Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Monster from Earth's End

Rate this book
There was nothing on the island big enough to kill a man, yet each new day brought with it another bloody death, another mysterious disappearance.

The first hint of something wrong at the outpost was the plane. It crazily circled the little island, its cargo-bay doors open, its radio dead. It seemed to hang in the air for a moment and then it dived downward, levelled and dipped again. It made a belly landing on the runway with its wheels still retracted.

There was a singular, dead silence and then a shot rang out.

The crew of two and the seven passengers had vanished, the cargo was stewn about and the fuel tanks had been emptied. And the pilot, after landing, had blown his brains out.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Murray Leinster

909 books125 followers
see also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins

Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.


Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
10 (13%)
4 stars
18 (25%)
3 stars
31 (43%)
2 stars
13 (18%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Profile Image for Warren Fournier.
843 reviews179 followers
March 23, 2024
Those who know me are aware that John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" is my favorite sci-fi horror story, and John Carpenter's "The Thing" is my favorite sci-fi horror film (unless you count "Jaws"). Yet I'd never heard of "The Monster from Earth's End" before, or, at least, I didn't know what it was about. Imagine my delight when I discovered another survival horror classic with a similar premise, set in an isolated base near Antarctica, and brimming with tension, mystery, and paranoia.

I've read quite a bit of the work of Murray Leinster, my favorite being his "Med Ship" series, but most of my experience of him has been his Radium-Age output. This novel, published in 1959, is very different, consisting of pure Cold War Golden-Age science fiction goodness and 1950s monster movie mayhem.

Let's talk about the writing, which has good points and bad. The suspense builds up perfectly with modern pacing. There is the obligatory coffee made by the female love interest, but for the most part it does not feel dated, though it still retains that cozy black and white B-movie feel. Some may find the author's tendency at repetition to be at bit annoying. Characters are constantly reviewing previous events, as if the novel had been published in installments, but I don't think it was. The story is short enough as it is, so there was no need to catch the reader up on what happened in earlier chapters. Characterization here tends to be better than usually seen in these kinds of stories. The commander is a sympathetic hero while being a bit cranky and unsure of himself, which is quite grounded. There's the obligatory pain-in-the-ass character that is cracking under pressure, but he does more to help the situation than anyone else, even if it is to prove himself smarter than the rest of the team, and you kind of root for him and the commander to get along better than they do. I like how the ensemble cast each does their part to think out of the box to survive as the stakes increase and the situation grows more dire. One thing bugged me a bit, though. When the power goes out, they make a big deal about how they now have no refrigeration so their food will spoil. But I thought they were on an island just a couple hundred miles from Antarctica. Wouldn't it be cool enough to not need refrigerators?

Perhaps the main problem is that the book does seem to have been cranked out in a hurry with no review from an editor. So you get odd word choices resulting in head-scratching lines like when he describes a character crossing a stinky sulfur pit "holding his nose and nauseated more than once."

He... nauseated? Well, I've had some things nauseate ME a few times, but I don't recall that I've ever personally nauseated, as in, like, nauseating into a toilet bowl. Maybe after that one time I got drunk on schlivovitz and ate a half dozen century eggs in Chicago Chinatown. Trust me, you don't want to do that. You will definitely nauseate.

But the most unintentionally hilarious writing flub is Leinster's inexplicable overuse of the verb "pant." The radio operator pants into the microphone. Another guy runs up to the commander panting. Somebody else is trying "to pant for a pistol," whatever that means. For some reason, he clusters about fifteen uses of the word into a few chapters, four of which are on one page alone! What the frozen hell? There was so much panting going on that I felt like I was surrounded by exhausted greyhounds that just finished a big race.

Okay, so maybe the writing isn't all that good. But if you have a soft spot for this kind of story, it won't matter. In fact, it all just adds to the charm.

And charming it is, because this is as close as you can get to watching a fun 50s monster movie through the pages of a book. This isn't some contemporary fan fiction trying to give a knowing wink and a nod to their favorite horror property. No, this is the real deal. Granted, the book itself is obviously lifted from Campbell's immortal original, so much so that Wildside Press actually published a compilation of short stories based on "The Thing" (called "Short Things"), one of which was called "The Monster at World's End," a clear nod to this novel. But I would say that Leinster's take on it is actually more like the 1954 film adaptation by Howard Hawks, "The Thing from Another World," or even "Day of the Triffids," while still being effectively creepy and disturbing. But don't worry, it's not overly gross so it won't induce you to nauseate or anything.

Seriously, if you like base-under-seige suspense and creature features, you just have to check this out!

SCORE: 3.5 rounded to 4 panting penguins out of 5
Profile Image for Craig.
6,811 reviews194 followers
January 28, 2025
The Monster from Earth's End is a very good science fiction novel from 1959 that's very much in the vein of John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? It's set on Gow Island at a Navy weather station where the crew is menaced by omnivorous trees... but our intrepid protagonists find time for romance while saving the planet. It's a quick, fun, silly read that I thought was surely one of the greatest works of modern literature when I was eight years old. I've resisted a careful re-reading of it because I'm afraid I might not think it's quite as good these days. I had seen the film version the year before, which was called The Navy Vs. the Night Monsters, and how can you not love a movie with such a title? My grandmother took me to the drive-in to see it when it was released in 1966, and, yes, she must've loved me very much. It was a film so bad that producer Roger Corman left his name off of it. I think it was the first time I hunted down a novel upon which a film I liked was based; I have fond memories of both experiences.
Profile Image for Manuel Alfonseca.
Author 81 books232 followers
October 16, 2020
ENGLISH: A horror sci-fi novel somewhat similar to the story "Who goes there" by John W. Campbell, as the monster comes from Antarctica, except that it wouldn't be an extraterrestrial monster, and it isn't be able to take control of human beings. The plot is well devised, although the love-interest is somewhat clumsy.

On the year 1959, Leinster appears to have had a fixation with Antarctica, as he wrote on that year two different novels dealing with that continent. The other one (Long Ago, Far Away) also deals with apparently extra-terrestrial beings, although in this case they happen to be children.

ESPAÑOL: Una novela de ciencia ficción y terror, algo semejante al cuento "Who goes there" de John W. Campbell, pues el monstruo procede de la Antártida, salvo que no se trata de un monstruo extraterrestre y no es capaz de controlar a los seres humanos. La trama está bien trazada, aunque la sub-trama amorosa sea algo inocentona.

En el año 1959, Leinster parece haberse sentido muy atraído por la Antártida, ya que en ese año escribió dos novelas diferentes sobre ese continente. En la otra (Long Ago, Far Away) también intervienen seres aparentemente extraterrestres, aunque en este caso se trata de niños.
Profile Image for Henrik.
Author 7 books46 followers
July 24, 2015
Entertaining enough but the repetitions annoyed me to no end. Unnecessary reminders of what was going on, only a page after it had already been shown, and often done, again, right after. That's where the downside of the pulp fiction tradition shows, I suppose.
2,072 reviews21 followers
May 7, 2021
Filmed in 1966 as B-Movie the Navy vs the Night Monsters starring blonde bombshell Mamie Van Doren, The Monster From Earth's End is like a cross between Who Goes There? (Made into The Thing) and Day of the Triffids.

A plane carrying penguins and rare plant samples from Antarctica crash lands on a remote tropical outpost, staffed with 19 weary personnel already on the edge. The crew and one of the penguins are missing and the pilot blows his brains out upon landing. Suddenly monsters attack at night picking off the humans who have to work out what is hunting them and how to stop it.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one from the stiff upper-lip Captain Drake, who can't even hold hands with the girl he's in love with because it will weaken his position, to the hot-headed and paranoid Spaulding.

The film sticks fairly closely to the book, though it does change things a little, especially on condensing the ending. I rather like the sequence on the rescue plane at the end where the monsters awaken, terrorizing a sceptical crew who believed that all the people on the island had gone crazy - Drake's blase handling of the outbreak there is just great, I wish that had been put in the movie .

Fans of the Thing and pulpy sci-fi horror should definitely check this one out, its lots of fun.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
75 reviews4 followers
March 15, 2017
A rather odd, meandering novel in the "killer plants" genre by a guy named Murray Leinster, a.k.a. William Jenkins which was the basis for an even more meandering 1966 Michael Hoey film with the silly title of The Navy vs. the Night Monsters.

The Monster from Earth's End concerns a small US Navy radar outpost on Gow Island, an island off the coast of South America. In Antarctica, some scientists have discovered specimens of prehistoric trees in the hot lakes region, and are flying them back to Washington, D.C., intending to stop off at Gow en route to refuel.

Commanding officer Drake (no first name or rank is ever given; he is simply "Drake") is fairly uninterested in this, as he has his sights set on secretary Nora, who he is having an affair with. Since fraternizing is frowned upon in the Navy, the two have to keep their relationship secret, especially from supply officer Spaulding who it is suggested also has a bit of a thing for Nora. Love triangle ahoy! Spaulding is also slowly going stir crazy from too long of a stay on Gow, and Drake is intent on getting the poor bastard off of the island on the incoming plane.

Then something goes wrong, as they are wont to do in novels of this sort. The cargo plane begins flying erratically. The pilots won't answer Gow's hails, and dump their cargo before making an impromptu landing without lowering their gear, thoroughly crippling the plane and blocking the runway. Rescue crews rush out to the airfield but of the ten people aboard, only one of the pilots, Brown, is found alive and he promptly shoots himself with his service revolver. Drake and co. can find no sign of the other pilot, crew members and the scientist passengers, and all but one of the tree specimens got dumped.

Everything from the plane, including Brown's corpse, is moved to a warehouse for safekeeping whilst the engineering crews begin attempting to move the plane off the runway. Drake's report to Washington is scoffed at; none of the top brass wants to believe that nine people can simply disappear off of a plane midflight (amazingly, that they fell out when the cargo got dumped never seems to occur to these idiots).

All of Gow's personnel are instructed to write their own individual accounts of what they witnessed. Unsure what this is supposed to accomplish. Half of the reports will be some variation of "the plane flew wildly and then crashlanded."

Drake and Nora's tepid romance continues uninterrupted. Spaulding becomes increasingly unhinged, suggesting wild theories like aliens or even giant birds (!) as the culprits. Drake mostly just humors him. The tree specimens are discovered to be still alive. Head biologist Beechum has them planted near the island's hot springs to keep them viable until their trip to Washington after the runway is cleared. That night, though, mysterious things begin happening. First the dead body of Brown disappears! And something slaughters some dogs and destroys the nesting site of Gow's native seagull population!

Drake, proving to be pretty quick on the uptake, begins suspecting something nasty got brought back from the Antarctic aboard the plane, which killed the people on the plane and is now loose on the island. But can he and his men along with Beechum solve the mystery before living human begins begin disappearing? And can Drake's romance with Nora get any blander? You bet!

This was a rather tedious read, playing very much like "Day of the Triffids on an island." A fun idea but it drags way too much and spends too much time on the love story between Drake and Nora. Spaulding is at least entertaining with his kooky theories about giant invisible alien birds, and when the critters (prehistoric ambulatory trees) do show up, it does get pretty fun, but it's too little too late by that point.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it. More than the movie actually. I just felt it spent too much time spinning its wheels so to speak. So much of the middle part felt like blatant padding.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ceejay.
555 reviews18 followers
January 24, 2018
It's been nearly sixty years since this book was published, and it still packs a punch. Why? Because Murray Leinster was one of the grand old masters of Science Fiction! This novel takes place on an island in the Pacific that serves as a supply station for Antarctica. A radio signal is picked up from an arriving plane headed back to the states. Suddenly, on the plane, there is sreaming, gunshots, and then the plane crashes on the island.The pilot shoots himself in the head. Then the terror begins. Missing dogs. A missing person. And then they discover....... I don't give away stories. As always, Mr. Leinster weaves an excellent. As always, I loved every minute of it. A must read for the lovers of SciFi!
Profile Image for James Powell.
Author 3 books11 followers
April 16, 2014
The Monster From Earth's End is a lot of fun in a quaint sort of way. However, the old fashioned fun begins to wear thin toward the halfway point. Luckily the action picks up before all is lost. Still, I was hoping for something a little more sinister and exciting, if not horrific, than a few small snapping twigs.
Profile Image for Claudio.
355 reviews
April 5, 2020
Ancora abbastanza godibile, dopo tanti anni. Murray Leinster è qualche volta poco credibile, ma in questo caso ha scritto un bel racconto di fantascienza che somiglia a "The Thing" e a "The Day of the Trifids".
La traduzione in italiano qualche volta è approssimativa, come per esempio a pagina 118 dell'edizione di Urania del 1979, dove un "terribile uragano" ha velocità del vento di "otto nodi".
A parte questo, molto interessante e per un lettore moderno irritante il trattamento della figura femminile. Come del resto anche in molti film degli anni '50, la donna è capace solo di urlare istericamente e deve essere protetta (la figura di Nora, pian piano, si riscuote pero' da questo status e partecipa ad una spedizione di esplorazione). Qualche volta è un po' stancante, queste "ragazze che devono essere protette"... anche la fine con il comandante della base che proclama "trionfalmente" che ha deciso di sposarla ("lui" ha deciso) fa un po' sorridere. Ma bisogna accettare come testimonianza del suo tempo, direi.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Author 14 books1 follower
November 14, 2021
Terror Unknown

This is a true sci-fi classic.
Some spoilers ahead.
The story features an isolated island where a plane on approach goes silent and partially crashes. Most of the crew vanishes and the pilot kills himself.
The team on the island is confused but soon it appears that the danger is around them as dogs are attacked and later men die.
Theories about what they face are suggested but the only conclusion they can reach is that the creature doesn't like light.
Cut off from the outside by accidents, a new menace appears in the form of small creatures which attack them and bear poisonous stings.
Study of them leads to the impossible truth that even those who come to rescue them don't believe.
Highly recommended for fans of the author.
Profile Image for Nicola Strangis.
94 reviews1 follower
June 15, 2022
Il libro è una noiosa storia di mistero ambientata su una banale isola deserta ai lati del mondo. Come spesso accade negli Urania dell’epoca, il racconto complementare (“The Green Dog” - Il Cane Verde di Mel Gilden) è molto più interessante della storia in copertina, che da sola sarebbe valsa una stelletta in meno. Bocciato.
9 reviews
May 18, 2024
Found It Because of A Movie

The Navy vs. The Night Monsters is an okayish movie, but the book it was based on is GREAT! A fun little 50's-style Monster yarn that breezes by quickly. Enjoyed it quite a bit and glad I looked it up!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews