Customer Reviews

They Walked Like Men

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When reading this book under the harsh light of year-2000 sensibilities, be prepared for a very 1950s pulp feel. Some of you may find this to be part of the charm of the book, but others might be put off. Still, even if you are put off by the slightly chauvanist style, Clifford Simak's "They Walked Like Men" is worth reading through.

Clifford's premise is actually rather unique for the science fiction books I read. Aliens arrive who want to take over the Earth -- by buying it. A series of covert transactions, each with closing dates close to one another, designed to defeat the human race by causing an economic collapse. Since when have aliens gone at it this way? The book may feel like 1950s fiction, but there are no flying saucers shooting off lasers, here.

Clifford Simak has a very readible writing style. The book is told in the first person and Simak gets you into the head of the lead character, who is a journalist covering the story of the alien's hostile takeover. Simak was himself a journalist, so he seems to know of what he writes. The other characters, the love-interest Joy, his caustic boss, down to the aliens and the strangers on the street, all come across as three-dimensional and interesting. It's a charming read, both because of its dated feel, and because of its original premise.

This is an entertaining alien invasion yarn in 1950s style. The protagonist, a newspaper reporter, puts a series of clues together and then faces the expectable problem of convincing others that he is not a lunatic and that his fears are real. Light summer fare, a bit dated but still enjoyable--I don't think Simak was capable of writing a bad book.

This book was my introduction to Simak, and somehow the 1950s pulp-style feeling that other reviewers have mentioned really "did it" for me. The story is interesting, but even more so, the writing style brings back quite a feeling of nostalgia for me. It's not flashy, but it is riveting. Characters are not heavily detailed, Simak usually spends more time advancing the plot. You won't be sorry if you pick this one up, provided you can find it.

In his novels, Clifford D. Simak was frequently cooking up ingenious schemes to destroy our capitalist civilization. In _Ring Around the Sun_ (1953), the plot involved a lot of manufactured items and was hatched by an organization of benevolent mutants. In _They Walked Like Men_ (1962), the plot involves the manipulation of money and real estate and is masterminded by aliens who are anything but benevolent.

As I write this review, the United States is still in the midst of a severe recession, with millions of people out of work. Our own recession was caused by human greed and stupidity rather than by an alien plot... or was it? How can you really tell for sure? Simak dramatises how bartenders, merchants, and druggists are squeezed out of business. He portrays families out on the streets and hunting for work that is no longer there. When I reread the novel, it hit me with a greater punch than before. It seems especially relevant today.

One of the aliens justifies their actions:

"Things like that... have been going on through all your history. Don't challenge me on that. I have read your history. This is no new creation we've created. It is a very old one in your human terms. And we have done it honestly and, believe me, with all due attention to legality." (165)

But earlier, the hero has already noted the fundamental objection to this practice: It is inhuman:

They didn't care what happened to the human race. The human race was nothing more than a form of life cluttering up the planet that could be used for other things. They would use the humans just as the humans once used the animals that had cluttered up the land. They'd get rid of them any way they could. (144)

This also strikes a chord with me. What makes the aliens monsterous is their supreme indifference to others. And I am reminded that it is not just space aliens who practice that inhumane indifference. So far, so good.

But the novel has a weakness that cannot be ignored. It has a plot that is preposterously silly. To be sure, there are a couple of scenes that are chilling and suspenseful. And Simak does have a good feel for setting-- a small apartment, the newsroom in the morning, the inside of a police station, the northern woods at night. But most of the encounters between the aliens and the humans are more like a ridiculous slapstick comedy than serious drama. Neither the humans nor the aliens appear to be terribly clever. And, let us face it, aliens who take the shape of bowling balls aren't exactly going to raise archtypical shudders along the spine.

The ultimate defeat of the aliens, thanks to the help of some mutual enemies to the villains, results in a final scene that is very hard to take seriously. This is a novel that was impossible for me to dislike. But it was impossible for me to take it very seriously, either.

"They Walked Like Men" is standard 1950s pulp fiction with an imaginative novel twist - a typical alien invasion scenario but the aliens are playing by earth's rules and the weapon is commerce! Parker Graves, a hard drinking journalist, seems to be one of only a handful of people on the planet who figure out the conspiracy. but he is having the devil's own time finding anyone who's willing to listen to him and he is ultimately left to his own devices to determine the objective of the takeover and thwart the aliens' plans to buy the earth right out from underneath its inhabitants!

With an obvious focus on the soft sci-fi elements centred in small town America, "They Walked Like Men" is clearly vintage Simak output. In fact, the science is so soft as to be virtually non-existent and Simak seems to have let this novel's theme drift away from sci-fi, through fantasy and clearly into the realm of lightweight horror. Indeed, it's not a big stretch of the imagination to picture "They Walked Like Men" serving as a screenplay for a late night episode of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone".

And what would a Simak novel be without a sprinkling of his pithy, keen observations on life in general?

On customer service: "There are no manners in the world today, young man. There isn't any kindness. And no consideration. There's no such thing as thinking the best of one's fellowmen. The business world has become a bookkeeping operation, performed by machines and by men who are very like machines in that they have no soul. There is no honor and no trust ..."

On the outdoors: "There ain't enough people that get out into the woods, at night or any other time. I ain't the kind of guy that goes around spouting about communing with nature, but I tell you, friend, if you spent some time with her, you're a better man."

An enjoyable read, to be sure, but "They Walked Like Men" is at best lack-lustre measured by the standards that readers of his more compelling successes such as "City", "Time and Again" or "Time is the Simplest Thing" will be using as their yardstick. Shaping the aliens into mobile bowling balls and converting them into tiny dolls when they weren't inhabiting a human form seemed merely juvenile to me and detracted from the development of a really snappy idea that could have been taken so much further in the hands of an acknowledged master such as Simak.

Paul Weiss

In _They Walked Like Men_ Simak takes on material slightly different from his usual fare. Aliens have invaded the earth, but instead of using weapons to take control, they're using commerce.

Full of many of the standard Simak elements-- friendly aliens in odd shapes, journalists, philosophical musing and old-timey assistants. Perhaps not his best book, but I have to agree with the reviewer who said that he didn't think Simak was capable with writing a bad book.

"They Walked Like Men" is definitely one of Simak's less successful novels. I suggest readers try "City," "Way Station" or "Ring Around the Sun" rather than read "They Walked..." I think they will be amply rewarded. "City" (really a connected series of short stories), "Way Station" and "Ring Around the Sun" are well blended science fiction and fantasy books, with clear prose, interesting ideas and sympathetic characters. They are Simak at his best.

Like bob_c, this was my first introduction to Simek and one of the first SF novels that I ever read. The hard drinking, on the edge reporter image is classic '40s-'50s style and the addition of a SF element make for an interesting storyline. An enjoyable afternoons read.

To this day I regret not taking my uncle's offer to introduce me to the author (they worked together at the Tribune), I was young and ignorant. <sigh>


steve_is

Take a main character who is a jerk, repeats himself, acts out of character and sans reasonable motivation, add the threat of alien real estate agents who turn into bowling balls (yes, that's the alien threat) and what do you have? A boring novel that should never have been published.

Simak is a master craftsman storyteller, but as a novelist he made a good newspaperman.