Hemmelig Invasion

Jack Finney deftly begins this 1950's science fiction thriller with an air of mystery ("I warn you that what you're starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions..."), and then slowly builds an atmosphere of enveloping doom and dread. This short novel, concerning the now familiar

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plot line of alien life-forms inhabiting minds and bodies and thereby subtly changing people in a peaceful California town, is a fast-paced and entertaining read. The references to Fortean phenomena and proposed psychological explanations for the perceived changes in people are clever touches that add to the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty throughout.

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This classic sci-fi tale by Jack Finney is made even better by the superb performance Kristoffer Tabori. In this small town, people don’t seem to be themselves. Oh, they look the same, know the same things, and almost act the same, but something is not quite right. At first, it doesn’t seem

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possible, but soon Miles and his girlfriend Becky are convinced that some sort of things are taking over the bodies of their friends and relatives. The horrifying reality is that they discover giant pods are growing in fields around the town, taking the place of human being. And now Miles and Becky know they will be next, and they have to decide to flee or fight. But what they don’t know is if they can do either one successfully. If you have seen the classic movie of the same name, you still need to read the book, or better still, listen to this audio version.

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The Basics

There’s a mental epidemic going around Mill Valley. People are saying that their loved ones that they’ve known for years are not the genuine article. That they’re somehow fakes, copies. A frightening idea that becomes even more so when it’s discovered they’re right.

My

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Thoughts

This book was fun. It was pulpy, old school science fiction. Not a perfect story by any means, as there were a couple of hitches and the writing style wasn’t spectacular and it got cheesy in spots. Yet I enjoyed it a lot. That’s simple personal preference. I happen to have a lot of affection for science fiction that can be a little loose with its science and focuses on intrigue and adventure.

Admittedly, there were some moments when it seemed that the main characters had conveniently forgotten things they’d witnessed before. Or when, and this is a sin I can’t forgive, without any evidence whatsoever, a character jumps to some insane conclusion. And they’re right. Miles, the narrator and local doctor, conjectures at one point that if he autopsied the body of an unawakened pod person, he’d find A, B, and C. He never does it. It’s never confirmed. But of course he must be right. That’s… a crock, really. No one is that damn good.

One of the saving graces was Miles himself. I know I just bashed him a little up there, but ultimately as a narrator, he was clever and witty and fun to read. I found that I liked him as a person, and it made me root for him. In a story where the odds are against the heroes ever escaping, let alone winning, that’s all it takes to keep you reading to the end. Because, yeah, I wanted to see Miles and Becky make it out of there. With all its faults, which I consider mostly minor, it did that at least.

Also, in a related note, I watched the 1956 film adapted from the book. It was pretty close to the book’s events with some exceptions, including the ending. In some cases, it was quoting the book directly, which impressed me. The plot holes in the book were dealt with smoothly, as well. It was good (and short) if you want to try out some classic science fiction. I say this as someone who doesn’t watch a lot of older movies, but I can vouch for this one.

Final Rating

4/5

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Don't expect anything more from this book than you would expect from a b-movie: it's kindof campy, but it's a suspenseful page-turner. The thought of the people around you suddenly being replaced by identical duplicates is scary, in an insidious nightmare way, and the main characters handle

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themselves very much like a lot of real people would.

There are some weaknesses. The main characters keep changing their minds about whether anything bad is happening or not, and while this is a realistic detail, Finney doesn't handle it very well. The middle of the book gets a little rambly while the characters are trying to decide what to do, and there are some scenes that just seem unnecessary. Becky, the main female character, is very poorly developed: she's just your typical pretty face, object of the narrator's desire, compliant and almost completely passive, except for one scene where she suddenly saves the day out of the blue. Entire scenes go by where she is in the room but doesn't say anything and lets the narrator make all her decisions for her.

But all in all, fun, suspenseful, and creepy. Classic b-movie material.

I listened to the audiobook, which was quite enjoyable (probably more enjoyable than reading the actual book would have been). It is read by the son of the movie director, which gives it a nice historical twist.

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Contrary to what some people still say about this story, it’s not just a metaphor for encroaching ideologies (say, communism): it’s much more frightening than that. The Body Snatchers is about /fear of other people/ – specifically the sudden and nightmarish suspicion that everyone in the rest

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of the world, even people you know, seems to have changed into something terrifying and inexplicable. Beneath the book’s period quirks lies a disembodied alien heart that still beats as powerfully as it did the day the book was first published. Cold, menacing, brilliant.

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I absolutely loved this book! I really cared about the characters (I especially loved Jack), and the suspense was expertly done - there were definitely lots of areas where I just couldn't put the book down until I knew how a certain scenario played out! It was just a great read all-around.

This is a "revised and updated edition" published in 1978 to take advantage of the movie remake with Donald Sutherland. Colliers magazine published the original story, "The Body Snatchers," in 1954. I have not read it, but I am a huge fan of the 1956 movie with Kevin McCarthy -- have seen it so

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many times that my visualizations as I read were in black and white. And despite the addition to the text of details like Jimmy Carter's presidency, this is a story soundly rooted in the 1950s. A fun read -- a reminder of how speeded up we have become -- in the book action scenes go on for pages & pages when they translate in seconds to the screen. That realization makes Finney's nostalgia for a peaceful, pre-WWI life even more poignant. How much faster can we get? People were asking that same question in 1954, the year I was born. Some surprises: Finney does a neat trick with a medical school skeleton, the reader gets more details about the pods and what happens to the bodies they replace, and the ending is a big surprise.

from pg. 114 "And there they lay, in the advancing, retreating waves of flickering red light: two enormous pods already burst open in one of two places, and I reached in with both hands, and tumbled them out onto the dirt. They were weightless as children's balloons, harsh and dry on my palms and fingers. At the feel of them on my skin, I lost my mind completely, and then I was trampling them, smashing and crushing them under my plunging feet and legs, not even knowing that I was uttering a sort of hoarse, meaningless cry -- "Unhh! Unhh! Unhh!" -- of fright and animal disgust. The wind had the flares twisting the flames till they sputtered and choked, and on the high cutaway embankment beside me, I saw a giant shadow -- mine -- squirming and dancing in a wild flickering, insane caper, the whole nightmare scene bathed in a made light the color of froth from a wound, and I think I came close to losing my mind."

and from pg 172
"'... the pods must fulfill their function, their reason for being.'
"'And what's their function?' I said sarcastically.
"Budlong shrugged. 'The function of all life, everywhere -- to survive.'"

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I've seen the movies and the remakes and decided I needed to read the story. All the adaptations I have seen were pretty faithful to the book and I could see in my mind, Kevin McCarthy running through the streets trying to convince people that aliens had landed.

I listened to this as an audio book

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and there was a nice little interview with the son of the director of the 1956 movie version. I enjoyed the story. Simple but effective.

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Those darned pod people. They certainly know how to ruin a perfectly good human being. This is one of my favorite sci fi/horror novels. Excellent chills. If you're a fan of any of the film versions then you need to read it. And to think we have Mr. Finney to also thank for one of the best time

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travel novels Time and Again.

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This book was made for a 1950's sci-fi movie - suburbian nostalgia, a handsome hero/heroine, a simple enemy, and a conclusion with just a touch more hope, optimism, and faith in the human spirit than we expect today. I really enjoyed this book, although I felt that the plot occasionally dragged

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under the weight of too much straight exposition, and the climax went a little too easy on our heroes.

However, this was a creepy story, one that examines one of our most primal and terrifying fears - what happens when our bodies and our identities are violated. What I liked the most was the story's simplicity - there isn't a showdown with a flying saucer and little green men, there isn't a staggering body count, and there wasn't any dramatic explanation of WHY these seed pods came to Earth. As Miles Bennell warns us at the beginning of the story, "What you're starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions." Normally, I like my stories to be wrapped up and satisfying, but in this case, the loose ends worked.

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I saw the 1978 version of this film when I was in my formative teen years. It scared the bejebus out of me. I have since seen both other versions of it (the original was too sedate and the remake had characters that were too bimbo-y).

This is the first time I've read the original story and I have to

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say that I think I like it better than even my favorite film version.

The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it was a little bit moralizing - i.e. the "moral" of the story, hidden in alien effigies, was the withering-away of small town U.S.A. complete with people losing their humanity in the face of progress, etc... and it was none too subtle. I loved it as an alien-invasion end of the world type book, I didn't like it as a commentary on modernization.

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It's extremely corny, but it's a fun, fast-past corny. The conclusion is surprisingly good.

Having read (audio) Time and Again by the same author and having enjoyed the movie versions I was keen to acquire and read this book. Glad I did - thoroughly enjoyable, quite spooky, and one can see the moralizing others report (but didn't strike me while reading it). One weak point is the deus ex

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machina ending and how they survive - a bit war of the Worlds.

But a great book.

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Unexpectedly good. I expected the cliche cult classic, but was the surprised by the storytelling. I enjoyed the narrator, was impressed by the characters, and quite satisfied with the story overall.

Really enjoyed it, though I found it pretty scary to read in bed each night. Saw the movie after-wards and I prefer the book and the ending.

A marvellously haunting and really chilling story, this will be familiar to most through one or other of the film adaptations. The original book and film came out in the 1950s; the book is actually set in 1976, although the feel of the story does hark back to the decade in which was written. There

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is more background explanation of the pods' origins and the process of transmutation here. The only slight disappointment is the ending, which is abrupt and much more upbeat than the frightening end of the 1956 film.

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The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney plunges the reader into a world full of alien adventures and battles, coupled with a suspenseful mystery where no one is safe. It will keep you enthralled from the very first page. Published in 1954, it has endured years of scrutiny and criticism, and has survived

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to become a classic.

It starts with the introduction of the main character, Miles, who is a well-known doctor. When he gets a frantic call from a friend in the middle of the night, however, he soon realizes that what they are dealing with is nothing he was prepared for. Things turn from bad to worse as the whole town has been “snatched.” The only thing that they have left to rely on is their wits and their dwindling group of survivors; each other.

While the book had a good, although some what worn-out premise, there were many things about it that could have been improved. Though not uncommon for the time period it was written in, all the female characters (an astounding two) did was scream and faint. There was one scene where Becky “helped” Miles fight their guards, but the men did all the talking and planning. If the Bechdel test (a rule usually concerning movies) were to be applied to this book, it would have failed miserably. It even says at one point in the book; “As I believe with most wives, even the wisest, do with any real conviction held by their husbands, Theodora [a character in the book] accepted this and made it her own.” Not only are the women in the story overlooked and played to be nothing more than housewives, but there is a long dull point in the middle that will leave the reader wishing for a more interesting book to read. The promise of an excellent ending does nothing to help the boring intermission between the two “halves,” and if you do stick it out and read all the way through, it is a disappointment. Over all, I would recommend The Body Snatchers as a some-what inventive sci-fi read to people who enjoy slow and eerie, and not fast-paced and suspenseful novels. I would give it a three and a half stars out of five.

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