The Puppet Masters eBook Robert A Heinlein
Download As PDF : The Puppet Masters eBook Robert A Heinlein 
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 U.S. 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 . . .
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The Puppet Masters eBook Robert A Heinlein
Like anyone who has read Heinlein, once you read one of his books, you have to read the all. He is the consummate visionary. I would put him on an equal par with Jules Verne, and above Verne when it comes to the importance of relationships in his stories. There is always the older sage, the young go-for-broke man and of course the beautiful love interest. Puppet Masters at its core is about fighting group think by rugged individualists. A worthy cause especially in today's group-think environment.Product details
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The Puppet Masters eBook Robert A Heinlein Reviews
First of all, it is an entertaining read, if somewhat dated.
It took an incredible mind to imagine society being taken over by creatures that control human minds. While this genre is a cliche today, it was NOT at the time this book was written.
Heinlein had a lot of libertarian themes in his books. That made this one is intriguing to me, as it is first-person-narrated by a government agent. It is frightening to see the level of power, resources, secrecy, and autonomy Heinlein believes is required for such people to be effective.
I give it four stars. I give Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Starship Troopers" five stars, and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" 4.5 stars.
I really enjoyed it, from start to finish. Very pro-American sci fi writer, which I like. Libs have criticized this one as being paranoid or reflecting 'McCarthyism' or some such rot. He was a patriot, understood the communist menace, and if he was using sci fi to point it out, God bless him for it. Whatever his reasons for writing the book, it remains an exciting tale. Has a bit in common with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", another great one. I also recommend "Starship Troopers" for fans of military sci-fi and giant bugs.
When Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Puppet Masters the world was a very different place. The Cold War between the U.S. and Russia was still going on and the Iron Curtain (The Wall) had not yet come down. Heinlein envisioned a world were war had taken out sections of the United States in nuclear attacks and the threat of a final blast was still on the agenda.
Into this armed and ready world came the slugs, or Titans as they were called because they came from Titan, one of Saturn's moons 12 light years away. A landing in Iowa was billed as a hoax a day or so after the event and agent Elihu Nivens, the narrator of the story, remembers that most of the UFO sightings during the 1940s and 1950s were hoaxes. The only difference is that this UFO sighting was the real thing pretending to be a hoax so the Masters, sluglike creatures that fasten to a person's back at the base of the neck and sink tendrils into the spine spine and brain to control people.
Elihu, named Sam for the mission to Iowa, his boss and a beautiful young woman named Mary, pretending to be his sister (blast his luck), pose as tourists to check out the situation. They even got as far as the mayor's office and saw that many people, including the mayor, had humps on their back at the shoulders. It didn't take long to figure out the UFO wasn't a hoax and invaders from space were taking over.
The Masters moved silently using the knowledge in people's minds to make their takeover swift and silent. One Master rode Elihu and nearly took over Washington D.C. It was Mary and the boss of the agency, who just happened to be Elihu's father, that caught Elihu and rid him of his Master. Convincing the President and Congress that measures needed to be taken immediately took longer and didn't happen until they saw it personally.
Heinlein didn't predict the sate of the world as we know it now. He didn't accurately predict the future. There are no cell phones, world wide Internet communication, or any of the social situations we live in today. He did, however, think we would have flying cars by now, which we obviously do not, and Russia is no longer a threat, except in more capitalistic terms, since the Wall came down. Heinlein wasn't clairvoyant, but he did know people and psychology and how people react. That is where The Puppet Masters excels.
In Heinlein's eyes, Venus isn't a hell planet with a surface covered by exploding volcanoes and poisonous fumes for air but a lush jungle hothouse capable of sustaining life and we have gone to the stars and colonized Mars and many other moons, including our own. Heinlein knew how we would react and how our democratic system of government would take its time to vote on whether or not to believe in the danger from the stars and deal with it. There is where I find Heinlein's vision of the future accurate.
I read The Puppet Masters about 20 years ago and reading it again was a revelation. I didn't remember all the details, but I do remember the sense of wonder that came as I turned the pages and dove into the America on the page. Heinlein's belief in mankind and his strengths -- and weaknesses -- was nothing less than miraculous. I cheered as the lights in the Red Zone began to go out even though getting rid of the Masters was borrowed from H. G. Wells's defeat of the Martins in War of the Worlds, and too easy. Although the virus that kills the Titan Masters was effective and Elihu and his wife Mary, who held the key to the Masters' defeat, were on their way to Titan to free the moon's native population and kill every last slug, the sense of hope and the promise to take down any species that presumes to eradicate humans before we can do it ourselves is quite stunning.
The Puppet Masters has its failings, but science fiction isn't an exact science. It is the possibility based on one writer's visions and dreams. Heinlein's work is always about the people, the characters of any given situation, and not about predicting the future. People are endlessly fascinating and frustrating but, even after all these years, Heinlein's writing, in spite of its lack of accurate fortune telling, is worth reading, not for the facts, but for what he leaves behind. The very real and flawed characters of the Old Man, Elihu/Sam, and Mary (to a lesser degree). The relationships between the Old Man and Sam is priceless and shows, even before it is revealed, that this is father and son.
One thing more Heinlein reminds us is that special confidence in people that when the excrement hits the revolving blades there is still hope and we, the human race, will still be standing -- and fighting. I rather enjoy Heinlein's vision of the future as I ride around in my flying car en route to the launching station that will take me to new worlds, moons, and planets.
Even though dated, this book was 5 stars all the way. Scary story, terrific characterization (for its time period), imaginative, and decent pace. I'm not going to go into the plot because other reviewers have already done so and probably much better than I could. But, I wanted to just comment on books' influence from that time period to today. I doubt anyone will read this, but I just have to comment.
As a little girl growing up in the 1970s, I was carefully given all the appropriate books for a girl (Little Women, Black Beauty, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe etc). When I was about 13, I started reading my Mom's Harlequin Romances. I think they permanently stunted my growth and distorted my relationships with men! Only once I "snuck" and read a sci-fi by A Keys and I LOVED it and never forgot that story.
Now I am a polite, married woman but I wonder what kind of radical hellion I could've been if I'd be able to read these amazing sci-fi stories - stories where the end doesn't come when the h gets married. It makes me sad for that little girl.
But, the good news my daughter was a different story (no pun) and I filled her head with every kind of story (except Harlequins). Now she is getting her Masters (allow a mother to brag) and isn't afraid to tell the world to "F*** off," while I would prefer to bake the whole world a nice batch of cookies.
Times change for the better and for the worse, but this author and this book is a terrific tale and stands the test of time. Highy recommended - especially for nice, quiet girls!
Like anyone who has read Heinlein, once you read one of his books, you have to read the all. He is the consummate visionary. I would put him on an equal par with Jules Verne, and above Verne when it comes to the importance of relationships in his stories. There is always the older sage, the young go-for-broke man and of course the beautiful love interest. Puppet Masters at its core is about fighting group think by rugged individualists. A worthy cause especially in today's group-think environment.
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