Turns out de Vries has the reverse problem of John Arcudi on The Thing. de Vries is better with MacReady around.
MacReady shows up—in a private helicopter, in sunglasses and maybe with a laser gun. Gulacy loves sunglasses. They make no sense in the context and it’s not particularly good art, but it’s an amusing misfire.
All the exposition about the Thing’s society and purpose is somewhat interesting. de Vries decides each creature makes a little society for itself, never letting a piece get more important than it. It’s probably laying groundwork for a Thing to team up with MacReady so who cares…
But at least de Vries is thinking.
It’s a shame this information is presented to the reader in goofy narration or bad expository dialogue.
Oh, and I was mistaken before, it takes place in New Zealand, not Australia.
Hopefully it’ll get scary soon; it’s not now.
