Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Ballantine U6131 (1968), Mass Market Paperback
Description
Giant, technologically superior aliens have conquered Earth, but humankind survives - even flourishes in a way. Men and women live, like mice, in burrows in the massive walls of the huge homes of the aliens, and scurry about under their feet, stealing from them. A complex social and religious order has evolved, with women preserving knowledge and working as healers, and men serving as warriors and thieves. For the aliens, men and women are just a nuisance, nothing more than vermin. Which, ironically, may just be humankind's strength and point the way forward.
User reviews
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
After reading past what is probably one of the best opening paragraphs in science fiction, the novel settles down to an amusing, well-written, often clever but ultimately straightforward adventure story set in a future where humans live in tribes, burrowed like vermin into the walls of the homes of
Show More
giant aliens. The writing flows nicely and as mentioned before, the tongue-in-cheekness of it all is amusing. The final scene manages to cap it all with the old science-fiction trope of conquering the stars given a new twist. Fun but not exceptional. Show Less
LibraryThing member kevinashley
Another Gollancz classic, apparently his only novel. I've read some of his well-syndicated satirical short stories which were very enjoyable. This was often interesting but at times the satire seemed laboured, although at others it was well done. The story of a future of humanity where we are the
Show More
equivalent of mice or cockroaches for aliens who have taken over Earth. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gkarlives
While taking the idea of humans being the vermin to much larger creatures a little to literally at times, I do beleive Mr. Klass has taken an intersting look at the different ways many people look at crises as well as our own basic natures. The story is engaging even though it can be a little heavy
Show More
handed at times. I especially liked the ending where the Aaron people decide that they don't have to choose only A or B as the other people want to jam down their throats. Instead, they chose the best of both to acheive a survival that niether could have managed. Very good and in light of what I see in the world today (6/2010) very apt. Show Less
LibraryThing member Veeralpadhiar
I was very much curious to know how this novel ended and was pleasantly surprised when I read it eventually. It was the only fitting end Willaim Tenn could have conceived for this very good and infrequent plot. Very good read indeed.
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this novel in 1968. Spoilers follow.
I enjoyed this famous Tenn novel about men living in the walls of the “Monster” alien race that conquered Earth.
This is Tenn so the story is humorous and almost savage in parts. The title comes from Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and
In a way, this is one of those conceptual breakthrough stories. Eric learns that the tribal society he was born in was based partly on fraud - rigged visions used in naming initiate warriors and “enemy” chiefs who will band together to quell heretic Alien Sciencers. He also learns that not front or back burrower, Ancestor Science or Alien Science is a total solution, that other points of view have merit, that man lives in the walls of Monster houses (the whole novel is set in one Monster house before man leaves for the stars), and that a whole universe exists outside the Monster house, a universe which renders Monsters as inconsequential as man.
My favorite moments are when Tenn defies the clichés of this sort of plot. There is no claim that lost human science can ever defeat the monsters or bring humanity lordship of the Earth. In a discussion about why some ancients saw the Monsters as divine judgment, Rachel, Eric’s mate, remarks man was always guilty about how he treated other animals. How, she asks, can we judge the Monsters brutal (some of the book depicts experiments on humans in an alien Pest Control Lab) for their actions when man historically (and even in the course of this book) does just as brutal things to each other? Another of my favorite scenes is when Eric, told of the Aaron People’s plan to hope on a Monster starship and infest Monster dwellings throughout the universe, bitterly retorts they can’t expect man to become vermin. The Aaron replies that he already is a vermin of a most superior (like the rat and cockroach) kind. This is a condition Eric and everybody else cheerfully accepts at story’s end.
I enjoyed this famous Tenn novel about men living in the walls of the “Monster” alien race that conquered Earth.
This is Tenn so the story is humorous and almost savage in parts. The title comes from Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and
Show More
Men, but the inspiration and structure of the novel seems to come from the Brobdingnab section of Gulliver’s Travels. The plot starts as a variation on that favored by many stories and films featuring primitive (or post-holocaust primitives): a young man finds himself on the wrong side of tribal politics and questioning a religious taboo. Here that's that Ancestor-Science is not as efficacious in battling the Monsters as advertised. After all, as the uncle who initiates hero Eric the Only into the heresy points out, it didn’t do humanity much good in resisting the Monsters. But Alien-Science turns out to be, in part, a scheme by Eric’s uncle to become Chief, a scheme that leads to a brutally suppressed uprising. Eric takes up with the more advanced “back burrowers” only to find their technology and knowledge of Monsters impressive but their military skills lacking. Eventually, he meets, marries, and mates with a woman of the Aaron People (after a funny scene where he tries to act dignified while assessing his mate’s physical wiles). In a way, this is one of those conceptual breakthrough stories. Eric learns that the tribal society he was born in was based partly on fraud - rigged visions used in naming initiate warriors and “enemy” chiefs who will band together to quell heretic Alien Sciencers. He also learns that not front or back burrower, Ancestor Science or Alien Science is a total solution, that other points of view have merit, that man lives in the walls of Monster houses (the whole novel is set in one Monster house before man leaves for the stars), and that a whole universe exists outside the Monster house, a universe which renders Monsters as inconsequential as man.
My favorite moments are when Tenn defies the clichés of this sort of plot. There is no claim that lost human science can ever defeat the monsters or bring humanity lordship of the Earth. In a discussion about why some ancients saw the Monsters as divine judgment, Rachel, Eric’s mate, remarks man was always guilty about how he treated other animals. How, she asks, can we judge the Monsters brutal (some of the book depicts experiments on humans in an alien Pest Control Lab) for their actions when man historically (and even in the course of this book) does just as brutal things to each other? Another of my favorite scenes is when Eric, told of the Aaron People’s plan to hope on a Monster starship and infest Monster dwellings throughout the universe, bitterly retorts they can’t expect man to become vermin. The Aaron replies that he already is a vermin of a most superior (like the rat and cockroach) kind. This is a condition Eric and everybody else cheerfully accepts at story’s end.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
Where it's good, it's really good. Where it's corny, it's...well, embarrassingly corny. Where it's strange, it's intriguingly strange. And where it's profound, it is...I swear it...profound. Tenn's work may be uneven, but he is swiftly moving toward the top of my list of the heroes of golden age
Show More
science fiction. My top Tenn list, perhaps. Show Less
LibraryThing member unclebob53703
Science fiction satire, in which the monsters regard humans not as a threat, but as a pest. The storytelling is first rate and the ending, though it comes out of nowhere, is pretty nearly perfect. I met the author when I was in college and interviewed him, and he was a hoot. Just bought a book
Show More
containing most of his short stories and am very much looking forward to it. Show Less
LibraryThing member ikeman100
This is my first book by William Tenn. I will try a few more. He was one of the Pulp SF magazine writers of the 1940s-50s. He had stories in more then a dozen magazines. Like many of his peers he went on to write novels but only a couple. This book is one of his novels.
This is a juvenile SF novel
This is a juvenile SF novel
Show More
about a boy in a dystopian future where humans have fallen to tribalism and superstition. A race of alien giants took over the Earth hundreds of years ago and humans are no more then rats. It is a coming of age, adventure with plenty of action and naked females. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1968
Physical description
251 p.; 17.8 cm
Local notes
Omslag: Tony Roberts
Omslaget viser en kæmpestor konstruktion, der ligner en 200 meter høj snegl
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser en kæmpestor konstruktion, der ligner en 200 meter høj snegl
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Similar in this library
Pages
251
DDC/MDS
| 823 |