From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 1 Feb 2026 21:46:19 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James   
   Nicoll) wrote:   
      
   >In article ,   
   >Paul S Person   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.    
      
   I started it yesteday.   
      
   It is indeed the original. By this test, at least.   
      
   For those interested:   
      
   is the eBook.   
      
   Note: past experience suggests that, occasionally, those helpful   
   alternatives (Audiobook, Hardcover, Paperback) listed off to the side   
   may or may not be the same original edition as the item they are   
   attached to is.    
      
   IOW, I can /not/ guarantee that any of those are the original. Each of   
   them may be, or may not be.   
      
   Such is the price we pay for tolerating idiots who add stuff back to   
   already-published books.   
       
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)