The film version, This Island Earth ( 1954), begins well but loses interest when it diverges – perhaps inevitably – from the book, which became quite famous, all the same, due to the commercial impact of the movie. The protagonist finally persuades them that, by allowing their tactics to be dictated by vast Computers, they have become predictable to the enemy. This Island Earth (stories June 1949-February 1950 Thrilling Wonder fixup 1952) begins with beleaguered Aliens secretly using human scientists in order to resist an enemy in an intergalactic war which threatens to engulf Earth. The Alien: A Gripping Novel of Discovery and Conquest in Interstellar Space ( 1951), the story of the discovery of an ancient Alien artefact in the Asteroid belt (see Suspended Animation), likewise displays strong narrative drive. Renaissance: A Science Fiction Novel of Two Human Worlds (July-October 1944 Astounding 1951 vt Man of Two Worlds: A Science-Fiction Novel 1963) is a long, complicated Parallel-Worlds adventure with an exciting narrative – Future War, superscience and echoes of nuclear Holocaust – and a number of lively variations on favourite sf themes, told with some of the intricacy of his contemporary at Astounding, A E van Vogt. Jones's first novel, also from that time, is probably his best. Two collections, The Toymaker and Others (coll 1951) and The Non-Statistical Man (coll 1964), gather much of this work. During his most prolific – and most exciting – period he wrote one story, 'Utility' (July 1944 Astounding), under the pseudonym David Anderson. The story had two sequels, 'Trade Secret' (November 1953 Astounding) and 'The School' (December 1954 Astounding). His best-known short story is the witty 'Noise Level' (December 1952 Astounding), an archetypal Astounding tale of Conceptual Breakthrough, scientific advance taking place through destruction of a previous paradigm: Scientists are told that Antigravity exists, and so proceed to invent it. He was virtually silent in the 1960s some more routine novels appeared in the 1970s.

(1915-1994) US author, very active for about fifteen years after he first appeared in Astounding in September 1941 with 'Test of the Gods'.

Renegades of Time by Raymond F. Jones