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A review by ilewis
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
4.0
This was a very well written, exciting book. Although, it gets knocked because of the pretty horrible sexism. I've read a lot of Asimov and Clarke. My impression of them is they couldn't really be bothered with female characters, let alone characters in general. Heinlein was a much better author, populating his stories with interesting characters. Which is all great and good, until he deals with women. In The Puppet Masters it's even more startling than his other books or compared to contemporary SF.
That being said, if you think you can stomach that, I would recommend this book. If it was just quality of story and writing it would easily be a 5 star book. So it was hard for me to rate.
This was a well-written, exciting story that fully realized it's theme. As I said above, I think Heinlein is a much better writer that Asimov and Clarke (at least in the 50s and before.) It shows in the Puppet Masters. He populates the story with interesting characters and relationships that are much better realized than many of his contemporaries (except maybe Sturgeon and Bester.)
The Puppet Masters is brimming with ideas. Heinlein manages to flesh them out in his story and fully incorporate them into his world/plot in such a way that they seem natural. You almost don't notice how well he's thought out how such an alien invasion would play out. The reactions of the puppet masters and freemen are completely believable. Heinlein doesn't even shy away from some of the more unsavory aspects you might expect. While he's not explicit, it's completely clear what he's describing.
Now to the sexism (this part contains spoilers): The main character Sam is clearly a womanizer, with little respect for women. In and of itself that's not such a problem. However, some of the opinions espoused by characters other than Sam about women (and taken at face value in the book) are pretty abhorrent.
Mary is the major female character. She's dealt with very poorly. At the beginning she was fine, a little too much of a "perfect woman" of the fan-boy variety. Although, she has opinions and can take care of herself. As soon as she gets with Sam, she pretty much subsumes to all of his impulses and more-or-less becomes his servant. She has no personality outside of being a 50s housewife. It was pretty grating.
That being said, if you think you can stomach that, I would recommend this book. If it was just quality of story and writing it would easily be a 5 star book. So it was hard for me to rate.
This was a well-written, exciting story that fully realized it's theme. As I said above, I think Heinlein is a much better writer that Asimov and Clarke (at least in the 50s and before.) It shows in the Puppet Masters. He populates the story with interesting characters and relationships that are much better realized than many of his contemporaries (except maybe Sturgeon and Bester.)
The Puppet Masters is brimming with ideas. Heinlein manages to flesh them out in his story and fully incorporate them into his world/plot in such a way that they seem natural. You almost don't notice how well he's thought out how such an alien invasion would play out. The reactions of the puppet masters and freemen are completely believable. Heinlein doesn't even shy away from some of the more unsavory aspects you might expect. While he's not explicit, it's completely clear what he's describing.
Now to the sexism (this part contains spoilers): The main character Sam is clearly a womanizer, with little respect for women. In and of itself that's not such a problem. However, some of the opinions espoused by characters other than Sam about women (and taken at face value in the book) are pretty abhorrent.
Mary is the major female character. She's dealt with very poorly. At the beginning she was fine, a little too much of a "perfect woman" of the fan-boy variety. Although, she has opinions and can take care of herself. As soon as she gets with Sam, she pretty much subsumes to all of his impulses and more-or-less becomes his servant. She has no personality outside of being a 50s housewife. It was pretty grating.