Form: Novel
Year: 1967
Publication history:
- ???? : Espinhos (pb) , (in Portuguese )
- ???? : Un Jeu Cruel (pb) , J'ai lu (France), 214 pp., ISBN 2277118001, 800 (in French )
- 1967 : Thorns (pb) , Ballantine, 222 pp.
- 1969 : Throns (hc) , Walker
- 1970 : Thorns (pb) , Ballantine, 222 pp., ISBN 345-02026-X
- 1972 : Twee Sterren () , Meulenhoff (Netherlands), 204 pp., ISBN 90-290-0064-3 (in Dutch )
- 1973 : Thorns (pb) , Ballantine, 222 pp., ISBN 345-23447-2
- 1973 : Der Gesang der Neuronen (pb) , Lichtenberg (Germany), 199 pp., ISBN 378522012X (in German )
- 1979 : Thorns (pb) , Del Rey, 222 pp., ISBN 0-345-27968-9
- 1983 : Thorns (pb) , Bantam, 222 pp., ISBN 0-553-23573-7
- 1987 : Thorns (pb) , Futura Orbit (UK), ISBN 0708882382
- 1988 : The World Inside/Thorns/Downward to the Earth (pb) , Bantam, 487 pp., 27287-X
- 1989 : Der Gesang der Neuronen (pb) , Heyne (Germany), 252 pp., ISBN 345303161X (in German )
- 1995 : Espinas (pb) , Ultramar (Spain), ISBN 8473865510 (in Spanish)
- 1996 : Chute dans le Réel (hc) , Omnibus (France), 1070 pp., ISBN 2258040590 (in French Un jeu cruel)
- 2000 : Thorns (ol) , Fictionwise
- 2000 : Thorns (tpb) , Gollancz (UK), 224 pp., ISBN 057507146X
Lona Kelvin -- naive orphan. And at seventeen, mother of one hundred children.
Minner Burris -- starman. Whose butchered body had been put together by aliens, with artificial alien replacements.
Horror stalked just beneath the surface of these two lonely creatures.Duncan Chalk -- a vulture, carrion eater of other people's emotions, feeding on pain, fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, terror; typifying in the appetites of his vast body the sick delight millions took in the tragedies he skillfully arranged.
Lona Kelvin - Minner Burris - Duncan Chalk
Surely the strangest triangle the worlds had ever seen.
Nominated for Nebula for best novel, 1967.
Triangle is not exactly the right word, as Chalk does not participate directly in the affair he arranges for Lona and Minner, only leech off the inevitable pain when they don't get along. The picture of human relationships given is a bit grim, though there is a kind of hope offered. That function of the media which feeds off people's pain is quite prevalent in the story, as it is in "The Pain Peddlers".
A very good book, and not as depressing as it may sound. And note that the cover art on the 1967 Ballantine edition has nothing whatever to do with the story. The Jim Burns painting on the 1983 edition is the most accurate of the cover illustrations for Minner's deformity.