The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

Scenting danger, a trio of state security secret agents heads for the site of the mystery spaceship, and discovers something exceedingly unsettling. When transmission resumes, it’s all very, “Ha ha ha! Just a couple of teenagers pulling off an elaborate hoax! Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see…” Initial radio reports from the scene indicate that the occupants are alive and … then … silence. Flying saucer sightings have recently been reported all over the U.S.A., and one is discovered to be on the ground in the country outside Des Moines, Iowa. (Remembering that it was written in 1951, so the action is set some six decades in the future.) Misogynistic attitudes possibly put aside – though I’ve met a disturbingly large number of these folks, both male and female, who have vintage 1950s’-type views on the equality of the sexes – today’s “libertarians” seem to have ideological views right on par with Heinlein’s, so I guess you might say he was ahead of his time – or a product of his time? – in regards to his frequently trotted out diatribes on the dangers of socialism.īut on to the story. His ideal female? Built, beautiful, sexually willing, good in the kitchen and very, very quiet. Mostly for his patronizingly chauvinistic views towards women. I found some of his more extreme libertarian and offhandedly sexist views a bit problematic way back then, but kept reading because of the storytelling – it was pretty darned good for sci-fi for its time. 175 pages.įlashback to the school library rotating paperback rack! 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. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. 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. Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. And most of Iowa is already under their control. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do.

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. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. Case closed.Įxcept that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. “One of the most influential writers in American literature.” - The New York Times Book Review.įirst came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Heinlein, the Best-Selling Grand Master of Science Fiction, Could Tell It. An Epic Battle Against Mind-Controlling Alien Invaders as Only Robert A.

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein