Short Things: Tales Inspired by 'Who Goes There?' by John W. Campbell, Jr.

by John Gregory Betancourt (Editor), G.D. Falksen, Paul Di Filippo

Short Things is a collection of never-before-published stories based on John W. Campbell's classic short novel, 'Who Goes There? (filmed as The Thing). Commissioned one by one as stretch goals for the Frozen Hell Kickstarter project (which broke records as one of the most successful science fiction publishing projects in Kickstarter history), this series of stories grew to book size – thanks to contributions by many top writers.

Enjoy these sometimes very different takes on the classic monster, the Thing!

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Aliens, Short Stories, Fiction, Lovecraftian

220 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2019

About the author

John Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), Cat Tales magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and Adventure Tales magazine. He worked as a Senior Editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (1989-1996) and iBooks. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer's Digest and The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Gary Laporte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter's The Thing and the original short story, "Who Goes There?". Huge as in "viewed the movie twice a week when I was a teenager, read the novel based on its script 100 times, bought a page from the storyboard, been recreating the concept in various video games and board games"... among many other things.

I was very disappointed by these short stories because, in my humble opinion, almost all of them miss the point of the concept of the Thing, which is the paranoïa. With the Thing, anybody can become the alien in disguise, you cannot trust anyone anymore. Are the people in the room with you still human or have they all become the Thing? Can you close your eyes and sleep, or would you be better stay awake because, maybe... you're the last human and they're waiting for you to let your guard down?

That's the kind of paranoïa the Thing can create, and it's at the core of its concept.

Among the stories I liked, the one focusing on the survivors adapting to "normal life" again and still being unable to stop being paranoid was one of the best ones. How do you live a normal life when at any moment, you may look at someone and wonder "could he/she be...?". No need here for gory effects, simple human psychology at work which made it a good short story.

There were several others like that, but the majority of the others... It's almost as if the concept of the creature was not interesting for most of the authors. In some of them, it's not about the Thing at all.

The stories also have various tones, from horror to comedy to pulp... But most of them don't work very well with the Thing. There are also logic errors in several short stories where they've not taken into account some of the elements of the original short story, or misunderstood them.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, because I love the Thing so much, but this collection was a big disappointment. Some of the stories were ok, but they were unfortunately far from being the majority.

So, buy at your own risk, these tales very, very loosely inspired by Who Goes There may not be your "Thing" after all!

[Brian Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a missed opportunity. Being a massive fan of The Thing, I was a backer for the release of Frozen Hell, so I was obviously excited about the idea of some new short stories based on The Thing. But this collection missed the mark in ways I didn't know were possible. Some of them require bizarre mental gymnastics just to read them, like pretending everyone survived the events of the original movie, which apparently now happened in a completely different decade. Others are barely even related to The Thing at all. I don't usually rate books this low, but the disparity between what could have been and what we have is too great to ignore.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series of excellent short stories focusing on the events of "Who Goes There?" and its aftermath.

Perhaps not entirely designed for someone reading alone on a cold, dark, night.

[Mark Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that impressed!
Some pretty weak tales!
I only liked one of them, the rest are already forgotten.
Stay away or you'll be sorry!

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies can often be a mixed bag, and this one was no exception. I also have to say that it was rather frustrating how blatantly this needed way more copyediting than it got. It’s honestly kinda embarrassing for something attached to a major franchise. (Yes, I know it started life as a series of Kickstarter incentives that got out of hand, but you still decided to compile it and make money off of it, so put some effort into that please?)


Sidenote: after how much of a big deal the introduction made about Frozen Things (the recently-discovered longer draft of Who Goes There? that was published), I did actually start reading it, but tapped out after a couple chapters when I realized it wasn’t any less boring than Who Goes There? And like, I’m a masochist, but reading a longer version of a boring novella isn’t one of my kinks, sorry.


On that note, I should add that these stories are based on Who Goes There? not on its drastically more popular film adaptation, so bear that in mind I guess? And a lot of the stories left me feeling like “meh whatever,” but the ones I enjoyed made this anthology more than worth it. My favorite stories, in the order they appeared in the anthology:


“THE” BY CHELSEA QUINN YARBO:

This was probably the one that seems the most out of place in this anthology since I can’t really see that it has anything to do with Who Goes There?, but I’m way more interested in her weird Star Trek populated by beings with weird pronouns (!!!) and whatnot.


“COLD STORAGE” BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON: 

This is honestly exactly what I would expect Kevin J. Anderson to write given this assignment. His is probably the most lighthearted story in the anthology. It has two government employees who are heavily implied to work at Area 51, one of whom ends up studying Blair’s journal.


“GOOD AS DEAD” BY NINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN:

In this story the wife of one of the Antarctic expedition members deals with her husband returning after a long time away, and her nosey neighbor trying to bully her. She actually ends up befriending one of the Things to an extent, as it takes up residence in her beloved family dog and puts an end to her neighbor bullying her.


“THE HORROR ON THE SUPERYACHT” by Mark McLaughlin:

This has the feel of one of those horror comedies where everyone is half naked and you’re not supposed to take anything seriously but it turns into a massive bloodbath. It’s a lot of fun. Not where I would want most of these stories to go, but an effective change of pace to have in an anthology like this one.


“APOLLYON” BY G.D. FALKSEN:

This was a story about Roman centurions encountering a Thing centuries ago. It was a little difficult to get into at first, but once it got going it was just phenomenal. And the pathos of the protagonist listening to a Thing that took the form of his dead lover hearing “her” talk about what it’s like to be alone in the universe, cut off from your home… this one was a lot.


“THE MONSTER AT WORLD’S END” BY ALLAN COLE:

This is probably my favorite story of the anthology. This one is told from the point of view of a Thing, but unlike “The Things” by Peter Watts it’s telling a wholly original story. In this one a captured Thing is being tortured but ends up befriending a human woman. Amusingly, it refers to humans as Things from its perspective, which is a fun little inversion. When it’s later able to escape, it hears her in the process of being sexually assaulted and rescues her. She convinces it to let her run away with it, and as their friendship deepens she begins to convince him that humans are not inherently evil. There’s even some pretty rad class consciousness on display as she tells him “those depredations are the fault of a greedy, deliberately ignorant few who have seized power over the rest of us.” It’s a remarkably succinct way of describing capitalism to a literal space alien.


And yeah, there are plenty of clunkers too. But I think there’s more than enough in here to make it worth your while if you enjoy science fiction and want more Things to read.


… more Things to read?


Yeah, okay, I’ll show myself out.


—


Check out my compilation review of Who Goes There? and its adaptations on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...


If you like my writing, please consider subscribing to my Patreon to get early access and a monthly exclusive post! https://www.patreon.com/tailsmoon

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leftovers, by Alan Dean Foster - 3/5
The Mission, at T-Prime, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - 4/5
His Two Wars, by Pamela Sargent - 2.5/5
The, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - 2/5
The Interrogator, by Darrell Schweitzer - 2/5
'According to a Reliable Source...', by Allen M. Steele - 3.5/5
Cold Storage, by Kevin J. Anderson - 4/5
Good as Dead, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - 3/5
The Horror on the Superyacht, by Mark McLaughlin - 1/5
Apollyon, by G. D. Falksen - 4/5
The Monster at World's End, by Allen Cole - 4.5/5
Thingmaker, by Paul di Filippo - 3/5
The Nature of the Beast, by John Gregory Betancourt - 3/5

[Allan Krummenacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of short stories by various authors, each exploring a new avenue with the creature from John W Campbell Jr's brilliant novella "Who Goes There?". The themes range from Post Traumatic Stress, to seeing inside the mind of one of those "Things".

Each author weaves their own tale. We are treated to tales of horror, shock, surprise, amusement, intrigue, and even compassion.

An excellent collection for anyone who has loved Mr. Campbell's novella.

[Sally the Salamander · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very excited about this anthology when I stumbled across it on Amazon. It pains me to say that by and large, the stories in here are quite sub-par, and after reading this I am relieved that I didn't back the project on Kickstarter. Instead, I spent only $7 for the Kindle version. Even that seems a little steep for what amounts to two decent stories out of thirteen. The best story by far was written by the guy who compiled the anthology, Betancourt.

I have not heard of these other authors before, but a cursory search for them on Goodreads shows that most have at least a few publications under their belt, a lot of them novelizations of films/shows, and they should be capable of producing better work than what we see here. All I can imagine is that most of them found themselves pressed to whip up a short for this anthology in a few hours, somehow. I find myself saying this a lot, but I have legitimately seen better fanfiction than what is compiled in this collection. This effect is compounded by the fact that this anthology essentially is fanfiction. Unlike what you would see on FF.net or AO3, however, many of these authors seem to care very little for Campbell's story. Most of these shorts miss the themes of "Who Goes There?" (paranoia, claustrophobia, mysterious lovecraftian implications) entirely, a good chunk seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the inspiring work whatsoever.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

- One story is set far into the future, with a crew compiled of aliens from a variety of races, including humans. They are trying to travel into a black hole and there's this metallic, orb-like alien that serves as their guide. It can sense black holes somehow. It starts going crazy because the humans onboard have an orchestra that plays a few times a week and this orb doesn't know how to process music. The captain comes to realize the alien might be intentionally steering them off course. The end.

- In one short, our POV character is an alien from a dying race, come to see if earth would be suitable for their survival and if they can live alongside humans peacefully. He seems to be living in some sort of makeshift hut and bears no resemblance to The Thing. He observes humans on an expedition to drill for some element in the Arctic, watching them spill oil over penguins and seals with comical glee. He's captured, rescued by a sympathetic human, they talk about how much humanity sucks.

Apart from being poor in concept, most of these stories are poor in execution as well. Rough, amateurish prose with awkward sentences and scene; paper thin characters; bad dialogue; and the entire anthology is riddled with misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Would have been one star, but for the two decent stories in there. Not recommended, even for fans of The Thing or "Who Goes There?"

[Jean-Francois Boivin · Rating 4 out of 5]

13 new stories by very talented writers, each are sequels to John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? short story, alternate takes unrelated to each other. I would have preferred they be inspired by the John Carpenter movie adaptation, but Wildside Press have the rights to the Estate of Campbell, not to Universal Studios' movie. But if you squint, you can imagine some of those stories could be sequels to the movie. One I liked a lot is "Apollyon" probably because it is set during the Roman empire times and is self-contained, probably the only one not related to the Antarctica discovery from 1938.

"Leftovers" by Alan Dean Foster
"The Mission, at T-Prime" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
"His Two Wars" by Pamela Sargent
"The" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
"The Interrogator" by Darrell Schweitzer
"'According to a Reliable Source...'" by Allen M. Steele
"Cold Storage" by Kevin J. Anderson
"Good as Dead" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
"The Horror on the Superyacht" by Mark McLaughlin
"Apollyon" by G. D. Falksen
"The Monster at World's End" by Allen Cole
"Thingmaker" by Paul di Filippo
"The Nature of the Beast" by John Gregory Betancourt

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of the source story by John W. Campbell, Jr., and the movie John Carpenter made out of it, I came away from this anthology disappointed. I’m not sure I blame the writers, however. Campbell’s basic premise creates plot dilemmas with minuscule margins of error and apocalyptic consequences for failure, which considerably narrows creative possibilities. Some authors opted to side-step the issue by going in different directions (Pamela Sargent makes this work, but Chelsea Quinn Yarbro does not). Other tales – particularly “Apollyon” by G.D. Falksen – might have done better if they could have played out on their own rather than having key plot twists spoiled by the nature of the set. And I admit I gave up on the entries by Allen Cole and Paul Di Filippo (the former being too long to endure the stiff use of the Thing’s point of view and the latter being too short to justify extensive, tedious world-building). Overall this belongs on the bookshelf of Thing fans everywhere, but I’m not sure anyone else will get much out of it.

[Jean Lindholm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating but Predictable

I have been a fan of science fiction for most of my considerable years. Many years ago, I read stories about global warming, greenhouse effect, and of how the human race is destroying our world. A lot of these stories came true and I'm one of the people that am not surprised when they do. Just lately, I became interested in the movies based on THE THING and watched all of them that I could find (I believe there are three), which led me to the book, WHO GOES THERE?, and then to this anthology. Science fiction has always been about what we are doing to our planet, and these stories, some funny, some down right scary, but always thought-provoking and entertaining. This is the gist of why we read, and I thoroughly enjoyed SHORT THINGS!

[Christopher Pate · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Thing' in all it's big screen iterations, and many of the better imitations, has always been at the top of my scifi/horror movie list. John Carpenter's version is, in my distinctly amateur opinion, the finest film rendition. That said, I came to the original John W. Campbell, Jr. novella, 'Who goes there?' (on which all those movies were based) years after I saw the movie in its first run way back when. I loved it. So, I had high hopes for this anthology of stories all meant to take place after the events of Campbell's seminal tale. However, it turned out to be only a mildly diverting set of stories that generally lacked character and the truly disturbing paranoia, dread, and dark fear of the original, and very much unequaled story.

[Mr Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have some of these writers even read the source story?

I agree with a lot of other reviewers—some of these shorts are just plain bad. Sure, any collection will have a few stinkers, but this was a shit sandwich where even the bread was shit.

One story basically said all white men are racist, rapists, murderers, and aliens are better than us. Lovely, cheers for that.

Another was about a ball on a spaceship that likes music... riveting.

And then there’s the classic “we caught the thing!” twist—except it wasn’t the thing. Shocked face. Well rub my belly and call me Susan, never saw that coming.

Out of the whole bunch, I think I enjoyed two stories. The rest? Shouldn’t have made it into the collection.

[Bo]

An anthology, mediocre like most.

There are some good stories in this, a few mediocre and some pretty bad. In other words, it's an anthology. That said, consideribg the theme of the book, to make something inspired by John Campbell's Who Goes There/Frozen Hell some of these writers probably never read that story. Some seem to have seen the 80s movie, and not before writing their stories but in the more distant past. One story early on shows no inspiration from the story or extended franchise at all, being a space opera type thing with no relation to the thing itself, nor to the themes of isolation and paranoia that the original story thrived on.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to rate a collection but the overall impression was sub-par and disappointing. Some stories ("The" in particular) don't seem to belong and the standard of copyediting throughout is poor (typos, punctuation errors, missing words, extra words) in a way that hurts the overall product. Some stories maybe rise to 3 stars ("Apollyon" for example) but still read like hastily constructed fan fiction which, I guess, is exactly what they are considering they were cobbled together as a bonus to an expectedly successful Kickstarter.

[Keith Bowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazingly good collection. There isn't a bad story in the lot, though there is one that oddly doesn't seem to have anything to do with the subject, and some are absolutely brilliant. If you're a fan of the original story, this is highly recommended.

My only quibble is that even in today's copy-edit-by-software world, there are a lot of typos/syntax errors/missing words. One story doesn't seem to have even had a computer pass and perhaps is a direct first draft. Great story, though.

[Kristin. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be careful of the Thing

This is a wonderful series of sci-fi follow-ups to John Campbell, Jr.' s "Who Goes There?" While each writer's version of the continuation of the story is different, each author has an interesting twist to the tale! The shortest story is the first, which is quite to the point! Each writer gave an unique turn of the original story! This was a very enjoyable read!

[Mark Farish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!

If you are a fan of the original written story by Campbell or the Carpenter movie in 1982, this is perfect fodder for filling various gaps from different perspectives. I loved it and started to think of my own angle. Well done!

[Darryl Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously the stories are going to be thematically similar in a book like this but the stories all seemed to differ more in terms of quality. Some were pretty good, some were *really poor* and all together it got boring pretty fast.

[Christopher Staub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun reads!!!

[Paul Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

As individual stories, most of this is utter trash, but taken as a whole there are some interesting perspectives on the nature, consequences and capabilities of Campbell's creation.

[Benedikt Nass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories fell flat for me. An exception was the story set in the far past (Apollyon) which was a 5star read. Sadly most of the rest was more 2-3stars for me.

[Chuck McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific anthology of stories set in the universe of John Carpenter's 'The Thing', offering a bunch of fresh and fun takes on the titular creature. Includes tales from lauded authors as Paul Di Filippo, Alan Dean Foster, Darrell Schweitzer, Kathryn Rusch, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Kevin J. Anderson, Pamela Sargent and Allen M. Steele, among others. An absolutely brilliant read if you can get your hands on it.

[Alexander Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the short stories were not for me but overall I really enjoyed this book!

[Blaine Wajdowicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome fan fiction for, truly, a masterpiece of horror cinema. While I appreciate this was a kickstarter labor of love, for the love of god next time have an editor/proofer read through it