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The Crowded Earth
This Crowded Earth is one of the early entries in the overpopulation subgenre. It begins with Harry Collins in that far-future year of 1997, and follows him through various adventures to 2065. Harry is one of the growing number of people who can't stand the over-crowded cities. He lives in a cramped bachelor's apartment -- he could upgrade to a larger one if he'd get married, but he'd also have to add an hour to his commute each way, bringing the total to six hours. One day he suffers a mental breakdown and is sent to a bucolic clinic in the country, where he soon enters a relationship with a nurse. Or so he thinks. A doctor at the clinic approaches him with the truth -- the "nurse" is another patient who was instructed to deceive him in order to start a tryst. They're both, in fact, part of an experiment to solve the over-population problem. The doctor is apprehended by the Powers That Be at the clinic, and Harry is told the man's a nut. But soon his "nurse" disappears and he ends up in a relationship with another ... and then another ... and another. Bloch plays coy about what exactly the experiments are about, but we eventually learn that they're part of a project to end overcrowding by breeding midget babies. (Goodreads)
154 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1958
119 people are currently reading
838 people want to read
About the author
Robert Bloch
1,090 books1,277 followersRobert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, Indiana-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.
He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.
He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
December 26, 2013
I like to read old SF. This was published in 1958. Part of the fun is seeing what predictions about the future the writer got right and which ones he got wrong. The title makes it clear that this book is about overpopulation and vanishing resources. Much of it takes place in our current era and a few decades from now. Overpopulation and vanishing resources are a problem today, of course, just not to the extreme predicted in this book. And the method that the secret masters of this imagined future come up with to address the overpopulation issue is patently ridiculous. I found the writing crisp, and Bloch can throw in some surprising twists here and there. But the work was just a bit heavy-handed and preachy for my taste. However, it was good enough for me to look into reading more of Bloch's work.
February 18, 2014
It is my intent to review this book without spoiling any of the important plot devices. I dove into this story without a clue as to what I was in for, other than that it was about an Earth that had become overcrowded--and that much can be gleaned from the title. I recommend you do the same: get a hold of this title, whether in print or on Kindle, and consume it.
Go.
Since you’re reading my words--and not yet the author of the story’s--I suppose you want a little bit more. Robert Bloch (best-known for writing Psycho, the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, as well as its later adaptations) created This Crowded Earth as a dystopian novella set beginning four decades in the future, in 1997. By then, planet Earth is devastatingly overpopulated and the attempted regulations and laws have done little to thwart its continuance. Dr. Leffingwell, however, has come up with a solution.
Through the quick 96 pages, and the 68 years the story encompasses, both the story’s unwitting subject, Harry Collins, and the reader are left desperate for the truth and trying to unravel the mystery of who can be trusted, and what’s really going on.
The story is surprisingly prescient. While the proposed solution to the overpopulation situation is purely science fiction, its not too far-fetched that you couldn’t imagine some of the fringe conspiracy theorists of AM talk radio raving it about as fact. (That’s both an acknowledgement of Bloch’s ingenuity, and an indictment of modern, cynical hysteria.)
Just as it goes in real life, the effects of Collins’s government’s benevolence--the desperation of policy-makers to do more good than harm--is shadowed by the inevitable: collateral damage of a most-disturbing kind. This theme plays off of the result of a worldwide e cold war, in which the threat of mutually-assured destruction has guaranteed peace on Earth.
Bloch's writing is crisp and witty. The story is short enough to be consumed in the course of a couple of hours, but long enough for the reader to become involved in the story and attached to the characters. It's also one of those stories that sticks with you, the ones you find yourself thinking about days or more after finishing it. This Crowded Earth is a worthwhile investment for any reader's repertoire.
Go.
Since you’re reading my words--and not yet the author of the story’s--I suppose you want a little bit more. Robert Bloch (best-known for writing Psycho, the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, as well as its later adaptations) created This Crowded Earth as a dystopian novella set beginning four decades in the future, in 1997. By then, planet Earth is devastatingly overpopulated and the attempted regulations and laws have done little to thwart its continuance. Dr. Leffingwell, however, has come up with a solution.
Through the quick 96 pages, and the 68 years the story encompasses, both the story’s unwitting subject, Harry Collins, and the reader are left desperate for the truth and trying to unravel the mystery of who can be trusted, and what’s really going on.
The story is surprisingly prescient. While the proposed solution to the overpopulation situation is purely science fiction, its not too far-fetched that you couldn’t imagine some of the fringe conspiracy theorists of AM talk radio raving it about as fact. (That’s both an acknowledgement of Bloch’s ingenuity, and an indictment of modern, cynical hysteria.)
Just as it goes in real life, the effects of Collins’s government’s benevolence--the desperation of policy-makers to do more good than harm--is shadowed by the inevitable: collateral damage of a most-disturbing kind. This theme plays off of the result of a worldwide e cold war, in which the threat of mutually-assured destruction has guaranteed peace on Earth.
Bloch's writing is crisp and witty. The story is short enough to be consumed in the course of a couple of hours, but long enough for the reader to become involved in the story and attached to the characters. It's also one of those stories that sticks with you, the ones you find yourself thinking about days or more after finishing it. This Crowded Earth is a worthwhile investment for any reader's repertoire.
March 19, 2010
This Crowded Earth is one of the early entries in the overpopulation subgenre. It begins with Harry Collins in that far-future year of 1997, and follows him through various adventures to 2065.
Harry is one of the growing number of people who can't stand the over-crowded cities. He lives in a cramped bachelor's apartment -- he could upgrade to a larger one if he'd get married, but he'd also have to add an hour to his commute each way, bringing the total to six hours. One day he suffers a mental breakdown and is sent to a bucolic clinic in the country, where he soon enters a relationship with a nurse.
Or so he thinks. A doctor at the clinic approaches him with the truth -- the "nurse" is another patient who was instructed to deceive him in order to start a tryst. They're both, in fact, part of an experiment to solve the over-population problem. The doctor is apprehended by the Powers That Be at the clinic, and Harry is told the man's a nut. But soon his "nurse" disappears and he ends up in a relationship with another ... and then another ... and another.
Bloch plays coy about what exactly the experiments are about, but we eventually learn that they're part of a project to end overcrowding by breeding midget babies.
Harry escapes and tries to lead a new life working on a ranch, but as the midgetization of the human race begins, he feels the need to do something. Unfortunately, no dashing sci-fi hero is he, and he ends up in jail for several years, while a race-war between the "yard-sticks" and older generation brews.
Harry's story is interspersed with vignettes showing what's going on in the rest of the world. These events are interesting enough that it's a shame Bloch didn't spend more time on them. This Crowded Earth is in the nether-zone between novel and novella, as defined by the Hugo Awards, but it easily has enough plot for a full-scale epic.
As an early example of the over-population sub-genre, there are some interesting aspects to Bloch's treatment of the subject. For one thing, he supposes that science and technology are able to overcome all problems of scarcity except space, so there are no famines or energy shortages. The problem society faces is that people don't want to live in such dense populations.
And even though reality has proven over-population predictions wrong, there is a lot that has come true -- while the suburbs of DC don't stretch to Gettysburg yet, it's not as outrageous an idea as when Bloch wrote it fifty years ago, and his depiction of people not even knowing the names of their neighbors is true in many modern suburban developments. The description of rush-hour in over-crowded cities was obviously intended to be satirical, but it's a joke that just isn't funny anymore.
Harry is one of the growing number of people who can't stand the over-crowded cities. He lives in a cramped bachelor's apartment -- he could upgrade to a larger one if he'd get married, but he'd also have to add an hour to his commute each way, bringing the total to six hours. One day he suffers a mental breakdown and is sent to a bucolic clinic in the country, where he soon enters a relationship with a nurse.
Or so he thinks. A doctor at the clinic approaches him with the truth -- the "nurse" is another patient who was instructed to deceive him in order to start a tryst. They're both, in fact, part of an experiment to solve the over-population problem. The doctor is apprehended by the Powers That Be at the clinic, and Harry is told the man's a nut. But soon his "nurse" disappears and he ends up in a relationship with another ... and then another ... and another.
Bloch plays coy about what exactly the experiments are about, but we eventually learn that they're part of a project to end overcrowding by breeding midget babies.
Harry escapes and tries to lead a new life working on a ranch, but as the midgetization of the human race begins, he feels the need to do something. Unfortunately, no dashing sci-fi hero is he, and he ends up in jail for several years, while a race-war between the "yard-sticks" and older generation brews.
Harry's story is interspersed with vignettes showing what's going on in the rest of the world. These events are interesting enough that it's a shame Bloch didn't spend more time on them. This Crowded Earth is in the nether-zone between novel and novella, as defined by the Hugo Awards, but it easily has enough plot for a full-scale epic.
As an early example of the over-population sub-genre, there are some interesting aspects to Bloch's treatment of the subject. For one thing, he supposes that science and technology are able to overcome all problems of scarcity except space, so there are no famines or energy shortages. The problem society faces is that people don't want to live in such dense populations.
And even though reality has proven over-population predictions wrong, there is a lot that has come true -- while the suburbs of DC don't stretch to Gettysburg yet, it's not as outrageous an idea as when Bloch wrote it fifty years ago, and his depiction of people not even knowing the names of their neighbors is true in many modern suburban developments. The description of rush-hour in over-crowded cities was obviously intended to be satirical, but it's a joke that just isn't funny anymore.
August 5, 2017
I don’t usually give one-star ratings, for the simple reason that I rarely finish a book that I dislike enough to rate that low. I stuck with this one, because I was interested in the premise and because this is the fellow who wrote Psycho. (I never read Psycho but, of course, it was a brilliant film.) For reasons I cannot explain even to myself, I kept expecting this book to get better.
The premise of this book is interesting. In each chapter of This Crowded Earth, Bloch illustrates a list of stupendous social ills caused by humans, in an effort to improve their lot. Each attempted solution creates yet another nightmare problem that threatens their survival as a species. For instance, there is overcrowding because there are no more wars (the result of a shared fear of nuclear annihilation), and because of advances in medical science that rid the world of disease. So, humanity has achieved a kind of utopia in that way, only to end up living like rats in a cage because there is no longer enough room for everyone.
The story opens with a protagonist named Harry, who is getting more anxious by the day, living in a flat the size of a walk-in closet, while holding down a mind-numbing job as an “agency man” and reminiscing about a better life. He dates women who he says want to marry him only to upgrade the size of their own living quarters. Having a child qualifies a couple for a full two rooms, rather than one to share.
The plot takes off in the first chapter or two when Harry thrillingly tumbles out his office window one morning but fails to plummet to his death. So far, so good. Harry gets sent off somewhere to recover for a while, and that’s where we meet a woman who seems to be a potential love interest. This is good, too, because up until this point, women have only been mentioned briefly but not made an appearance, and Harry is starting to grate on the nerves a bit. But no, this one’s a red herring! Our love interest, for reasons I won’t disclose here, is just making a cameo appearance and will soon be gone. In fact, as I began to realise a few chapters in, none of the female characters in this book stick around for any length of time. They are used only to move the plot forward in regard to Harry.
The role of women in This Crowded Earth is appalling, even by 1958 standards. (At least in Pyscho, we have a reason for that: Norman Bates is a pathological serial killer.) Here, women are merely ciphers, used by men for distraction, sex, and reproduction. They have no other identity or function in Bloch’s narrative. I know you might be thinking “Oh, you mean like in The Handmaid’s Tale? But that was a great book!” and you would be right; but no, I don’t mean that. Atwood is saying, “Look at what’s happening to women in this dystopian society,” and we read with bated breath, looking forward to the revolution (or at least subversion) that we expect is coming.
I did not expect a female uprising in Bloch’s book, necessarily. But I did expect him, through his characters, to at least notice and comment in some meaningful way upon women’s role in society, mean and minimal as it is, beyond that of pushing out genetically-modified babies. While it is true that this is not a character-driven novel, but an ideologically-driven one (which means that Harry is not a fully-realised character, either), it is also true that Bloch fails to note the dehumanization of women as one of the social ills that need healing. I thought he was taking us there, at one point, as we listened to a conversation between a husband and wife who are worried about her taking the pills that they know will alter forever the size of their child. But the last we hear of that couple, and that woman, she’s decided it’s all good; so what about the alterations, it still means some kind of baby and a bigger flat, right?
All of the recurring significant characters in Bloch’s book are male, and the focus is entirely upon them. They are the ones who grasp the enormity of the problem the world is facing, and they are the ones who are destined to solve it, to whatever extent that is possible. At one point, several hundred of them take off into the desert together to live a kind of monastic life while they plan for their future victorious return to civilization. It’s very like Exodus, this bit, only without God, temples, idols, sacrifices, or women. Harry remains our main guy, and we follow him everywhere, listening in on his man-to-man chats about quotidian conspiracy theories and ideas for solving the world’s crises. Eventually, he even meets the son he’d helped to produce years earlier, but of course, he never asks after the boy’s mother.
At the end of the book, despite his having spoken only to other guys for something like twenty or thirty years, Harry somehow remembers that women exist and that they have ovaries and other useful bits. Thus, Harry’s genius-hero “solution” to the current problem of a dying population is all about women … Well, their reproductive organs, anyway. Isn’t that great? Women get to be the saviors of the world, after all. And all this time, I’d been thinking they did not matter.
Specifically, Harry’s plan involves the female of the species, whose average height is now something like two and a half feet (due to the aforementioned genetic manipulation), carrying non-modified, full-sized human babies, who would presumably grow in-utero to seven or more pounds, and then delivering them by C-section. To get an idea of just what this would look like, and the havoc it would wreak on such a tiny woman’s body, imagine a toddler (or at best, a kindergarten-aged girl) nine-months pregnant. Let’s think this through … No, never mind. Let’s not bother going any further into what’s wrong with this plan or this book. I am moving on to better reads.
The premise of this book is interesting. In each chapter of This Crowded Earth, Bloch illustrates a list of stupendous social ills caused by humans, in an effort to improve their lot. Each attempted solution creates yet another nightmare problem that threatens their survival as a species. For instance, there is overcrowding because there are no more wars (the result of a shared fear of nuclear annihilation), and because of advances in medical science that rid the world of disease. So, humanity has achieved a kind of utopia in that way, only to end up living like rats in a cage because there is no longer enough room for everyone.
The story opens with a protagonist named Harry, who is getting more anxious by the day, living in a flat the size of a walk-in closet, while holding down a mind-numbing job as an “agency man” and reminiscing about a better life. He dates women who he says want to marry him only to upgrade the size of their own living quarters. Having a child qualifies a couple for a full two rooms, rather than one to share.
The plot takes off in the first chapter or two when Harry thrillingly tumbles out his office window one morning but fails to plummet to his death. So far, so good. Harry gets sent off somewhere to recover for a while, and that’s where we meet a woman who seems to be a potential love interest. This is good, too, because up until this point, women have only been mentioned briefly but not made an appearance, and Harry is starting to grate on the nerves a bit. But no, this one’s a red herring! Our love interest, for reasons I won’t disclose here, is just making a cameo appearance and will soon be gone. In fact, as I began to realise a few chapters in, none of the female characters in this book stick around for any length of time. They are used only to move the plot forward in regard to Harry.
The role of women in This Crowded Earth is appalling, even by 1958 standards. (At least in Pyscho, we have a reason for that: Norman Bates is a pathological serial killer.) Here, women are merely ciphers, used by men for distraction, sex, and reproduction. They have no other identity or function in Bloch’s narrative. I know you might be thinking “Oh, you mean like in The Handmaid’s Tale? But that was a great book!” and you would be right; but no, I don’t mean that. Atwood is saying, “Look at what’s happening to women in this dystopian society,” and we read with bated breath, looking forward to the revolution (or at least subversion) that we expect is coming.
I did not expect a female uprising in Bloch’s book, necessarily. But I did expect him, through his characters, to at least notice and comment in some meaningful way upon women’s role in society, mean and minimal as it is, beyond that of pushing out genetically-modified babies. While it is true that this is not a character-driven novel, but an ideologically-driven one (which means that Harry is not a fully-realised character, either), it is also true that Bloch fails to note the dehumanization of women as one of the social ills that need healing. I thought he was taking us there, at one point, as we listened to a conversation between a husband and wife who are worried about her taking the pills that they know will alter forever the size of their child. But the last we hear of that couple, and that woman, she’s decided it’s all good; so what about the alterations, it still means some kind of baby and a bigger flat, right?
All of the recurring significant characters in Bloch’s book are male, and the focus is entirely upon them. They are the ones who grasp the enormity of the problem the world is facing, and they are the ones who are destined to solve it, to whatever extent that is possible. At one point, several hundred of them take off into the desert together to live a kind of monastic life while they plan for their future victorious return to civilization. It’s very like Exodus, this bit, only without God, temples, idols, sacrifices, or women. Harry remains our main guy, and we follow him everywhere, listening in on his man-to-man chats about quotidian conspiracy theories and ideas for solving the world’s crises. Eventually, he even meets the son he’d helped to produce years earlier, but of course, he never asks after the boy’s mother.
At the end of the book, despite his having spoken only to other guys for something like twenty or thirty years, Harry somehow remembers that women exist and that they have ovaries and other useful bits. Thus, Harry’s genius-hero “solution” to the current problem of a dying population is all about women … Well, their reproductive organs, anyway. Isn’t that great? Women get to be the saviors of the world, after all. And all this time, I’d been thinking they did not matter.
Specifically, Harry’s plan involves the female of the species, whose average height is now something like two and a half feet (due to the aforementioned genetic manipulation), carrying non-modified, full-sized human babies, who would presumably grow in-utero to seven or more pounds, and then delivering them by C-section. To get an idea of just what this would look like, and the havoc it would wreak on such a tiny woman’s body, imagine a toddler (or at best, a kindergarten-aged girl) nine-months pregnant. Let’s think this through … No, never mind. Let’s not bother going any further into what’s wrong with this plan or this book. I am moving on to better reads.
October 22, 2019
Bloch, trying to describe right-wing paranoia of too much peace and prosperity resulting in an overcrowded, socialist world (and its fantasies of justifiable murder of weaker people and cuckoldry, among many), ironically enough succeed in predicting all-too-familiar Millenial reality after market crash of '08.
January 3, 2011
Listened to an audio version of this work by Bloch. Its a rather interesting 'what if' read, causing one to ponder the current state of population increase and its eventualities..... The books focus? well exactly whats its title states 'This Crowded Earth'.....
December 23, 2025
Well that was a nice way to meet my reading goal for 2025 and very apropos for my rather bleak outlook on the future of humanity after this crazy year.
In this story, the earth is overcrowded, billions and billions of people everywhere that simply cannot be supported by the peaceful circumstances that will not scale to the increase of population. So the powers that be decide on a radical new treatment for infants so that people will not grow taller than three feet.
But there are of course consequences.
Something Block tapped into constantly was the inability of people to properly foresee the future, but he also said that we have to keep trying to make the world better no matter what. What would we be if we didn't try?
In this story, the earth is overcrowded, billions and billions of people everywhere that simply cannot be supported by the peaceful circumstances that will not scale to the increase of population. So the powers that be decide on a radical new treatment for infants so that people will not grow taller than three feet.
But there are of course consequences.
Something Block tapped into constantly was the inability of people to properly foresee the future, but he also said that we have to keep trying to make the world better no matter what. What would we be if we didn't try?
October 4, 2022
A surprisingly short novella, it still lost me, and my interest, in the second half. It kept jumping around people and times too much to my liking, too much to hook me onto something.
I find it fascinating that old SF works, even if they do get some ideas about the future right, can be so hilariously wrong about their details (it's not meant as an accusation; after all, this is an individual's vision, and it _is_ supposed to be fiction). I can't say to what extent it was a case here, though; I was unable to follow the plot too closely.
I find it fascinating that old SF works, even if they do get some ideas about the future right, can be so hilariously wrong about their details (it's not meant as an accusation; after all, this is an individual's vision, and it _is_ supposed to be fiction). I can't say to what extent it was a case here, though; I was unable to follow the plot too closely.
June 12, 2022
Harry Collins lives on a hideously overcrowded earth in the gigantic conurbation of Chicago and Milwaukee. Feeling strangled and isolated, he attempts to take his own life and finds himself a part of a hideous project to reform the world.
Bloch's short novel is a warning for these modern times. 'This Crowded Earth' predicts the irony of overpopulation and social isolation
Bloch's short novel is a warning for these modern times. 'This Crowded Earth' predicts the irony of overpopulation and social isolation
August 14, 2015
The premise of this novel is that because of severe overcrowding, life on the planet has become miserable and unsustainable in the long run. The ridiculous solution is that all future children are going to be injected with something during pregnancy that will make them small, on average three feet in height. This causes all sorts of problems, among them a war between the naturalists, who are of normal height, and the yardsticks, those born small. The yardsticks win out but face other issues including short lifespans and a gradual dying out of the species.
This is a novel with a crazy amount of flaws in logic. What saves it is that it is still entertaining. Among the flaws, the concept that the best solution for overcrowding is to make people smaller is just stupid. Also, the author is way off in his premise in claiming that at a population of seven billion, the planet would be way overcrowded, which obviously isn’t true since we are above those levels. The author also lacks any sort of imagination about how future commuting issues could be solved by using technology and telecommuting. In the story, war is obsolete because there are atomic fusion bombs that are too dangerous, and therefore nobody is willing to fight anymore. That is a laughable premise. The danger of weapons has done little to prevent violence around the world. There are so many similar things where the author didn’t think things through or lacked imagination. For instance, the yardsticks are concerned about their females delivering normal sized children until a naturalist says this can be accomplished by C section. This is hardly a novel concept, but it was treated as such in the story. As I said, the story does have some entertainment value and on that basis is worth reading despite all of the flaws.
Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth
This is a novel with a crazy amount of flaws in logic. What saves it is that it is still entertaining. Among the flaws, the concept that the best solution for overcrowding is to make people smaller is just stupid. Also, the author is way off in his premise in claiming that at a population of seven billion, the planet would be way overcrowded, which obviously isn’t true since we are above those levels. The author also lacks any sort of imagination about how future commuting issues could be solved by using technology and telecommuting. In the story, war is obsolete because there are atomic fusion bombs that are too dangerous, and therefore nobody is willing to fight anymore. That is a laughable premise. The danger of weapons has done little to prevent violence around the world. There are so many similar things where the author didn’t think things through or lacked imagination. For instance, the yardsticks are concerned about their females delivering normal sized children until a naturalist says this can be accomplished by C section. This is hardly a novel concept, but it was treated as such in the story. As I said, the story does have some entertainment value and on that basis is worth reading despite all of the flaws.
Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2021
This book started out strong with an really interesting premise with solid writing style from Bloch (the only thing that got me through this), then turned disturbing and ridiculous the moment the midgets were introduced. Women in this book had no other role than “pushing out babies” and there is nothing at all about commentary on how screwed up that is, and no uprising or signs of protest by said women on that they're human beings too with thoughts and dreams and hopes (only the males somehow had the right to do something in the uprising) and that they’re maybe not okay with that
I kept on reading, though, as I wanted to see what came next, and how society would develop, but was disappointed in what I found. The line of happenings in this book is downright bizarre (which isn’t necessarily bad), the characters flat (which makes sense seeing the type of book it is, so this, too, I can forgive), and the women having to save the day by being forced to bear normal sized humans, subjected to a Ceasarian without any of the old males asking their opinion (hmm... I see parallels with old white men taking decisions about women's bodies in a certain “developed” nation).
So no, this book definitely wasn’t for me and I for sure won’t recommend it to anyone (only recommend them to give it a wide berth)
I kept on reading, though, as I wanted to see what came next, and how society would develop, but was disappointed in what I found. The line of happenings in this book is downright bizarre (which isn’t necessarily bad), the characters flat (which makes sense seeing the type of book it is, so this, too, I can forgive), and the women having to save the day by being forced to bear normal sized humans, subjected to a Ceasarian without any of the old males asking their opinion (hmm... I see parallels with old white men taking decisions about women's bodies in a certain “developed” nation).
So no, this book definitely wasn’t for me and I for sure won’t recommend it to anyone (only recommend them to give it a wide berth)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2019
2.5. Robert Bloch is best known for his horror work, but he did some SF, such as this one. It opens in the late 20th century, a Jetsons-style high tech future which is collapsing under the massive population boom. Harry, our protagonist, snaps from the mental strain of an overcrowded life (he's not alone) and wakes to discover he's part of a special program to transform humanity and save the world. But what is it? And will it work?
This comes off less a polemic about overpopulation than a kind of meta-commentary on dystopian SF. There's a long, talky section where one character explains how SF predictions of the future all went wrong. And the book undercuts solutions such as space colonization or a revolutionary movement by having none of them work out.
It's not a great book, but it's interesting enough I liked it. However it's a sausage fest; there are a couple of women who show up for sex and one scene with an angsty mother, that's it.
This comes off less a polemic about overpopulation than a kind of meta-commentary on dystopian SF. There's a long, talky section where one character explains how SF predictions of the future all went wrong. And the book undercuts solutions such as space colonization or a revolutionary movement by having none of them work out.
It's not a great book, but it's interesting enough I liked it. However it's a sausage fest; there are a couple of women who show up for sex and one scene with an angsty mother, that's it.
August 11, 2017
This Crowded Earth starts off as an interesting concept, with an overpopulated world and the unusual action taken by the authorities to solve it. Much of the story is told by Harry Collins, who unwittingly gets caught up events as they unfold. Like many Science Fiction novels of the era, politics works its way into the story, often becoming the central theme. In parts fascinating, This Crowded Earth suffers from long passages of exposition, often in the form of a one-sided conversation, that halt any kind of progress the story was making. Of course, this isn't an uncommon failing of books from a bygone age, and was probably perfectly acceptable at the time. Overall, This Crowded Earth has a clever plot that unfolds into an interesting tale, as long as you can put up with the frequent rambling asides.
August 14, 2017
I listened to this 1950s science-fiction novella as an audiobook. It starts with Harry Collins describing his unbearable life in the hellishly overcrowded Chicago of 1997, following which he has a breakdown and is sent to a mental hospital. While he is there he stumbles upon a mystery, but it is years before he fully understands what is going on.
The solution to the overcrowding is novel but to say more would be a big spoiler, and I enjoyed Harry's investigations in the early parts of the book more that the later part.
The solution to the overcrowding is novel but to say more would be a big spoiler, and I enjoyed Harry's investigations in the early parts of the book more that the later part.
May 20, 2021
Beware of spoilers! Wish I hadn't encountered any, but I still really enjoyed this! It's a humorous, thought-provoking, and entertaining read, and a great length - long enough to explore the idea, short enough to not drag on. Each chapter is a different time period so the plot moves swiftly along, and the writing is succinct. Interesting blend of genres (satire, sci-fi, utopia, dystopia, and even a hint of post-apocalypse). You don't get as much world-building or character development as, say, something like Dune. But it's still a fun diversion for a few hours if you like sci-fi.
July 21, 2017
A very unique look into the "future" of mankind in the view of someone living in 1958. Not a very energizing piece, this definitely isn't something for adrenaline junkies. Nevertheless, it is a well written piece of SF and is worthy of reflection. Personally I would have gone in a different direction near the conclusion (think evolving smaller and smaller) but I was satisfied with the author's conclusion.
April 3, 2022
Excellent read
From.the mind of Robert Bloch,the author of the book Psycho tells the story of a planet Earth extremely overpopulated with people. Beautifully wand and most compelling. A must read!
An excellent written by the author of the book Pzycho , dealing with a future planet Earth which is vastly overpopulated. Beautifully written and executed!
From.the mind of Robert Bloch,the author of the book Psycho tells the story of a planet Earth extremely overpopulated with people. Beautifully wand and most compelling. A must read!
An excellent written by the author of the book Pzycho , dealing with a future planet Earth which is vastly overpopulated. Beautifully written and executed!
January 31, 2024
It’s a well-written piece from an author whose voice comes out of every character without much buffer. The strength of the first chapter helped me power through the bizarre plot, and the story itself fizzles out for me. When compared to other pulpy sci-fi of the late 50s and 60s, it’s measurably better (by about a yardstick).
I’ll see myself out.
I’ll see myself out.
August 21, 2024
Well, many of us actually suffer through 3 hours daily commute to go to office , we have crossed 6billion long ago ..but mostly nowhere close to the starting premise . But too large a scope and too simplistic solution reduces interest ...just like that Simac book like City . I liked that one better...this was too drab and congested.
July 26, 2025
Just again, a wonderful piece of work by Bloch. Here he tried go out of his typical mold of work and began to work on something Ray Bradbury, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley had worked on. Turns out that he indeed succeeded in the business. A truly underrated story by a protegé of the great Lovecraft, you should read this.
October 6, 2017
Wow Robert Bloch is very close to got right of predicted. Few right predicted in our present are GMO food and some animal went extinctio. He wrote in 1958. GMO food was invented in 1970-80s! One is wrong predicted is overpopulation. Possibleyear in 2065 for overpopulation
May 24, 2020
I would normally eat this three stars for the flatness of the plot and flow, but the forth star is for the amount of thought and analysis it instigated, as well as the entertaining review of science fiction themes two of the characters discuss. It’s worth reading for those two features.
February 11, 2018
yep, a good one...wonder why I didn't inventory it when I read it? Oh well, now will do...
February 26, 2018
Horror writer Bloch takes on the perils of overpopulation. The book is badly dated, but it can be read as a prescient analysis of the appeal, and inevitable tragedy, of globalism.
May 25, 2018
Very spooky and profound. The prose is clear and modern, though the sci-fi sensibilities remain firmly pulpy just the way I like it.
July 2, 2019
Enh, its good.
August 17, 2019
I loved this book. The way the story unfolds kept me hooked and sustained my interest throughout.
November 4, 2020
A-MA-ZING!
September 16, 2021
started of ok, but lost the trail a bit in the second half
January 27, 2022
A fun and creepy pre- and post-apocalyptic world dealing with the issue of over population.
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