Who Goes There? by John W Campbell

Who Goes There? is a science fiction novella by John W. Campbell, Jr., written under the pen name Don A. Stuart. It was first published in the August 1938 Astounding Science-Fiction.

In 1973 the story was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written. It was published with the other top vote-getters in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The novella has been adapted three times as a motion picture: the first in 1951 as The Thing from Another World; the second in 1982 as The Thing directed by John Carpenter; and most recently as a prequel to the Carpenter version, also titled The Thing, released in 2011.

The story concerns an Antarctic expedition undertaken by 37 men who now reside in a camp that affords little privacy. It opens with the men of the team gathered to discuss an unusual find: a 3-eyed alien creature encased in a block of ice that was retrieved nearby where a space ship was also discovered beneath the ice. Despite some initial misgivings, the camp’s doctor, Blair, proceeds to thaw out the creature so that he may examine it.

Who Goes There? by John W Campbell.mp3