanimator," which Hollywood made into Re-Animator, a campy SF horror classic. --Craig E. Engler