Movie vs. Book and the winner is...

Good Book, Great Movie available

Enemy Mine 
by Barry B. Longyear
Publisher iUniverse
pages 96


From Amazon:
    The story of a man, incomplete in himself, taught to be a human by his sworn enemy, an alien being who leaves with the human its most important possession: its future.


About the book: 
    War forces two enemies to crash on a tiny island which is slowly overrun by waves.  They must rely on each other for their survival but no one said they had to like it. The sea keeps rising until the two are forced to leave the island, but not without serious injury to the human, Davidge. The Drac, Jerry, builds a shelter and nurses Davidge until he recovers from his injuries caused in their violent sea crossing. This is just the beginning a a unique friendship. The whole story is complicated because the Drac is pregnant and gives birth. But that is less than the first half of the story. The rest of the story concerns the raising and safety of child Zammy.


My take:
    First let me say  I absolutely loved the movie adaption of this story. Dennis Quad was hot, hot in this movie and Lou Gossett, Jr. had my heart in his hand by the middle of the movie. After I saw the movie, I wondered how I missed reading the story.  After all I was a big, big science fiction fan at the time. The truth is I didn't miss the story, I just didn't find it as wonderful as the movie.
    The book is still good, the writing tight, the plot while not totally unique (There was a WWII movie that  about a Japanese and an American soldier stranded on an island fighting each other) was good. I enjoyed the friendship that develops between the two main characters as well as how Davidge handles the birth of Zammy. It is amazing how much story can be built into just 95+ pages.
    One of my favorite parts of the story is where Jerry apologizes for his blasphemous remarks he made about Mickey Mouse.  Yes, you have to read the book or see the movie to find out what I mean.
   This story is told in the first person, something I have found I dislike as of late.  This could be a result of so few current writers handing it well.  This book shows how it should be done.
   I recommend the book to anyone who likes introspective stories, even those who do not normally read science fiction. I also recommend our readers see the movie because although the movie is like the book, there is more action in the movie, different action, and Quad and Gossett bring life into the wonderful characters Longyear created.