Tevis, Walter. The Man Who Fell to Earth. Narrated by George Guidall, Recorded Books, 2018.
Reason read: February is Science Fiction month.
Meet Thomas Jerome Newton, a humanoid alien from the planet Anthea. Standing rail thin at 6’6″ with pale skin and odd features, Newton has come to Earth in a desperate attempt to save his dying planet’s population. Less than three hundred souls are clinging to life while the planet dies away from drought and mismanagement. Newton’s brilliant plan is to use the earth’s resources to build a spaceship large enough to bring the surviving Antheans to Kentucky, of all places. Only, as time goes on, America’s vices get the better of him. Alcoholism and loneliness start to cloud his judgement. As suspicions about him grow, the question of human destiny becomes philosophical in nature.
Author fact: Tevis also wrote The Hustler, The Color of Money, and The Queen’s Gambit. All titles on my Challenge list.
Book trivia: The Man Who Fell to Earth was made into a movie starring David Bowie. This is one that I will watch because I borrowed the DVD from a library.
Music: “Oh Lordie, Pick a Bale of Cotton!”, “Faith of Our Fathers”, “I You Knew Susie, Like I Know Susie”, Haydn, “Jingle Bells”, Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A Major, “Rock of Ages”, Strauss’ The Poet and the Peasant Overtures, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”, “White Christmas”, and “Adeste Fideles”.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43). So. The Man Who Fell to Earth does not have a child prodigy anywhere in its plot. This, and other Tevis books, should not be in this chapter.