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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
It's really hard to rate this one. Three stars for being a page turning action classic-alien-invasion, minus a star for the misogyny, plus a star for forgiveness of the time, and then minus another star because, well, there is no forgiveness for some of what was written.
So in the end, it's two stars and adds to the complexity of my love for Robert Heinlein's writing.
So in the end, it's two stars and adds to the complexity of my love for Robert Heinlein's writing.
If your neighbour offers you a back rub - watch out!
No moral messages or satire! Nothing deep, subliminal, fancy, or indirect and hidden! The Puppet Masters is straight-up hard driving sci-fi action thriller based on the simple theme of alien invasion! Given the underlying culture of 1950s USA, the deep-seated American fear and paranoia over the Cold War with Russia and Cuba plus the ongoing bewilderment surrounding alleged UFO sightings and alien abductions, there are few surprises in The Puppet Masters. Despite that, Heinlein succeeds in hooking his readers from the very first page and producing a fast-paced tale that is extremely difficult to put down once you've started. Move over Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds and Day of the Triffids - you've got some exciting new company!
Sam and Mary, operatives for an ultra-covert government intelligence agency run by the Old Man, open the story as they are briefed on the arrival of a flying saucer which we will later learn is from Titan, Saturn's sixth and largest moon. The government, with typical bureaucratic blundering and political maneuvering fails to react to the threat against mankind when it is first recognized - the occupants of the flying saucer are a slug-like parasitic lifeform that steals its human host's body, intelligence and memories by attaching itself to a human's back and reproduces at a frightening rate.
Although Heinlein primarily used plot and action to drive the story to a thrilling climax and a warm-hearted optimistic conclusion, we are given snippets of his visions of technology and life in a 21st century future - non-habit forming drugs capable of dramatically elongating a person's psychological perception of the passage of time; heat guns; flying cars powered by impellers with one model laughably called the "Cadillac Zipper"; stereo-video, high resolution pictures and a multi-channel television entertainment universe (well, he sure got that one right, didn't he?); space travel; and, established colonies on Venus. It's difficult to say whether Heinlein was being unabashedly cynical or taking a stab at black humour when he portrayed the state of marriage as having evolved into a purely contractual arrangement with optional renewal after a specified term and payment of a salary from one party to the other.
One of the most interesting developments in The Puppet Masters is the government's decision to suspend certain civil liberties - the world's population is forced to live and work in the nude as the only way of ensuring a neighbour has not been hi-jacked by one of the "slugs". The alternative is being summarily shot by military or police forces, not to mention roaming vigilante groups. How ironic that something written over fifty years ago should suddenly be so timely! In light of recent events such as Al-Qaeda terrorist bombings, Heinlein's outlandish plot device gives one considerable reason to pause, draw a deep breath and contemplate what rights might be sacrosanct and which ones might be changed or eliminated in the world's efforts against terrorism.
With the exception of overtly sexist dialogue in the style of a hard-nosed Mike Hammer police procedural, nothing else would date this fine story as having been written so long ago. Maybe we can look to Spielberg to work his magic on this one next - the book was terrific and I bet it'd be a hell of a big screen epic too!
Paul Weiss
No moral messages or satire! Nothing deep, subliminal, fancy, or indirect and hidden! The Puppet Masters is straight-up hard driving sci-fi action thriller based on the simple theme of alien invasion! Given the underlying culture of 1950s USA, the deep-seated American fear and paranoia over the Cold War with Russia and Cuba plus the ongoing bewilderment surrounding alleged UFO sightings and alien abductions, there are few surprises in The Puppet Masters. Despite that, Heinlein succeeds in hooking his readers from the very first page and producing a fast-paced tale that is extremely difficult to put down once you've started. Move over Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds and Day of the Triffids - you've got some exciting new company!
Sam and Mary, operatives for an ultra-covert government intelligence agency run by the Old Man, open the story as they are briefed on the arrival of a flying saucer which we will later learn is from Titan, Saturn's sixth and largest moon. The government, with typical bureaucratic blundering and political maneuvering fails to react to the threat against mankind when it is first recognized - the occupants of the flying saucer are a slug-like parasitic lifeform that steals its human host's body, intelligence and memories by attaching itself to a human's back and reproduces at a frightening rate.
Although Heinlein primarily used plot and action to drive the story to a thrilling climax and a warm-hearted optimistic conclusion, we are given snippets of his visions of technology and life in a 21st century future - non-habit forming drugs capable of dramatically elongating a person's psychological perception of the passage of time; heat guns; flying cars powered by impellers with one model laughably called the "Cadillac Zipper"; stereo-video, high resolution pictures and a multi-channel television entertainment universe (well, he sure got that one right, didn't he?); space travel; and, established colonies on Venus. It's difficult to say whether Heinlein was being unabashedly cynical or taking a stab at black humour when he portrayed the state of marriage as having evolved into a purely contractual arrangement with optional renewal after a specified term and payment of a salary from one party to the other.
One of the most interesting developments in The Puppet Masters is the government's decision to suspend certain civil liberties - the world's population is forced to live and work in the nude as the only way of ensuring a neighbour has not been hi-jacked by one of the "slugs". The alternative is being summarily shot by military or police forces, not to mention roaming vigilante groups. How ironic that something written over fifty years ago should suddenly be so timely! In light of recent events such as Al-Qaeda terrorist bombings, Heinlein's outlandish plot device gives one considerable reason to pause, draw a deep breath and contemplate what rights might be sacrosanct and which ones might be changed or eliminated in the world's efforts against terrorism.
With the exception of overtly sexist dialogue in the style of a hard-nosed Mike Hammer police procedural, nothing else would date this fine story as having been written so long ago. Maybe we can look to Spielberg to work his magic on this one next - the book was terrific and I bet it'd be a hell of a big screen epic too!
Paul Weiss
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Peak 50's sci-fi. I read The Puppet Masters for a paper on Cold War paranoia, and for that purpose it was perfect. However I started regretting some life choices about 5 pages in and it didn't get better.
Heinlein certainly has some thoughts about gender, sexuality, and society, and boy does he not let it rest. It! is! Constant! How did he make it plot-critical that this one woman is so hot that she can literally detect aliens? NEVER in her life has she encountered a man who didn't "respond" to her - how spooky! Must be the slugs! Then of course she falls for the protagonist (who is just SO cool you guys. SO competent and strong and masculine. He's like, smarter than the President OMG), they get married (hello there, Heinlein's "futuristic" views on marriage), and she loses any remaining speck of free will about halfway through. Oh, and in case you were waiting with bated breath for another one of Heinlein's ever-present "things" to come in, never fear! The U.S. President executive-orders everyone to go topless. And then nearly full nude. And then more countries follow suit. For the alien emergency, of course. No other reason. Thanks, Heinlein. Really cool of you. Very necessary.
Disregarding Heinlein being Heinlein, the horror is cool. The gross and squishy bits are gross and squishy, and it successfully evokes that terror of neighbor fearing neighbor. The little pieces sprinkled in about how the world has changed after nuclear World War Three (it's set in 2007) are thought provoking. Washington, D.C. is all egg-shaped now, flying cars and ray guns, etc. And yet no communications satellites! It's always interesting to see that "proper" retrofuturism.
Anyway. I was looking for a source on Communist paranoia and this book fulfilled that purpose. I would put The Puppet Masters firmly in its category as a product of its time, through and through. I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone put themselves through it. I guess come prepared with the mental equivalent of a spray bottle against the ghost of Heinlein.
Heinlein certainly has some thoughts about gender, sexuality, and society, and boy does he not let it rest. It! is! Constant! How did he make it plot-critical that this one woman is so hot that she can literally detect aliens? NEVER in her life has she encountered a man who didn't "respond" to her - how spooky! Must be the slugs! Then of course she falls for the protagonist (who is just SO cool you guys. SO competent and strong and masculine. He's like, smarter than the President OMG), they get married (hello there, Heinlein's "futuristic" views on marriage), and she loses any remaining speck of free will about halfway through. Oh, and in case you were waiting with bated breath for another one of Heinlein's ever-present "things" to come in, never fear! The U.S. President executive-orders everyone to go topless. And then nearly full nude. And then more countries follow suit. For the alien emergency, of course. No other reason. Thanks, Heinlein. Really cool of you. Very necessary.
Disregarding Heinlein being Heinlein, the horror is cool. The gross and squishy bits are gross and squishy, and it successfully evokes that terror of neighbor fearing neighbor. The little pieces sprinkled in about how the world has changed after nuclear World War Three (it's set in 2007) are thought provoking. Washington, D.C. is all egg-shaped now, flying cars and ray guns, etc. And yet no communications satellites! It's always interesting to see that "proper" retrofuturism.
Anyway. I was looking for a source on Communist paranoia and this book fulfilled that purpose. I would put The Puppet Masters firmly in its category as a product of its time, through and through. I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone put themselves through it. I guess come prepared with the mental equivalent of a spray bottle against the ghost of Heinlein.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this books years ago and remembered loving it. I think I would have enjoyed it more reading a physical copy again as I did not love this reader. He did female voices very poorly and a lot of his sort of side character voices were frankly weird. All kinda slow and drawling.
The story itself is a classic. In many ways Heinlein was ahead of his time. The sexism is overt yet you also get the sense that the author himself didn’t necessarily believe it, only wrote it because it’s what was expected.
It’s an exciting plot with lots of twists. Truly this author is one of the fathers of modern sci fi. Much better than say the likes of Asimov who wouldn’t know a descriptive adjective or a diverse cast if they slapped him in the face.
The story itself is a classic. In many ways Heinlein was ahead of his time. The sexism is overt yet you also get the sense that the author himself didn’t necessarily believe it, only wrote it because it’s what was expected.
It’s an exciting plot with lots of twists. Truly this author is one of the fathers of modern sci fi. Much better than say the likes of Asimov who wouldn’t know a descriptive adjective or a diverse cast if they slapped him in the face.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death
It is hard to find a half-decent female character in science fiction novels from the period in which this was written. You won't find any here.
The only real female character starts with a leg up. She is one of the top agents for the top-secret Section. Things go predictably downhill from there. She is also "super hot" and can spot the titular invaders because they're not attracted to her smokin' bod. She soon submits to the protagonist's ridiculous demand of marriage, and thereafter her dialogue more or less consists of "whatever you say, dear." Sigh.
That aside, the rest of the story is a classic that seems to have set the precedent for countless later imitations.
The only real female character starts with a leg up. She is one of the top agents for the top-secret Section. Things go predictably downhill from there. She is also "super hot" and can spot the titular invaders because they're not attracted to her smokin' bod. She soon submits to the protagonist's ridiculous demand of marriage, and thereafter her dialogue more or less consists of "whatever you say, dear." Sigh.
That aside, the rest of the story is a classic that seems to have set the precedent for countless later imitations.
Something about a heinlein book that just drags you in.