The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

Can the world, and more importantly, AMERICA! (patriotic song
here) fend off a subversive attack from space?

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/death-and-destruction
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 1 Feb 2026 14:22:54 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

Can the world, and more importantly, AMERICA! (patriotic song
here) fend off a subversive attack from space?

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/death-and-destruction

I saw the movie. You are correct: it was not good.

Interestingly, this joins /Farmham's Freehold/ on the list of "e-books
of Heinlein's works that came out after my great rereading some years
ago". So I will be reading it after /Farmham's Freehold/.

Which I am clearly reading again for the very first time. I had
completely forgotten the first part of the book, where they are in the
woods fending for themselves. I have no idea how long that lasts.

I also have no idea if the edition of /The Puppet Masters/ is the
original or the expanded version. If I remember your sample of the
difference, I should be able to tell. I did not recognize the plot at
all when I saw the /The Puppet Masters/ movie, so either the film is
worse than I thought or this may be a book I never read before. Only
time will tell.

As to related films, /Slither/ has something similar going on. This
film plays as if it were a standard B-movie of the past, yet it is
very well done.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <luvunk19qfnboebl9b70alk1e2ivosovha@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

On Sun, 1 Feb 2026 14:22:54 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

Can the world, and more importantly, AMERICA! (patriotic song
here) fend off a subversive attack from space?

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/death-and-destruction

I saw the movie. You are correct: it was not good.

Interestingly, this joins /Farmham's Freehold/ on the list of "e-books
of Heinlein's works that came out after my great rereading some years
ago". So I will be reading it after /Farmham's Freehold/.

Which I am clearly reading again for the very first time. I had
completely forgotten the first part of the book, where they are in the
woods fending for themselves. I have no idea how long that lasts.

I also have no idea if the edition of /The Puppet Masters/ is the
original or the expanded version. If I remember your sample of the >difference, I should be able to tell. I did not recognize the plot at
all when I saw the /The Puppet Masters/ movie, so either the film is
worse than I thought or this may be a book I never read before. Only
time will tell.

As to related films, /Slither/ has something similar going on. This
film plays as if it were a standard B-movie of the past, yet it is
very well done.

If the opening two paragraphs are

Were they truly intelligent? By themselves, that is? I don't
know and I don't know how we can ever find out.

If they were not truly intelligent, I hope I never live to see us
tangle with anything at all like them which is intelligent. I know who
will lose. Me. You. The so-called human race.

Then it is the original.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-01, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

As to related films, /Slither/ has something similar going on. This
film plays as if it were a standard B-movie of the past, yet it is
very well done.

Another film in the vein of _The Puppet Masters_/_The Body Snatchers_
is _The Faculty_, which explicitly namechecks those novels. IIRC,
one character complains that Finney ripped off Heinlein. Alien
parasites take over the teachers at a high school and it is up to
a group of misfit students to figure out what is going on and fight
back. That movie is also better than it has any right to be.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

On 2026-02-01, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

As to related films, /Slither/ has something similar going on. This
film plays as if it were a standard B-movie of the past, yet it is
very well done.

Another film in the vein of _The Puppet Masters_/_The Body Snatchers_
is _The Faculty_, which explicitly namechecks those novels. IIRC,
one character complains that Finney ripped off Heinlein. Alien
parasites take over the teachers at a high school and it is up to
a group of misfit students to figure out what is going on and fight
back. That movie is also better than it has any right to be.

It will never live up to the high bar set by that classic piece of
American cinema "Zontar The Thing from Venus."
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2/1/26 13:44, Christian Weisgerber wrote:

On 2026-02-01, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

As to related films, /Slither/ has something similar going on. This
film plays as if it were a standard B-movie of the past, yet it is
very well done.

Another film in the vein of _The Puppet Masters_/_The Body Snatchers_
is _The Faculty_, which explicitly namechecks those novels. IIRC,
one character complains that Finney ripped off Heinlein. Alien
parasites take over the teachers at a high school and it is up to
a group of misfit students to figure out what is going on and fight
back. That movie is also better than it has any right to be.

No way it could be better than the book which I read in serialization. Probably in Galaxy SF while yet in HS.

bliss


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)