Finally, this Christmas I sat down with Robert Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters". The book was first published in 1951, and I read the 1969 Pan edition (see cover image). In the Wikipedia article, I discovered that my edition probably is an abridged edition, leaving out some of the more controversial plot details.
The setup is as follows: "Sam" is a secret agent in a top secret organization in the USA in the early 21. century. Flying saucers land, carrying parasitic "slugs" that attach to their hosts, making them zombie slaves. Time is running up as Sam and his organization tries to stop the aliens from taking over the world. Now a classic plot, copied many times over in books and movies; most notably perhaps "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" which have been adapted for the screen at least twice. Obviously, there are clear cold war and The Red Scare references in the plot, also made explicit.
Today, the plot might seem somewhat clichéd: secrent agents versus alien parasite slugs that take over the world. However, Heinlein's book is witty, exciting and fast-paced. On the other hand, like much Old School science fiction, the prose is a little cheesy: cold, deadly action is relieved by very dated view of women and relationships, complete with annoying love scenes. (Actually, I think the unabridged edition is much better balanced in this respect, as my edition is frankly a censored version, leaving out some "saucy" details; pun intended.)
Much of the cheesyness can be traced to the fact that The Puppet Masters was originally serialized in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction. It was then hard to edit the story properly, leading to situations where the plot is a little weak: although one may argue that while some points are not logically impossible they are certainly implausible.
All in all, The Puppet Masters is a great read, but it does not quite reach the top of the list.
