The Puppet Masters (Baen Science Fiction) [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert A. Heinlein (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 27, 2010 | Series: Baen Science Fiction

Now in Mass Market. An Epic Battle Against Mind-Controlling Alien Invaders as Only Robert A. Heinlein, the Best-Selling Grand Master of Science Fiction, Could Tell It. “One of the most influential writers in American literature.” —The New York Times Book Review.

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 .

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert A. Heinlein was the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived. His novels have been translated into every literate language on the globe—over 25 million Heinlein books are in print in this country alone.  For five decades, young readers of science fiction discovered Heinlein, then gone on to voraciously devour every Heinlein book they can get their hands on. His now-legendary Stranger in a Strange Land was the first hardcover bestseller by a science fiction writer. From 1975 on, every new Heinlein novel made the New York Times best-seller list and shipped a million copies, including The Number of the Beast, Friday, Job: A Comedy of Justice, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. In a career spanning half a century, he wrote over forty books, and four of his novels won Hugo Awards, an unequalled record for almost four decades. For the last three generations of readers, Heinlein is science fiction.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Baen (July 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143913376X
• ISBN-13: 978-1439133767
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1.1 x 6.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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#29 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#44 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

#74 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#29 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#44 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

#74 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Heinlein at his best January 3, 2011

By TChris TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

"Aliens take over human minds" was the plot of more than one Star Trek episode -- and of nearly every episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea -- but the concept was still fresh when Heinlein wrote The Puppet Masters. Rarely has it been employed more successfully. Heinlein was a great believer in the rugged individualist's desire and ability to fight for freedom, a feeling he captured brilliantly in The Puppet Masters.

Published in 1951, during the time Heinlein was busy turning out juvenile novels, The Puppet Masters is very much an adult novel. The hero (using the cover name "Sam") openly lusts after a fellow agent, comments upon her physical attributes, considers calling an escort agency, and takes pills to wake up or to sharpen his wits or to extend his sense of time (and enjoys the high). Heinlein had some fun with the obvious way to make sure your neighbor isn't hosting an alien on his back: by presidential order, nudity becomes the required fashion. Daring stuff for 1951!

The story moves quickly, Sam's reluctantly heroic actions are plausible, and Heinlein invests Sam with a full personality -- and an opinionated one, as one expects from a Heinlein hero. The Puppet Masters has more of a thriller feel than some of Heinlein's more cerebral novels. Ignoring the fact that Russia seems less a threat now than it did six decades ago, the novel has aged well, and should retain its appeal to the modern reader.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best SF Novels Ever Published October 8, 2011

By George Duncan

Format:Mass Market Paperback

If there is somewhere in the Twilight Zone a Hall of Fame of Freedom, Robert Heinlein has an honored place there. This is not only an incredibly suspensful novel, it is a treatise on freedom, duty and courage.
If you don't regard Heinlein as one of the best sf writers in the history of the genre, he at least would be in the top three, and I would rate him first. This novel was one of his finest. It is the best of the best.
Alien parasites are taking over humans and agents from a secret government agency must combat them and save the nation and the world. This may sound like a cliche but in Heinlein's hands it is masterful. At first, the parasites attach themselves to the back of their victims, between the shoulder blades. The reader may be scratching at that area any number of times before he finishes the book.
the characters are sound and solid. They are typical Heinlein heroes but they are also individuals. Read the book for the first time almost forty years and I have never forgotten the last few lines.
Many, shall we say, elite writers have dismissed Heinlein but their books are long forgotten, His books may be remembered forever.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beware of People with Hunched Backs! October 14, 2010

By Maximiliano F Yofre

Format:Mass Market Paperback

When I was a teenager, Robert A. Heinlein was one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Time had passed by, but I still love some of his books. "The Puppet Masters" is one of them.

This book was published in 1951 when the Cold War was raging. That cultural background greatly influences the story. As I pointed out in other reviews, books and films of the period allude the frightful issue of: "They are LIKE us but they are NOT us. They are DANGEROUS to us", as in the films "The Thing from another World" (1951), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) or "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" (1958).

The story focuses on an alien invasion that expands all around the world with unimaginable speed. Sam and Mary are agents of an ultra secret Security Agency under the control of the Old Man who have a direct link to the President.
Both agents go to investigate and after discovering what's up, a fast paced adventure starts.
Alien parasites take control of human beings by the expedient of attaching themselves to the back of the host. The first frightful issue to overcome is how to distinguish friend from foes. Then, the Government has to implement some defense against them, that include a "bare backs" politic. Finally our heroes try to find the source and origin of the invasion.

At this height of his career, Heinlein was more centered in the action than in political or social speculation, as he develops in later books, with uneven success.

I recommend this book to all sci-fi lovers and those who enjoy adrenalin charged adventures.

Reviewed by Max Yofre.