The Day the Earth Stood Still

Selected Stories of Harry Bates

By: Harry Bates

Narrated by: William Coon

Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Farewell to the Master first appeared in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Stories. It became the basis for the 1951 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. The story morphed from Bates's original conception into a cerebral SF cinematic classic. Much of the sense of wonder of that original story was lost in its adaptation to film. In fact, a fundamental characteristic that can be found in the stories by Bates's is that sense of wonder. While other author's stories generally held optimistic views of humankind, Harry Bates's sensibilities were often much darker. He dealt with philosophy, particularly the metaphysical, with mind-exploding ideas that predates similar explorations by such authors as A.E. van Vogt and Philip K. Dick.

In Farewell to the Master, Cliff Sutherland, a freelance reporter, is determined to get more photos of the giant robot that stands as a silent sentinel over his dimensional space-traveling ship. Cliff is determined to have an overnight vigil to get behind the mystery of the slain alien known as Klaatu.

Alas, All Thinking is the story of one man's journey in time to the end of humanity. But he is much more that just an observer as he takes matters into his own hands.A Matter of Size takes the listener for a journey of scale and the meaning of identity.

Death of a Sensitive is the tale of psychic who is thought to be mad with his benevolent treatment towards the cockroaches that infest his apartment. A haunting tale with a dire warning that is based on the pioneering parapsychology of J.B. Rhines. Death of a Sensitive is a forgotten classic that is presented here for the first time in over 50 years. Four classic short novels from a Golden Age giant of Science Fiction.

©1952 Ackerman Agency (P)2008 Wonder Audiobooks

enjoyable...

The title story was good...a little dated and though I enjoyed it I thought the character dumb. If you like short stories it is a good book

Classic

The movie is even further from the book than the movie Frankenstein is from Shelley's book. Great writing. I own several reprints of and original pulp magazines.

Unexpectedly Enjoyable

Stories this old usually have to taken with a bit of salt. Like the TV shows that I thought were great when I was a kid, watching them now, some quite a few years later, can be a shock. As we grow and culture change, things we found funny in the 1960 are dated or just in bad taste now. However, these stories have mostly avoided that trap. Oh, there are a few places where, if these were 1970's SciFi stories, the characters would just have sex, in these stories the main character says "Let's get married." But then, these stories are on the far side of the sexual revolution. Normally, I prefer stories that are hard science fiction, but hard SciFi stories, of course, are always dated within a few years. The stories in this collection shy away from actually trying to explain anything and instead focus on the people in the situation and, except for the chaste moments, their reactions are very real and satisfying. I had read "Farewell to the Master" before so I had a sense of where it was going, even though I remembered few of the details. Still, the ending was very touching. The middle two stories are OK, but make sure that you stick around to the last story "Death of a Sensitive". This one had me sitting in the car after I got home, listening to it finish.

Powerful, disturbing and very creative!

For those of us that grew up with The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits along with dozens of alien and UFO movies this book is a must read. not only a lot of insight into the early science fiction genre but very powerful story lines as well as being very visual...