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Available
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Library's review
USA, ca 2014
Hovedpersonen Elihu er hemmelig agent i en hemmelig organisation. De skifter udseende og navne tit og ofte, så hans navn i denne affære er Sam, hans "søster" hedder Mary og hans chef og "far" hedder Charles M. Cavanaugh. Og faktisk er "Charles" hans rigtige far. En flyvende tallerken
De tre trækker sig tilbage, officielt på ferie, men uofficielt vil Sam og Mary forsøge at få mere at vide om parasitterne. De får fanget en parasit og får den levende med tilbage til Graves ved at lade den sidde på ryggen af et menneske. Senere slipper den fri inde i den sikrede bygning og overtager Charles' sekretær, miss Haines. Sam forsøger at stoppe den, men bliver selv overtaget og flygter ud af bygningen. Her slutter han sig til andre parasitstyrede og er med til at sætte parasitter på snesevis af andre mennesker. Til sidst får Charles fat i ham og det lykkes at få parasitten over på en orangutang ved navn Napoleon i stedet. Sam kan fortælle at vicefinansministeren er blevet forsynet med en parasit. Det lykkes Charles at få forputtet at samme skæbne overgår præsidenten. Det er nok til at overbevise præsidenten, men det tager yderligere tid at overbevise senatet og da er det nærmest for sent at gøre noget. Et storstilet angreb slår helt fejl. Mary og Sam bliver gift og bekæmper parasitter.
Mary viser sig at have heddet Allucquere og stammer fra en sekt, Whitmaniterne, der prøvede at bosætte sig på Venus, men blev overtaget af parasitterne. Hun blev inficeret af parasitterne, men en "ni-dages feber" dræbte parasitten, mens hun kom sig. Dødeligheden er ellers 98%. Det lykkes at finde en måde at bruge "ni-dages feber" så man får slået parasitter ihjel uden at slå deres værter ihjel. Parasitterne bliver udryddet (næsten), men forholdsreglerne som at gå nærmest nøgen rundt er kommet for at blive. Der er et par sjove afsnit, hvor myndighederne bruger hypnose til at udspørge Mary, men hvor de kunne have fået svaret med det samme bare ved at spørge hende.
I sidste kapitel tager en menneskelig invasionsstyrke til Titan, Saturns sjette måne, hvor parasitterne kommer fra. De er klar til at betale parasitterne tilbage med renter.
Hæsblæsende fortalt og meget underholdende. Der er god anledning til at sammenligne parasitinvasionen med Covid-19 og amerikanernes reaktioner på denne fiktive og aktivt smitsomme infektion. Handlingen foregår i 2014 og der er avanceret tv-teknik, strålepistoler og privatejede helicars. En kat, The Captain, spiller en vis rolle. Det her er en læse-let udgave tilrettet af David Fickling.
Hovedpersonen Elihu er hemmelig agent i en hemmelig organisation. De skifter udseende og navne tit og ofte, så hans navn i denne affære er Sam, hans "søster" hedder Mary og hans chef og "far" hedder Charles M. Cavanaugh. Og faktisk er "Charles" hans rigtige far. En flyvende tallerken
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er landet, men de første agenter på stedet (som er alt andet end dumme) forsvinder uden en lyd. Charles, Mary og Sam tager selv et kig på stedet. Nogen har sat et fuprumskib op, men det narrer dem ikke. Mere mærkeligt er det at Mary prøver at flirte lidt med mændene på stedet og det virker slet ikke. De tre fortsætter hen til direktøren for nærmeste tv-station, en mr Barnes. Han opdager at de ikke lader sig narre og rækker ud efter noget i sit skrivebord. Charles får Sam til at dræbe Barnes, som viser sig at have en klam parasit sidden på ryggen. De tre får parasitten skubbet ned i en æske og tager den med til videre undersøgelse hos organisationens biologiske laboratorier, selv om den virker død. Graves, som er chef for laboratoriet, er skeptisk over for deres historie, men går i gang med undersøgelserne. Charles forsøger at overbevise præsidenten om at slå generalalarm, men præsidenten får 3d-tv-kontakt med Barnes og tænker at det må være Charles, der har slået en sikring.De tre trækker sig tilbage, officielt på ferie, men uofficielt vil Sam og Mary forsøge at få mere at vide om parasitterne. De får fanget en parasit og får den levende med tilbage til Graves ved at lade den sidde på ryggen af et menneske. Senere slipper den fri inde i den sikrede bygning og overtager Charles' sekretær, miss Haines. Sam forsøger at stoppe den, men bliver selv overtaget og flygter ud af bygningen. Her slutter han sig til andre parasitstyrede og er med til at sætte parasitter på snesevis af andre mennesker. Til sidst får Charles fat i ham og det lykkes at få parasitten over på en orangutang ved navn Napoleon i stedet. Sam kan fortælle at vicefinansministeren er blevet forsynet med en parasit. Det lykkes Charles at få forputtet at samme skæbne overgår præsidenten. Det er nok til at overbevise præsidenten, men det tager yderligere tid at overbevise senatet og da er det nærmest for sent at gøre noget. Et storstilet angreb slår helt fejl. Mary og Sam bliver gift og bekæmper parasitter.
Mary viser sig at have heddet Allucquere og stammer fra en sekt, Whitmaniterne, der prøvede at bosætte sig på Venus, men blev overtaget af parasitterne. Hun blev inficeret af parasitterne, men en "ni-dages feber" dræbte parasitten, mens hun kom sig. Dødeligheden er ellers 98%. Det lykkes at finde en måde at bruge "ni-dages feber" så man får slået parasitter ihjel uden at slå deres værter ihjel. Parasitterne bliver udryddet (næsten), men forholdsreglerne som at gå nærmest nøgen rundt er kommet for at blive. Der er et par sjove afsnit, hvor myndighederne bruger hypnose til at udspørge Mary, men hvor de kunne have fået svaret med det samme bare ved at spørge hende.
I sidste kapitel tager en menneskelig invasionsstyrke til Titan, Saturns sjette måne, hvor parasitterne kommer fra. De er klar til at betale parasitterne tilbage med renter.
Hæsblæsende fortalt og meget underholdende. Der er god anledning til at sammenligne parasitinvasionen med Covid-19 og amerikanernes reaktioner på denne fiktive og aktivt smitsomme infektion. Handlingen foregår i 2014 og der er avanceret tv-teknik, strålepistoler og privatejede helicars. En kat, The Captain, spiller en vis rolle. Det her er en læse-let udgave tilrettet af David Fickling.
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Collection
Publication
Oxford University Press (1979), Paperback, 96 pages
Description
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the US government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery: an invasion is underway by slug-like aliens who can touch a human and completely control his or her mind. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And most of Iowa is already under their control. Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. Unfortunately, that was just before he was taken over by one of the aliens and began working for the invaders, with no will of his own. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. Since the Treasury Department includes the Secret Service, which safeguards the President of the United States, control of the entire nation is near at hand.… (more)
Media reviews
NBD/Biblion (via BOL.com)
Met een uitgebreide produktie, die gaat van de klassiek gebleven korte verhalen van zijn "Future History" tot de langere, meer ambitieuze, maar ook meer controversiele romans als "Vreemdeling in een vreemd land", hoort Robert Heinlein tot de bekendste namen in sf. Zijn wel erg populaire "Puppet
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Masters" (1951) dat eerst in een Bruna-Omnibus verscheen, is hier als pocket ook al weer aan herdruk toe. Het boek verhaalt de strijd tegen een buitenaardse invasie, in de vorm van parasitaire symbioten, die zich op de rug van de mens vastzetten en hem via het zenuwstelsel volledig overmeesteren. Pretentieloos, dynamisch en vlot geschreven.
(NBD|Biblion recensie, R.C.L. Smets) Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member PMaranci
I must have read Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters twenty or thirty times, easily, since the first time I read it in my mid-to-late teens. I can't say it's his best, but it's certainly one of the better works from what I consider to be his golden period. But in all those re-readings, I
The Puppet Masters is, arguably, the classic mind-controlling-aliens-invade story (if anyone has another candidate to suggest, please do). The Titans control their hosts (human and otherwise) through physical contact, most often at the spine just below the neck. They reproduce extremely rapidly, and soon posses an extremely large percentage of the population - large enough that the protagonist, Sam, calls it a "saturation" point, and the Titans actually drop the masquerade.
The goal of the Titans is to possess the entire human race - effectively, to spread themselves and their control to the uncontrolled portion of humanity. In North America, that uncontrolled population resides on the East and West coasts. They primarily advance this goal through infiltration, and also by using dogs and some other animals as carriers at night out of the Red (i.e. Titan-saturated) zone into the Green (free human) zone.
The goal of the uncontrolled humans, on the other hand, is to resist takeover, to free the enslaved population, and to kill the Titans.
Now here's the problem: early in the book, in chapter three, Heinlein introduces a drug called "tempus fugit". It's freely available in pill or injectable liquid. It increases subjective perception and reaction time by - well, Heinlein contradicts himself within the same paragraph:
...I took them occasionally to make a twenty-four-hour leave seem like a week. ... Primarily, though, they just stretch your subjective time by a factor of ten or more - chop time into finer bits so that you live longer for the same amount of clock-and-calendar. Sure, I know the horrible example of the man who died of old age in a month through taking the pills steadily...
Note that ten-to-one is given as the minimum alteration (despite Heinlein's earlier referral to an effective seven-to-one ratio). In chapter 21, Sam says "Suppose we have just twenty-four more hours; we could fine it down to a month, subjective time." Since he's proposing this to his new wife, this thirty-to-one dose is presumably not dangerous. Even higher subjective speeds are specified later, in chapter 24:
The doctor gave me a short shot of tempus and I spent the time - subjective, about three days; objective, less than an hour - studying stereo tapes through an overspeed scanner.
That is, at a minimum, a 72-to-1 increase in perceived time, and when he takes it, he's recuperating from serious burns. I'm afraid I've over-explained, but here's the basic point: why weren't the free humans dosed with tempus every time they invaded the infected zone? From the first time, when they were trying to get video proof of the titans' existence, to the last, when they went in to give antitoxin to the human population, tempus would have made their task about a thousand times easier. And yet they didn't use it, or even discuss using it.
And what about the Titans? They have access to tempus too, but are never mentioned as using it at all. Which raises an interesting point: does tempus affect the Titan who is controlling a human, if the human takes it? If so, the Titans could have created high-speed assault & infection agents very easily. On the other hand, if the tempus does not affect Titans, then that raises a whole new interesting question. What happens when a human being controlled by a Titan is dosed with tempus? Suddenly they're thinking and reacting ten to 72 (or more) times faster than their master. Can the Titans exert meaningful control over their host under those conditions? If so, virtually unstoppable high-speed infectors seem to be an obvious option for them.
And if not, why didn't the free humans send tempus-dosed troops to inject tempus into infected humans in zone Red?
Yet another odd lapse in the story appears in chapter 24:
What we needed was [...] something that would disable humans or render them unconscious without killing, and thereby permit us to rescue our compatriots. No such weapon was available, though the scientists were all busy on the problem. A "sleep" gas would have been perfect, but it is lucky that no such gas was known before the invasion, or the slugs could have used it against us.
But when we go back to chapter 8, when the Titan-ridden Sam is recaptured much earlier in the story:
With his other hand he thrust something against my side; I felt a prick, and then through me spread the warm tingle of a jolt of "Morpheus" taking hold. I made one more attempt to pull my gun free and sank forward.
Okay, it's an injection rather than a gas. But it knocks out a highly trained agent before he can do anything about it. It's even called "Morpheus", for god's sake! Leaving out the absolutely obvious possibility (which absolutely nothing in the book rules out) of sending tempus-dosed troops with Morpheus injectors to knock out the population, Morpheus alone seems to be an invaluable weapon for either side. They're obviously both aware of the drug. And yet it is only used once, in the above passage.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to Heinlein. But he himself described the care that he put into his work - I recall an anecdote he wrote about spending a week with his wife writing calculation after calculation on huge rolls of butcher paper, in order to derive a point about an orbit or trajectory that went into only one line in a novel. Two logic holes such as this in one of his golden age novels...well, that's just astonishing.
Or perhaps this is one of those occasions where his editors overrode his wishes and forced him to self-censor? I've only read the original edition, so I can't be sure.
Another minor point that occurred to me: To defend themselves from the Titans, the free humans adopt mandatory nudity. Several times, they mention a concern that the weather will soon be getting colder. Why wasn't transparent clothing ever considered?
It's still a great read. Heinlein was, without question, a master storyteller. Which may explain why I never noticed these gaping logic holes before!
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somehow failed to catch a rather huge logic hole in the plot - until realization suddenly burst in on me today.The Puppet Masters is, arguably, the classic mind-controlling-aliens-invade story (if anyone has another candidate to suggest, please do). The Titans control their hosts (human and otherwise) through physical contact, most often at the spine just below the neck. They reproduce extremely rapidly, and soon posses an extremely large percentage of the population - large enough that the protagonist, Sam, calls it a "saturation" point, and the Titans actually drop the masquerade.
The goal of the Titans is to possess the entire human race - effectively, to spread themselves and their control to the uncontrolled portion of humanity. In North America, that uncontrolled population resides on the East and West coasts. They primarily advance this goal through infiltration, and also by using dogs and some other animals as carriers at night out of the Red (i.e. Titan-saturated) zone into the Green (free human) zone.
The goal of the uncontrolled humans, on the other hand, is to resist takeover, to free the enslaved population, and to kill the Titans.
Now here's the problem: early in the book, in chapter three, Heinlein introduces a drug called "tempus fugit". It's freely available in pill or injectable liquid. It increases subjective perception and reaction time by - well, Heinlein contradicts himself within the same paragraph:
...I took them occasionally to make a twenty-four-hour leave seem like a week. ... Primarily, though, they just stretch your subjective time by a factor of ten or more - chop time into finer bits so that you live longer for the same amount of clock-and-calendar. Sure, I know the horrible example of the man who died of old age in a month through taking the pills steadily...
Note that ten-to-one is given as the minimum alteration (despite Heinlein's earlier referral to an effective seven-to-one ratio). In chapter 21, Sam says "Suppose we have just twenty-four more hours; we could fine it down to a month, subjective time." Since he's proposing this to his new wife, this thirty-to-one dose is presumably not dangerous. Even higher subjective speeds are specified later, in chapter 24:
The doctor gave me a short shot of tempus and I spent the time - subjective, about three days; objective, less than an hour - studying stereo tapes through an overspeed scanner.
That is, at a minimum, a 72-to-1 increase in perceived time, and when he takes it, he's recuperating from serious burns. I'm afraid I've over-explained, but here's the basic point: why weren't the free humans dosed with tempus every time they invaded the infected zone? From the first time, when they were trying to get video proof of the titans' existence, to the last, when they went in to give antitoxin to the human population, tempus would have made their task about a thousand times easier. And yet they didn't use it, or even discuss using it.
And what about the Titans? They have access to tempus too, but are never mentioned as using it at all. Which raises an interesting point: does tempus affect the Titan who is controlling a human, if the human takes it? If so, the Titans could have created high-speed assault & infection agents very easily. On the other hand, if the tempus does not affect Titans, then that raises a whole new interesting question. What happens when a human being controlled by a Titan is dosed with tempus? Suddenly they're thinking and reacting ten to 72 (or more) times faster than their master. Can the Titans exert meaningful control over their host under those conditions? If so, virtually unstoppable high-speed infectors seem to be an obvious option for them.
And if not, why didn't the free humans send tempus-dosed troops to inject tempus into infected humans in zone Red?
Yet another odd lapse in the story appears in chapter 24:
What we needed was [...] something that would disable humans or render them unconscious without killing, and thereby permit us to rescue our compatriots. No such weapon was available, though the scientists were all busy on the problem. A "sleep" gas would have been perfect, but it is lucky that no such gas was known before the invasion, or the slugs could have used it against us.
But when we go back to chapter 8, when the Titan-ridden Sam is recaptured much earlier in the story:
With his other hand he thrust something against my side; I felt a prick, and then through me spread the warm tingle of a jolt of "Morpheus" taking hold. I made one more attempt to pull my gun free and sank forward.
Okay, it's an injection rather than a gas. But it knocks out a highly trained agent before he can do anything about it. It's even called "Morpheus", for god's sake! Leaving out the absolutely obvious possibility (which absolutely nothing in the book rules out) of sending tempus-dosed troops with Morpheus injectors to knock out the population, Morpheus alone seems to be an invaluable weapon for either side. They're obviously both aware of the drug. And yet it is only used once, in the above passage.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to Heinlein. But he himself described the care that he put into his work - I recall an anecdote he wrote about spending a week with his wife writing calculation after calculation on huge rolls of butcher paper, in order to derive a point about an orbit or trajectory that went into only one line in a novel. Two logic holes such as this in one of his golden age novels...well, that's just astonishing.
Or perhaps this is one of those occasions where his editors overrode his wishes and forced him to self-censor? I've only read the original edition, so I can't be sure.
Another minor point that occurred to me: To defend themselves from the Titans, the free humans adopt mandatory nudity. Several times, they mention a concern that the weather will soon be getting colder. Why wasn't transparent clothing ever considered?
It's still a great read. Heinlein was, without question, a master storyteller. Which may explain why I never noticed these gaping logic holes before!
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
"The Puppet Masters" was first published in 1951 as a manuscript of approximately 60,000 words, eliminating some 36,000 words from Heinlein's original story. The cuts were made because of concerns about the book's length and the controversial (sexual) nature of some of the passages eliminated. Of
When a flying saucer lands in isolated Grinnell, Iowa, it appears to be business-as-usual, just another hoax put together by a couple of Iowa farm boys with nothing better to do. Or is it? All the "Old Man" knows for sure is that he sent several agents to Iowa to investigate the landing and that none of them have been seen or heard from since. That is why he decides to go to Iowa along with two of his best agents, "Sam" and "Mary," posing as a family of tourists in Grinnell to get a firsthand look at the flying saucer. What they see is an obvious hoax, a ship that would fool no one for long. What they learn before barely escaping Grinnell, however, is shocking.
The citizens of Grinnell, Iowa, are being controlled by alien parasites that have attached themselves to the spinal columns of their victims. Since the parasites are hidden by the clothing of those they control, all appears normal to unsuspecting humans until they, too, are saddled with a Puppet Master of their very own.
The "Old Man" and his two agents return to Washington D.C. where they face the difficult task of convincing the President and his staff that the threat from Iowa is real. Seeking evidence that will finally convince government authorities that the U.S. has been invaded by an alien culture, Sam returns to Iowa with two agents and a live camera capable of broadcasting "stereo" images back to Washington. Needless to say, things do not go well for Sam and his crew but he accidentally returns with the proof he needs to make his case: an agent who has been taken over by one of the alien "slugs." Thus, begins America's fight for survival but, despite the best efforts of America's military, the entire center of the U.S., from north to south, is soon lost to the Puppet Masters.
"The Puppet Masters" is very much a novel of its time. Heinlein, for instance, makes comparisons between what it is like for an American living under the control of a Puppet Master and what it is like to live behind the Iron Curtain or in communist Russia. Sam comes to the conclusion that the two experiences must be very similar, maybe even worse for the unfortunate Europeans and Russians. Too, modern readers are likely to find Heinlein's attitude toward women to be sexist, and at least a bit offensive, because his female characters, unless they are elderly, are always described in terms of their attractiveness, first, and their abilities, second. And, while this long version of the novel does include Sam's sexual escapades, his romance with Mary, and references to orgies and the like, it is all presented in a very 1950s squeaky clean manner. It is the kind of thing that appealed mightily, of course, to teenage male readers of the era.
"The Puppet Masters" holds up surprisingly well today despite the fact that it was one of the first alien invasion novels of its type, one in which those being invaded by aliens took the initiative to fight back. One could not likely have read the novel during the 1950s without thinking of America's cold war with Russia and all the horrors that might suddenly spring from that standoff. Mr. Heinlein knew his audience well and "The Puppet Masters" became a science fiction classic.
Rated at: 5.0
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course, what was risqué in 1951 is extremely tame by today's standards and in 1990, two years after his death, Heinlein's original version was finally published. I read the shorter version of "The Puppet Masters" sometime in the early 1960s but this review is based on my just completed reading of the long version. When a flying saucer lands in isolated Grinnell, Iowa, it appears to be business-as-usual, just another hoax put together by a couple of Iowa farm boys with nothing better to do. Or is it? All the "Old Man" knows for sure is that he sent several agents to Iowa to investigate the landing and that none of them have been seen or heard from since. That is why he decides to go to Iowa along with two of his best agents, "Sam" and "Mary," posing as a family of tourists in Grinnell to get a firsthand look at the flying saucer. What they see is an obvious hoax, a ship that would fool no one for long. What they learn before barely escaping Grinnell, however, is shocking.
The citizens of Grinnell, Iowa, are being controlled by alien parasites that have attached themselves to the spinal columns of their victims. Since the parasites are hidden by the clothing of those they control, all appears normal to unsuspecting humans until they, too, are saddled with a Puppet Master of their very own.
The "Old Man" and his two agents return to Washington D.C. where they face the difficult task of convincing the President and his staff that the threat from Iowa is real. Seeking evidence that will finally convince government authorities that the U.S. has been invaded by an alien culture, Sam returns to Iowa with two agents and a live camera capable of broadcasting "stereo" images back to Washington. Needless to say, things do not go well for Sam and his crew but he accidentally returns with the proof he needs to make his case: an agent who has been taken over by one of the alien "slugs." Thus, begins America's fight for survival but, despite the best efforts of America's military, the entire center of the U.S., from north to south, is soon lost to the Puppet Masters.
"The Puppet Masters" is very much a novel of its time. Heinlein, for instance, makes comparisons between what it is like for an American living under the control of a Puppet Master and what it is like to live behind the Iron Curtain or in communist Russia. Sam comes to the conclusion that the two experiences must be very similar, maybe even worse for the unfortunate Europeans and Russians. Too, modern readers are likely to find Heinlein's attitude toward women to be sexist, and at least a bit offensive, because his female characters, unless they are elderly, are always described in terms of their attractiveness, first, and their abilities, second. And, while this long version of the novel does include Sam's sexual escapades, his romance with Mary, and references to orgies and the like, it is all presented in a very 1950s squeaky clean manner. It is the kind of thing that appealed mightily, of course, to teenage male readers of the era.
"The Puppet Masters" holds up surprisingly well today despite the fact that it was one of the first alien invasion novels of its type, one in which those being invaded by aliens took the initiative to fight back. One could not likely have read the novel during the 1950s without thinking of America's cold war with Russia and all the horrors that might suddenly spring from that standoff. Mr. Heinlein knew his audience well and "The Puppet Masters" became a science fiction classic.
Rated at: 5.0
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LibraryThing member uvula_fr_b4
A classic of the "us vs. them" type of alien invasion (i.e., critters control and/or mimic people, making them extremely tough to detect, let alone fight), the unabridged edition of The Puppet Masters (don't get too excited: it was bowdlerized out of presumed respect for the "audience
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sensibilities" of 1951, but the hinky stuff is a far cry from what Heinlein would later trot out in such titles as The Number of the Beast) is one of Heinlein's better offerings: a mostly fast-paced thriller with a fascist grin peering through the hedges. I re-read this shortly after September 11, 2001, which gave the book's conclusion ("...the price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time, and with utter recklessness") an extra, not entirely welcome, frisson. Show Less
LibraryThing member baswood
Published in 1951 this is a science fiction novel which was originally serialised in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. It is an alien invasion story where slug like creatures attach themselves to the spine of humans and other animals and take control of their actions; it predated the Invasion Of The
This is a fast paced story that packs in plenty of action scenes that will be familiar to thriller readers; car chases, gun battles, abduction and problem solving, with the three main characters seemingly unstoppable as they fight back against impossible odds. There is also a romantic interest as a love affair develops between Sam and Mary. What makes this novel different from the usual thriller story is of course the aliens and these are suitably nasty with an insidious power that is hard to fight against and most people will cringe at the idea of a giant slug-like creature taking control through attaching themselves to the spinal column. Heinlein has fun with his alien invention, not only do they evoke an intense squeamishness, but also they can only be seen when the human captive takes off his or her clothes. People must strip to prove that they are not infected by the slugs: even the President of the United Staes must stand naked.
The plot is well thought out and there is a mystery to solve, but the all action sequences make it feel more like an adventure story. The thriller story tropes may be over familiar now, with the three heroes ploughing a path through all conventions, laws and red tape to battle the aliens, but it did have enough originality to keep me entertained. Sexism and racism is no more than one would expect from a science fiction novel of this era and it does have a formidable female lead character, with Heinlein making equal play of both sexes when they have to strip. Apparently Heinlein's original manuscript was a third longer than the 1951 novel, but was cut to avoid controversy. Good Schlock 3.5 stars.
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Bodysnatchers by some five years. It could best be described as a science fiction thriller story and is set in the year 2007. The Head of the National Security Agency (referred to as The Old Man) recognises that earth is under attack from the slug like aliens and he recruits his two best agents Sam and Mary Nivens to first of all gather evidence and then to form a plan to defeat the invasion. The first two thirds of the book is a running battle with the aliens and in the final third the plot develops further to enable the humans to come up with a strategy that has some chance of success.This is a fast paced story that packs in plenty of action scenes that will be familiar to thriller readers; car chases, gun battles, abduction and problem solving, with the three main characters seemingly unstoppable as they fight back against impossible odds. There is also a romantic interest as a love affair develops between Sam and Mary. What makes this novel different from the usual thriller story is of course the aliens and these are suitably nasty with an insidious power that is hard to fight against and most people will cringe at the idea of a giant slug-like creature taking control through attaching themselves to the spinal column. Heinlein has fun with his alien invention, not only do they evoke an intense squeamishness, but also they can only be seen when the human captive takes off his or her clothes. People must strip to prove that they are not infected by the slugs: even the President of the United Staes must stand naked.
The plot is well thought out and there is a mystery to solve, but the all action sequences make it feel more like an adventure story. The thriller story tropes may be over familiar now, with the three heroes ploughing a path through all conventions, laws and red tape to battle the aliens, but it did have enough originality to keep me entertained. Sexism and racism is no more than one would expect from a science fiction novel of this era and it does have a formidable female lead character, with Heinlein making equal play of both sexes when they have to strip. Apparently Heinlein's original manuscript was a third longer than the 1951 novel, but was cut to avoid controversy. Good Schlock 3.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this novel in 1951.
I had two main reactiosn to this tale. First, I found the dialogue surprisingly snappy and brisk. It reminded me of dialgue from good film noir like Double Indemnity. Second, Heinlein showed his skill by constantly escalating his tale. Many an author would
I had two main reactiosn to this tale. First, I found the dialogue surprisingly snappy and brisk. It reminded me of dialgue from good film noir like Double Indemnity. Second, Heinlein showed his skill by constantly escalating his tale. Many an author would
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have triumphantly ended their tales with the solutions Heinlein’s characters come up with. Heinlein simply has the solutions fail and tighten the suspense. I liked hero Sam Cavanaugh and his relationship to his boss and father, the Old Man, a sentimental but toughly pragmatic relationship with the the aim of saving the race. The sexual interplay between Sam and Mary was good. I liked a lot of the story being set in the Midwest. (The novel starts around Des Moines, and the Twin Cities falls to the aliens). I thought the idea of aliens abusing – through neglect and overuse – their hosts was good. Show Less
LibraryThing member gbanville
Scary. The original body-snatchers, no doubt. The biggest idea here may be its examination of the nudity taboo. Also the secret agents with family ties theme shows up again in his later novel, Friday.
LibraryThing member nm.sprin08.A.Palmer
The opening paragraph sets the scene well, showing the enemy has landed and our worst nightmares are here. The aliens control mind and body as effectively as a master puppeteer.
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
Predating Invasion of the Body Snatchers by about 5 years, Puppet Masters tells the story of the discovery of an alien life form taking control of people on Earth, invading their bodies then their minds. Life goes on, it seems, once this happens, but of course, no one wants to be possessed by a
I love sci-fi written in the 50s and 60s; it illuminates the climate of paranoia that became SOP at the beginnings of the Cold War. The story is told from the perspective of Sam, who is an operative for a top-top secret intelligence agency. As the story opens, Sam, another operative name Mary, and the intelligence agency chief known only as The Old Man receive news that a flying saucer has landed in Iowa (of all places!) and eventually it becomes known that aboard the ship was some sort of alien life form which looks like a slug and attaches itself to the backs of human beings. The government of the United States refuses to believe that this is any kind of real threat until it is too late. Sam, Mary and the Old Man have to find a way to rid the world (yes, the aliens go global) of this alien presence before it's too late.
The story is well written, funny and a bit like the detective stories of the period where the detective is the narrator. I would definitely recommend it to sci-fi fans, fans of Heinlein and anyone interested in the "aliens have landed" type story.
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blob of gray matter leaving them with a hump on their backs!I love sci-fi written in the 50s and 60s; it illuminates the climate of paranoia that became SOP at the beginnings of the Cold War. The story is told from the perspective of Sam, who is an operative for a top-top secret intelligence agency. As the story opens, Sam, another operative name Mary, and the intelligence agency chief known only as The Old Man receive news that a flying saucer has landed in Iowa (of all places!) and eventually it becomes known that aboard the ship was some sort of alien life form which looks like a slug and attaches itself to the backs of human beings. The government of the United States refuses to believe that this is any kind of real threat until it is too late. Sam, Mary and the Old Man have to find a way to rid the world (yes, the aliens go global) of this alien presence before it's too late.
The story is well written, funny and a bit like the detective stories of the period where the detective is the narrator. I would definitely recommend it to sci-fi fans, fans of Heinlein and anyone interested in the "aliens have landed" type story.
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LibraryThing member bzedan
Whatever problem others may have with his sexual politics (the man loves his clone incest and spanking, what can I say?), I am blindly fond of his work. Snappy and shit. Kinda one of those sharp lady/dude banter relationships that rocked that era (50's, if you weren't counting). Creepy-ass aliens
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that the good guy isn't immune to, frustrating bureaucratic red tape, some smash-bang at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
I love the Body Snatcher films - the whole genre in fact - and I liked the central premise in this, the book that arguably started the whole thing. What I didn't like was Heinlein's style; he uses some awkward phrasing in places, and absolutely avoids contractions, which makes for particularly
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difficult reading. So, the idea is good, but the execution is, for want of a better word, sloppy. Show Less
LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf
Another classic Heinlein what if about society, in this case an early "body snatchers" alien invasion story of the sort that became so common during the Cold War. If it seems a bit cliched, remember that this was one of the originators of the cliche. The ending is a little too easy, and here I am
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not just talking about a certain deus ex machina weapon to use against the slugs, as the story has it that Heinlein needed to wrap the book up quickly within the set word count. Instead I mean something that appears to have happened in the second to last chapter that would have been a huge sacrifice for our protagonist, Sam, that turns out in the last chapter not to have happened, leaving us with an somewhat too happy ending. Still, it's a good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member RRHowell
Another one of those great Heinlein books that takes a truly hackneyed plot and does interesting things with it. The story line is DUMB. The book is quite good. Partially Heinlein's thoughts on communism.
LibraryThing member datrappert
Classic invasion paranoia story, as aliens attach themselves to the spinal cords of their victims and take complete control of them.
LibraryThing member Foghorn-Leghorn
This was a fun read. I liked Heinlein' tongue-in-cheek humor.
LibraryThing member krista.rutherford
Science fiction at its best - mind-controlling slugs from outer space! I love reading the originals!
LibraryThing member Karlstar
This is a Heinlein classic first published in book form in 1951. That makes it a sci-fi classic, with everything you'd expect. Men are still gallant, the technology is both advanced and primitive, and political and economic predictions are way off. Its always fun to read the older sci-fi to see how
Otherwise this is pretty classic 50's scifi. Alien parasites land on Earth and start taking over, while a super secret government agency tries to fight them off. There is an original Star Trek episode that borrows heavily from this concept, so its hard not to visualize images from the show while reading the book. Pretty standard, unsurprising science fiction without any great political or philosophical insights.
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they did not anticipate personal computing and entertainment advances, but how far behind we are in space travel. Otherwise this is pretty classic 50's scifi. Alien parasites land on Earth and start taking over, while a super secret government agency tries to fight them off. There is an original Star Trek episode that borrows heavily from this concept, so its hard not to visualize images from the show while reading the book. Pretty standard, unsurprising science fiction without any great political or philosophical insights.
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LibraryThing member Razinha
Dashiell Hammett meets the body snatchers. Despite the misogyny, it had three stars until the last third turned out to be pure agony to force myself to read. I really hope when I get to the late 1950s books, he gets better.
LibraryThing member octoberdad
One of his more popular, non-Future History books, this is a decent read (or listen, as I did). Heinlein plays on the common human fears of alien cultures, invasion and a sudden suspension of the ability to control one's own free will. The plot has been redone many times (Invasion of the Body
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Snatchers, etc.), but none as good as Heinlein's original. Show Less
LibraryThing member GlenRH
This moved fast enough to keep me reading. It is the predecessor of G'oaulds and Souls, but is kind of a cross between the two. It is a bit dated, and the social politically correctness just isn't there, so if you're offended by not being politically correct don't read it because you'll be
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condemning the characters. I liked it, being it was new and fresh (translation--it wasn't one of Heinlein's I'd read in my youth!). Four stars for suspense and a quick paced storyline. Show Less
LibraryThing member ikeman100
This is one of my favorite early Heinlein books. Other writers wrote similar themed books but his almost casual style and fun ideas make this great.
LibraryThing member kslade
Good novel of what if aliens attached themselves to our backs to control us. I've read several others by this author too.
LibraryThing member jklugman
Heinlein is batshit insane. He likes his men macho, he likes his women strong and capable but demur, and he really likes it when an invasion of body-snatching parasites means everyone has to parade around naked to prove their bodies haven't been hijacked.
LibraryThing member Jean_Sexton
What a great tale on so many levels! This novel works as a straight science-fiction alien invasion story, but there are also the philosophical questions to consider. How much freedom is a person willing to surrender for peace of mind? How do you know what is true when you cannot see events
I picked this book to re-read (I read it first decades ago) after another novel mentioned it in passing. I am glad I did as the more experienced me saw the multi-layered novel with fresh eyes. Heinlein fans have no doubt already read the novel, but I think it is worth reading again.
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yourself? When does a war end? I picked this book to re-read (I read it first decades ago) after another novel mentioned it in passing. I am glad I did as the more experienced me saw the multi-layered novel with fresh eyes. Heinlein fans have no doubt already read the novel, but I think it is worth reading again.
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LibraryThing member apomonis
1950s to the MAX!
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1951
Physical description
96 p.; 17.7 cm
ISBN
019424234X / 9780194242349
Local notes
Omslag: Alun Hood
Omslaget viser en kvinde, der krænger en maske af
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Side 45: Elihu
Side 94: The human race must always be ready to fight for its life. We thought space was empty. We thought we were the kings. We were wrong. There are others. We must learn from this battle. Perhaps there are greater dangers than the slugs. Man must be ready to fight for his freedom at any time.
Alpha Books
Omslaget viser en kvinde, der krænger en maske af
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Side 45: Elihu
Side 94: The human race must always be ready to fight for its life. We thought space was empty. We thought we were the kings. We were wrong. There are others. We must learn from this battle. Perhaps there are greater dangers than the slugs. Man must be ready to fight for his freedom at any time.
Alpha Books
Other editions
Universets parasitter by Robert A. Heinlein (Paperback)
Similar in this library
Pages
96
DDC/MDS
| 813 |