Currently reading the Bison Frontiers of Imagination re-print of “When Worlds Collide“, which includes the sequel “After Worlds Collide”, written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer in the early to mid-1930’s. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803298145/) (as far as I know, out of print otherwise, although you can find the old originals used, sometimes with difficulty)
Some people will recognize the classic, 1951 film name starring Richard Derr as David Randall and Barbara Rush as Joyce Hendron, with Peter Hansen as Dr. Tony Drake, John Hoyt as Sydney Stanton, and Larry Keating as Dr. Cole Hendron. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044207/) They definitely don’t make ’em like that any more. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched the movie. My guess is that it still more or less holds up, if you cut it some slack. It was always one of my favorites from that era, which I grew up on as Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evening repeats when they used to show those films on TV’s (usually black and white) with rabbit ear antennas (or roof antennas that you had to climb up and risk your life messing with to get better reception). And you were lucky to get all three major TV network stations, free through the airwaves. (for me, circa late 1960’s up to the 1980’s) Ahh, the good ol’ days.
The book is a bit difficult to get through due to the writing style of the times, and the fact that it is pretty early science fiction. At least it’s better, in some, or possibly many/most, ways compared to very early sci-fi, like late 1800’s and early 1900’s Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. The dialogue is not what we would today call “good”, with a lot of exposition, much of it “flowery”. And a lot of Christian religious references and such strewn throughout. It’s all rather stilted. But still more or less readable.
The second book reads better, and is more interesting in some ways, than the first. Not to mention spoilers, but I think we all know that, yes, they do escape to the new planet and survive. (the movie stops there, at arrival — the first book deals a small amount with their initial life on the planet) The second book deals with their continued life on the new planet and their attempts at survival and other things that might occur in such a situation. I enjoyed reading the second book much more than the first.
One small spoiler is that they find the physical remnant ruins of an extinct, ancient, technologically advanced, alien civilization there (cities, artifacts, etc.), which is remarkably well-described by the authors. That was the best part of the second book. It holds up against any sci-fi before or since in that respect, which surprised me a little, especially considering how early it was written. It’s kind of amazing, really. Sci-fi aficionados should read them just for that.
And then there is the now-laughable use of “nuclear (or as it was usually referred to back then, “atomic”), fuel based rocket engines” that effectively do not irradiate things with radiation, as we now know they would. There is also much “politically incorrect” content, such as sexist gender differentiation, racist references regarding non-whites, and classist thinking a la eugenics-like theory (Hitler would have loved this book). But that sort of thing is to be expected from something so early and of the times.
You can see where they got the idea for the film, which, as these things tend to go, is an abridged and compressed version of the first story. They more or less followed it quite well in many respects, though, and did a pretty good job of adapting it. The film is more modern in the 1950’s sense, so it “reads” better than the books, which is to be expected. It’s too bad they didn’t do a sequel from the second book. That is a great loss that can now never be gained. My guess is that they will one day re-make the film, and maybe make the sequel, but I shudder to think how poorly it will be done, a ruination of sorts, like they did with “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951/2008), which is my all-time favorite movie. (the original; the re-make was an abomination)
Any sci-fi fan worth their salt should read these books. And/or anyone who wants to be “well-read”.