A series of patents in the fields of chemistry and electronics, held by the mysterious World Enterprises Corporation, are slowly revolutionising everyday technology: 3D television, super high-definition self-developing film, a smoke- and odourless gunpowder replacement for toy guns, and dozens of other inventions. The owner of World Enterprises is the reclusive Thomas Jerome Newton, a man seen by very few people and with even fewer friends, and found exceedingly eccentric, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, by those who see him. Very few even suspect the truth behind the advanced patents and his polite but strange demeanour: Newton is not human. He is an alien on a mission to save his people, and the inventions are just the quickest way to amass the fortune needed to build a spaceship to transport the few hundred remaining of his people from his dying planet to Earth. But the rescue mission is not going as planned...

A very short and concentrated novel of Newton's rise and fall, set in the far future of 1985-1990. If anything, it is too short: there is hardly any time for anything to happen. I liked the descriptions of Newton going native, but I would have liked to see more of him as an alien. (I have no idea how it compares to the film starring David Bowie; although I've had it on video for years I never found the time to watch it.)

Apparently, the original edition was set in 1972-76; Tevis changed the years for this edition, and revised some other parts of the text (e.g. adding a reference to Watergate). I guess this was done to coincide with the film. ( )

Mr. Tevis did a great job with this. I sympathized with the alien's feelings. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/494509.htm...

I have seen a few seconds of the film of this book starring David Bowie; the novel was published in 1963. It's a bleak picture of an almost-human alien from an undiscovered planet in our solar system, sent to Earth to try and save his people. He becomes an alcoholic, goes blind and gives up. Depressing. ( )

Brilliant. This a deceptively simple story, told in simple, uncomplicated prose, but with unexpected depth and relevance. It might come off as slightly trite now, as with most mid-20th century fiction set in "the near future" (the late 1980s, of all things!), but I'm sure in 1963 it was truly a sign of the times. What I'm sure hasn't lost its charge over the years is the tint of sadness, of individualized despair, that permeates the book and ultimately embitters the characters. No one escapes their self-destructive fears - not the American government, not the curious scientist, and most especially not the titular visitor who comes to save his world but can't even save himself. The film version, starring David Bowie, is far more surreal and symbolically charged (and, as with any Nicholas Roeg film, obsessed with sexuality), but the plot is almost completely the same, and anyone who enjoys one version of the tale should enjoy the other. Definitely worth seeking out. ( )

The film was a stylish gnostic parable. I haven't yet read the novel, so I am unsure if this is quite so evident in the book.