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 US first edition dust jacket cover | |
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1951 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
The Puppet Masters is a 1951 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space. It was originally serialized in Galaxy Science Fiction (September, October, and November 1951).
The novel evokes a sense of paranoia and Heinlein repeatedly makes explicit the analogy between the mind-controlling parasites and the Communist Russians, echoing the prevailing Second Red Scare in the United States. George Stubbins noted "Two particularly disturbing scenes in The Puppet Masters—the one in which members of the President's privately created Security Service hold at gunpoint the entire membership of both Houses of Congress and proceed to search out the traitors among them, and that in which armed vigilantes roam the streets in search of traitors and shoot to death with impunity anyone they suspect of being such. Both scenes make sense in the context of the book's Science Fictional setting, and both are highly scary if applied to real American life."[1]
The book takes up the then common theme of sightings of flying saucers, the plot assuming that the "saucers" seen in the 1950s were part of a preliminary reconnaissance of Earth, carried out by the extraterrestrials in preparation for a full-fledged invasion sixty years later.
- ^ Dr. George W. Stubbins, "The Popular Culture of the McCarthy Years and that of the Trump Years—a critical comparison" in Virginia Fowler and John McBee (eds.) "Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Social Sciences Symposium" Day Three, Afternoon Session.