Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780345330147ISBN:0345330145
Description: Very Good. 0345330145 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre..._ read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: New American Library, New York
Date Published: 1951
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 48) Book clean, solid, very good condition. 175 p. 19 cm. "D2366. " "A Signet book. " "Fourth printing. " read more
"I wouldn't read this book so much as an adventure story - but it is that. I also wouldn't read this book as a science fiction alien invasion story - but it is that. I would read this book as a study of America as it was in the early 50's with it's prejudices, racism and especially its misogynism - and I did. The protagonist, Sam, is a man's man; a spy; a secret agent with intelligence, strength, good looks, and a healthy respect for the good old USA. He's also in love with Mary, a fellow secret agent. Beautiful Mary, who gets by on sex appeal and women's intuition where another agent might use cunning and violence.
Meanwhile, a slug race of alien parasites has invaded and they're impossible to beat because they control us and they multiply uncontrollably. It's up to Sam and Mary to save America and to save the world by extension, because America does what the world can't and it's always noble and right. In this book, the eastern block, in fact all of communism fell to the invasion immediately, without a fight. They just didn't have the character to stand up to a dominant, controlling creature.
But this brings the question - was it a good book? Well no, not really. It's a product of its time and for that it was interesting to read. Would I recommend it to you? No. Am I sorry I spent the time reading it? No. It's Heinlein and even though it wasn't his best work, it was a fast-paced adventure story for which you, as reader, don't have to think too much."
"I don't like spies, I hate secret agencies. I never enjoyed OO7 or Mission Impossible. Accordingly, all the parodies like Ostin Powers or MiB were absolutely not funny for me.
So when I started few days ago Puppet Masters (my first Heinlein book, days of science fiction were over in a school for me) I thought I won't be able to finish.
But at some point I got sucked into it. The metaphore is rather clear: slug green aliens, climbing on the backs of normal people and controling their minds are commies (hundereds of hints about this in the book). I guessed how Good Guys will beat the invasion on 30th page (same method was used in fleets of books and movies). But anyway I kept reading.
Characters are flat, dialogs are banal, love sub-plot is unbelievably primitive. Same is in any science fiction. So I wondered why I keep going? In the end I concluded the reason was named methaphore above. It wasn't just some invented fantasy with no relation to my life whatsoever, but some reflections and fears and troubles of the 50's and Cold War and all that. This kept me reading and actually I'm not very upset about it."
"This was the first science fiction book I ever read. I was 10 years old and I was hooked. I read all the sci fi I could get my hands on whick back then wasn't much. "Literary" authors thought it was an ugly stepchild. It was pretty much all I read for years. Very few girls read SF and there were no women SF writers jntil Andre Norton. I was ecstatic when I found out Norton was a womsn."
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