The movie has the distinction of being the first hollywood flick to deal with interstellar travel. One of my favorites and a classic. Nevermind the MST3k version, it was making fun of a movie that was half the length.
I just read the novel, and it is superior in many ways, far more detailed, quite different from the flick, and is frankly a whole new experience. Raymond F. Jones wrote some interesting stuff, but this may be his best. At points the writing is somewhat poetic, as when he describes a war on a galactic scale where the inconceivable vast energies twist space and time, turning spacemen "into screaming things that will live forever." Thumbs up.
I just read the novel, and it is superior in many ways, far more detailed, quite different from the flick, and is frankly a whole new experience. Raymond F. Jones wrote some interesting stuff, but this may be his best. At points the writing is somewhat poetic, as when he describes a war on a galactic scale where the inconceivable vast energies twist space and time, turning spacemen "into screaming things that will live forever." Thumbs up.
"--Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be ... limited to our own galaxy."