The Puppet Masters

In 1951, Robert Heinlein published his award-winning science fiction masterpiece, The Puppet Masters in which Americann secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space. The story is set a century or two after the date of writing: America and the Soviet Union have had a limited nuclear war which resulted in a draw and the continuation of the Cold War.

Warning: Plot details follow.

The narrator, "Sam" (he later tells us his real name is Elihu Nivens, although he may not be telling us the truth), an agent of a super-secret defense intelligence group referred to only as "The Section", wakes up to the jarring alarm of his skull phone. He's ordered to report to his agency's head - known for most of the book as "the Old Man": we are later told that his name is Andrew Nivens, although again, that may also be a pseudonym.

Sam is required to meet with the Old Man personally, for the emergency is that a space ship his landed in Grinnel, Iowa. The Section sent in several agents, but none came back; and they only got one fragmentary report: "They are little creatures, about --" (before the sound cut off).

The Old Man risks the entire Section by going out in the field himself, along with "Mary", a female agent Sam hadn't met before. He tells Sam and Mary to put on a brother and sister act; he plays the slower of two not-too-bright country bumpkins out seeing the sights with an elderly relative.

They encounter vaguely round-shouldered people, and Mary notices that the men aren't sexually attracted to her, which means that these men are obviously hag-ridden by parisitic slugs! The invaders have taken over their brains and nervous systems and control earthlings like a puppet master controlling a marionette!!

Sam and the Old Man try vainly to convince the President of the United States about the menace but are dismissed. "Don't worry, the republic won't fall apart." So Sam forces his way into a TV executive's office intending to capture a parasite on live video (the author imagined many innovative futuristic gadgets for the story, but the portable VCR was not one of them) but a blown tube ruins the shot, and the President tells the Old Man to fire Sam. Sam heads off to his vacation cottage in New Hampshire with Mary: realizing their time may be very short, the agents decide to get married.

Meanwhile, the invaders are multiplying, and no one will believe it. Apparently licked, the Old Man flies to Florida to lie on the beach and wait for the world to go to hell. But, wait! Sam has an idea . . .

The novel was adapted, with major plot and character changes, into the screenplay for a 1994 film of the same name starring Donald Sutherland. The film was not successful with either the critics or the public.