Jack Finney: Body Snatchers, Time and Again, "Contents of the Dead man's Pockets," & More

[Extollager]

There's a thread dedicated to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but perhaps there should be a thread more broadly devoted to this author.

This is an author (1911-1995) whose works I mean to look into more. I have read the two novels and the short story listed in the thread title, and thought each one was a superior piece of work. Maybe someone here has read more widely than this.

The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

Perhaps there are two ways to write great SFF. One is to show people amazing sights, dazzle them with things that they will never have seen before. Dune, the Gormenghast books and The Lord of the Rings are like this. The other way is to write about a theme or an issue: maybe not in as direct a...

www.sffchronicles.com

(NB Don't mix up Jack Finney with Charles G. Finney, author of The Circus of Dr. Lao, as I think I've done.)

 

[Extollager]

I just reread his “I’m Scared” in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 13 (1951). Brrr! That’s another good one.

 

[Randy M.]

I read ...Body Snatchers 10-12 years ago and liked it well enough. I have Time and Again waiting in Mount TBR, and an omnibus of other work by him. For some reason I've never pulled the trigger even though he reminds me of Matheson and Beaumont in his approach to fantasy/sf/horror. In a way that's odd because he wasn't part of the pulp/digest crowd, but a slick writer who was reasonably well-known for his mysteries/thrillers.

 

[williamjm]

I read Time and Again a few years ago which I thought was a great book. There are a lot of time travel stories out there but I think few do as good a job of capturing the wonder of visiting a different time, I really liked its portrayal of late 19th Century New York. I also read its sequel From Time to Time which was also entertaining but I'm not sure the original really needed a sequel and I don't think the second book was as good.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read Invasion of the Body Snatchers over a decade ago, excellent book.

I read Time and Again about 3 years ago . By far , One of the best time Travel stories ive ever read . Im surprised that its never been adapted for cinema or television.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I like some of his fantasy short stories, but the theme of time travel is a bit repetitive for me.

 

[BAYLOR]

Im rather surprised that no one has attempted to adapt Time and Again as feature film.

 

[BAYLOR]

There's a thread dedicated to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but perhaps there should be a thread more broadly devoted to this author.

This is an author (1911-1995) whose works I mean to look into more. I have read the two novels and the short story listed in the thread title, and thought each one was a superior piece of work. Maybe someone here has read more widely than this.

The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

Perhaps there are two ways to write great SFF. One is to show people amazing sights, dazzle them with things that they will never have seen before. Dune, the Gormenghast books and The Lord of the Rings are like this. The other way is to write about a theme or an issue: maybe not in as direct a...

www.sffchronicles.com

(NB Don't mix up Jack Finney with Charles G. Finney, author of The Circus of Dr. Lao, as I think I've done.)

Ive read The Circus of Dr Lao andexcellent read, I also loved the film adaptation staring Tony Randle and Barbara Eden .

 

[Don]

At least Hollywood gave Finney a nod:

In the film, Reeve's character consults with a Dr. Finney (played by George Voskovec), a time travel theorist. This is a deliberate nod to author Jack Finney, whose novel Time and Again, published five years before the 1975 Richard Matheson novel Bid Time Return, on which this film is based, features an almost identical theory on the mechanics of time travel.

Somewhere in Time (film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org