The 27th Day

by John Mantley

Novel description: Five Earthlings, selected apparently at random by aliens, are each given the power to wipe out the human species. After 27 days, the power will evaporate & be gone forever. It's still the height of the Cold War. What would you do?

Genres: Science Fiction, Apocalyptic, Fiction, Russia, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a great story, that in my opinion still holds up. Further more I think that under the same circumstances even today things might play out the same.
5 humans are giving a weapon each that can destroy the human race by an alien race. All they have to do is not use it or allow it to be used for 27 days. When they decide to keep quite about it the alien race tells the world who they are and what they've been given and that's when the trouble begins.
I thought this was well written and touches on some important issues relevant even today. I love a good character study and this one meets that criteria all the way.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rather dated science fiction novel would be appropriate reading for sociologists and cultural anthropologists studying the cold war and its mentality in popular American culture. Made into a movie in 1957, the portrayals of the American, British, German, Russian and Chinese protagonists offers some insight into the mentality of the era.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I own is not much to look at it: it’s a 1961 1st Four Square copy, with the binding held together by tape and the pages yellowed with age. But good fiction knows no age, and I devoured this in one day.

I picked this book up as I was heading out to work this morning and paused, flipping through it quickly to decide whether or not to take it along with me. I opened it to a random page — page 78 out of 192 — and skimmed to get a sense of the style of book. (Yes, sacrilegious I know, whatever, and I also read last sentences of books first so there!). What do you think happened next? I got so involved in the scene that I spent a good five minutes reading, standing still in my hallway instead of heading towards work. That’s when I figured I should take it along with me and start reading it from the beginning!

The strongest point of this book is its characters and their interactions, particularly when it comes to the dialogue. That’s why, when I opened the book halfway through to a scene of a man and woman escaping the police, I was immediately sucked in. I had no idea who they were, their history or background, but I didn’t need to. I felt like I knew them within seconds. It was impressive.

So of course when I went back and started reading the book properly, I was even more hooked. You’re introduced to five ordinary people, scattered across the globe, who are all of a sudden faced with a huge responsibility. And while the resolution was obvious the whole time — and so the book wasn’t as thrilling as it could have been — the real part of the story that was of interest to me was seeing how these ordinary people faced extraordinary circumstances. The story made me wonder what I would do if faced with the same responsibility — how would I ensure the safety of the human race?

I particularly enjoyed the interactions between the English girl and the American journalist (yes, romantic subplot right there) because there was a wit and humour to their interactions, the kind of humour brought on by desperate circumstances. The portly German scientist was also a fun character, the typical absent-minded professor type. And the Russian soldier… his was the toughest ordeal, I think, and I definitely felt for him. (The Chinese peasant has a very small role, so I didn’t connect as much with her.)

Perhaps the resolution was too easy. It definitely felt a little anti-climatic. And of course — Cold War back story and this being written by a Canadian — the Americans come off looking far better than the Russians. But hey, it’s a reflection of attitudes at the time, and I think the bravery of the Russian soldier makes up for it.

In any case, I really like these classic science fiction stories. There is something very human about the problems they explore, and you don’t really get books like this any more, which is a shame. And while the concept behind this story isn’t ground breaking, it was the little things that really made it for me: the banter between characters, the insights into the Russian leader’s mind, the alien psychology….

In sum, if you like your classic science fiction, this is a book to pick up. It’s a really quick read and I enjoyed it immensely — I even put off checking emails, Twitter, etc when I got home so I could finish reading the book!

[Magda Revetllat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un primer contacto con alienígenas, una prueba para la humanidad. Trepidante con un epílogo que da un giro a lo narrado.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corny, dated, jingoistic, and fun as heck. It's one of those books that on some levels deserves 4 stars and on other levels 1 star. But in the end, its optimism wins out.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another book from my youth and another one that has held up reasonably well.

I searched for The 27th Day before I bought it used from Amazon, and I was not disappointed. However, The 27th Day is certainly a product of its time (publication in 1956). Here is the Cold War at its coldest, with evil Russians (but not all of them), a lovable absent-minded professor, chaste or at any rate refreshingly private lovers, and a utopian finale. Take it for what it is and where it came from, and The 27th Day is a satisfying re-discovery.

[D J Rout · Rating 2 out of 5]

The movie based on this book, and written by the same person, is one of the more well-known but lacklustre SF movies of the 1950's. It proposes the idea of an alien that comes to Earth to save us from ourselves, but executes that idea nowhere near as well as The Day the Earth Stood Still .

The book is essentially the same plot, as you'd expect, but contains some of the worst SF writing you're likely to come across from before women dominated the field in the 2010's. Consider:

You must realize by now that we are not of your world. We come not even from your universe, but from another sun in this Galaxy, from what the people of earth call ‘the stars.’ My people and my world existed billions of years before your earth was born, and now my universe is dying (p 20)

What the fuck? Ed Wood's solaronite bomb speech from Plan 9 makes more sense.

How an author could get a book and a movie out while being so pig ignorant of basic science is amazing, but traditonally the film industry has had no regard for science even when it's merely tangential to the plot, as it is here. Before Star Trek, where the humans had issues with false gods, people wanted Something from Somewhere to save us from ourselves. After you read this, you may wonder why any alien would bother.

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally enjoy classic sci-fi, but this one really gathered all of my annoyances with the genre into one place. I was especially bothered by the casual racism (or at least nationalism), and I couldn't even enjoy the pulp adventure type romance because I felt like they were only together because they were the only two Anglo-Saxon major characters. (The phrase 'relieved to see an Anglo-Saxon face' specifically showed up at one point.) In addition, the main male character was kind of a jerk and the main female character was kind of an incompetent mess (at least at the beginning).

The best I can say for the main body of the story is that the writing was engaging enough to keep me reading instead of giving up on the whole thing, and that a couple of secondary characters I found interesting and sympathetic.

The ending dropped my rating by another star because it had a fairly nonsensical and very humanistic 'redemption through science' resolution. I'll restrain most of my rant because it would get into spoiler territory, suffice it to say I don't recommend this book unless you would be entertained by reviewing a false mid-nineteenth century idea of achieving utopia, that's also plagued with underlying American nationalism.

Aside from the issues above, the only 'content' to speak of is some veiled references to sex, and a few instances of adventure story type violence.

[Henri Moreaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 27th Day is a classic 1950s science fiction novel written with distinct cold war influences.

Set in the late 1950s, aliens abduct five humans and provide each of them with a box, only they can open, which contains 3 golden capsules which can be used to exterminate humanity. They're told that they have 27 days in which to choose to use them, or not use them, and if at the end of that period more than 1/3 of humanity remains they will not colonise Earth. The aliens however are confident that humanity will wipe out more than 2/3rds of itself.

This was an enjoyable read, the distinct picture is painted as America essentially being the beacon of world hope, and Russia being a beacon of evil with a population brainwashed by its leaders. The Russia leader is referred to as Great Leader, which is a little amusing consider that is what North Korea's dictator likes to refer to himself as. At any rate, despite the distinct cold war background to the story, it's quite the romp.

Fans of 1950s science fiction would enjoy.

[Randy Gustafson]

This book came to my attention when I saw the movie. It's an old sci-fi movie starring Gene Barry. A good enough movie to make me want to read the book. As books are usually better than the movie, I was looking forward to a much more complex and enjoyable read. Well, I sure got it. Sadly, the book isn't much like the movie, but that's usually the way it goes. This book was very engaging. The story grabbed me right from the beginning, even tho, I had recently seen the movie and, sort of, knew what to expect. It's an old book,(1956) and might be hard to find, but worth the effort, IMHO! Give it a read and see for yourself. If you like sci-fi and political intrigue, you'll love this book!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After watching the eponymous sci fi movie, I tracked down and read the book. The story is interesting and quite compelling, with the film following the story fairly closely. 5 random people from around the northern hemisphere are taken onto an alien spacecraft. They are each given a box containing 3 capsule, by which they can destroy 1000-mile areas with each capsule. They are given 27 days to decide whether or not to use the capsules. As the conundrum may sound simple, the complications are in depth. The book is an enjoyable read, and quite compelling.

[Mary Beth Magee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lived up to my memory

What a delight to discover that the book is every bit as good as I remembered from my youth. A classic sci-fi novel for readers who aren’t afraid to think, this book has stood the test of time very well.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good overall, but the ending seemed simplistic and rushed.

[Gingaeru · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning portion is pretty decent, but I dislike the direction it takes from there. Then there's one of those sudden and convenient romances between two of the main characters. It feels a bit forced, and I found their interactions sickening. The book's second half consists of little other than the tension and conflict between the Russian and American governments during the countdown to the titular 27th day. This was neither pleasant nor interesting to read about. I don't buy the ending.
...

There are quite a few typos in this edition. Many sentences are missing words: "There must some way out," "... it might perhaps been bearable," "They got into car..." Certain words have one wrong letter: "... a lost-minute reprieve," "... ill at east," "The movement caused his less discomfort than he expected," "A think film of sweat beaded Ivan's forehead." There are letter swaps: "percisely." There are double words: "... he added in in a dramatic whisper." Eve is called "Eva" towards the end of the book.

There are mistakes like this, too: "For perhaps a minutes she stood there..." Page 65 alone has a paragraph with several back-to-back errors: "We haven't given the box every test we can think of without success," "None of our instruments, except the common scales, reacts to it..," "Its density indicates that it ought to be about ten time as heavy as it is..," "We've tried... acetylent torches..," etc.

I'm not sure what happened to the last part of this sentence: "She put the back of a small hand to her mouth and it came away smeared with blood which looked black the unreal in the light from the flames."

The author had a tendency to end numbers with 7; it doesn't stop with the title. There's some superfluous repetition of facts that have already been established. Certain words are overused. The narrative contains the use of "an" before "h" words ("an hallucination"). The author was Canadian, so I guess this technically isn't considered an error?
...

The cover illustration of this edition makes no sense. (Both physically and in that it has no relation to the story.) The back cover features cartoony portraits of the five main characters, which feels wrong considering how dark the story gets. (Also, the professor is drawn a little too much like Colonel Sanders for my taste.)
...

5/10

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 Menschen werden von ETs entführt, mit kleinen, überaus wirksamen Bomben ausgestattet und zurück gebracht. Wenn sich die Menschheit in 27 Tagen nicht selbst ausgerottet hat, werden die ETs abziehen, sonst die Erde übernehmen, denn ihr eigener Planet ist am Arsch.

Eigentlich eine ganz gute Idee für so einen alten Schinken. Die typische Obsession mit DER BOMBE ist heutzutage nicht mehr so nachvollziehbar. Das Buch ist auch ein kleines bisschen langweilig über weite Strecken.
Der Schluss hat mir dann gar nicht gefallen. Diese Deus Ex Machina - Lösung war Käse. Es wird allzu vage gehalten, was mit den Menschen durch diese Transformation nun eigentlich genau passiert ist. Weiterhin störte mich, dass plöztlich noch die Religion ins Spiel gebracht wird, als der vorher atheistische Professor plötzlich gläubig wird. Und das Klischee mit den guten Amis und den bösen Russen hat schon eine gewisse Ironie, wenn man bedenkt, was die Intention des Autors zu sein scheint, die Agressionen im kalten Krieg zu überwinden

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great idea, not particularly well written. This story is one of those rare cases where the film was better.