I think the one with Quaid on the cover is the book based on the movie script, though I am not 100% sure
check this:
http://www.amazon.ca/Enemy-Mine-Barry-B-Longyear/dp/0441206727/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361334224&sr=1-5
this is one of the reviews from that page featuring the version you read:
By Mel Kharidze - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I bought this item, thinking it was Barry Longyear's original novelette. This item is NOT the original novelette (a reprint of which is at Enemy Mine). Note the joint authorship on this item between Barry Longyear and David Gerrold. This item is a novelization of the movie "Enemy Mine" (1985).
More confusing yet, the "Look Inside" link (as of 21 Apr 2009) takes you (incorrectly) to the original novel as reprinted by IUniverse, not (correctly) to this novelization of the movie as published by Charter Books. The "Just so you know..." message leaves the impression that they're just different editions of the same book. They're not just different editions. They're different stories.
A few of the differences between the two: The original novel begins with the confrontation between human and alien on the ground. How they got there is later told in retrospect in a couple of paragraphs. The novelization of the movie begins at the "starbase" and descibes the space battle step by step in 5 chapters/19 pages. The original novel puts them on an island up against frequent tidal waves. The equivalent in the novelization of the movie is repeated meteor showers, and they're on a continent. In the original, they eat snakes to survive. In the novelization, they eat mock turtles. Pretty much all of the details in the stories are different, but the general gist is similar. The original novel is 96 pages long. The novelization of the movie has 218 pages.
Between the two, I prefer what I've read of the original novel, but the novelization of the movie is a good story, too, and it's cheap: I bought my like-new used paperback for a penny (plus $3.99 shipping and handling, of course).
I would prefer to read the original but still having a tough time finding it in an actual book form, this is a digital version I believe:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007AIPP6E/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=barryblongy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007AIPP6E
Barry B Longyear's site:
http://www.barryblongyear.com/
The first thing the article says about Enemy Mine : "Strange as it may seem, the originally published version of the novella "Enemy Mine" (1979)has not been available except from used magazine vendors, until now. "
I would prefer to read that in an actual book form of course but it doesn;t look like it's going to happen. Thanks for helping anyways though!
you know what you are? you're a bastard-coated bastard with bastard filling.
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behamut
11 years ago
Interesting! I'd like to check the original out.
Either way though, I have the one with Quaid on the cover on my shelf. It's very much like the script, but the end is completely different. Probably the last 25%. So even if it isn't the original book, the novelization is very different.
From what I understand, it's what the original script was going to have, but studios made them remake the ending because they felt that because of the title, it had to have a "mine" in it.
If I remember right, they had a new director or something come along and refilm over half the movie. I'm curious what was originally filmed.
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