Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The House in November” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The House in November

Keith Laumer

2.95 · Rating details · 44 ratings · 4 reviews

Invasion! At first the U.S. army--what was left of it--thought it was battling a communist invasion. The truth was much worse. It wasn't until Jeff Mallory awoke one morning to find that all his fellow townsfolk had become sleep walking zombies, and that a tower had been erected in the center of town, a tower that seemed to stretch to the stars, that the horrible truth beg ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 117 pages

Published January 1st 1971 by Berkley Books (first published 1970)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The House in November, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about The House in November

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 2.95 ·

Rating details

· 44 ratings · 4 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The House in November

Mar 31, 2015 tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf

review of
Keith Laumer's The House in November
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 31, 2015

I wrote a review of a Laumer bk yesterday ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... ). That was about all I got done yesterday. Not a good day. Today's not much better, the only slightly substantial thing I've done today is take apart an accordion, now I know a little more about accordions, maybe I'll take my last few dollars & buy some carpenter's glue so I can try to fix it. Who cares, right? Get to ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2015 Jason Bradley Thompson rated it did not like it

A deservedly forgotten short alien invasion novella. The book begins in Twilight Zone mode, with the narrator waking up to find his family and neighbors transformed into brainwashed zombies serving alien invaders. After escaping the town, the hero roams the nearby countryside where he runs into a variety of totally unhelpful people (religious fanatics, inept soldiers, rednecks) ineptly dealing with the alien invasion; luckily there's our badass Gary Stu protagonist, who in a shocking plot twist, ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 15, 2018 Roybot rated it did not like it

This started off promising enough: guy wakes up in his house, but everything is just a little off. His clothes are shabbier, his hands are calloused and dirty when they shouldn't be, his face looks thinner and more haggard, and he clearly hasn't had a shave or haircut in some time. He gets downstairs and his wife and children are acting strange. They think he has a different job than he should, and, worst of all, none of them seem to remember that he has a teenage daughter. Even the door to her ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 11, 2011 Jenniffer rated it did not like it

Didn't like it at all. About aliens that come down and capture a town in the US and brainwashes everyone in the town to work for them. The US thinks they are being invaded by the Chinese. Amidst it all one man is some "Galaxy Protector", yet has been living among the humans in the conquered town. Just did not like the book at all. ...more

flag Like · see review

PyranopterinMo rated it it was ok
Aug 06, 2017

reherrma rated it liked it
Aug 27, 2017

Melodius rated it really liked it
Dec 15, 2016

Chris rated it it was ok
Jan 19, 2019

Illusive rated it it was ok
Aug 20, 2019

Zechy rated it liked it
Jun 27, 2009

Jean rated it liked it
Jul 13, 2015

Kevin rated it liked it
Sep 18, 2020

Lorelei rated it liked it
Jun 22, 2008

Terry rated it really liked it
Feb 02, 2013

Douglas rated it liked it
Mar 08, 2015

Gregp rated it did not like it
Dec 26, 2016

D. E. rated it it was amazing
Jan 22, 2018

Kirby Obsidian rated it it was ok
Aug 02, 2020

Malcolm Creen rated it liked it
Nov 23, 2010

Guy Arnesen rated it liked it
Jul 08, 2016

John Speelman rated it liked it
Mar 16, 2016

Del rated it it was amazing
Jun 09, 2016

Robert Hepple rated it liked it
Sep 22, 2015

René rated it liked it
Apr 04, 2014

Murray rated it really liked it
Aug 29, 2011

Karen rated it liked it
Jun 13, 2010

Dennis Hearon rated it it was ok
May 07, 2016

Greg rated it really liked it
May 15, 2013

David Layton rated it liked it
Jan 04, 2016

Allan rated it it was ok
Aug 26, 2012

« previous 1 2 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

4 users

Science Fiction

2 users

See top shelves…

About Keith Laumer

Keith Laumer

171 followers

John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time).

Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his sa John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force and a U.S. diplomat. His brother March Laumer was also a writer, known for his adult reinterpretations of the Land of Oz (also mentioned in Keith's The Other Side of Time).

Keith Laumer (aka J.K Laumer, J. Keith Laumer) is best known for his Bolo stories and his satirical Retief series. The former chronicles the evolution of juggernaut-sized tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races. The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder. The Retief stories were greatly influenced by Laumer's earlier career in the United States Foreign Service. In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer states "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."

Four of his shorter works received Hugo or Nebula Award nominations (one of them, "In the Queue", received nominations for both) and his novel A Plague of Demons was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966.

During the peak years of 1959–1971, Laumer was a prolific science fiction writer, with his novels tending to follow one of two patterns: fast-paced, straight adventures in time and space, with an emphasis on lone-wolf, latent superman protagonists, self-sacrifice and transcendence or, broad comedies, sometimes of the over-the-top variety.

In 1971, Laumer suffered a stroke while working on the novel The Ultimax Man. As a result, he was unable to write for a few years. As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in The Dream Makers (1987), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis. He came up with an alternative explanation and developed an alternative (and very painful) treatment program. Although he was unable to write in the early 1970s, he had a number of books which were in the pipeline at the time of the stroke published during that time.

In the mid-1970s, Laumer partially recovered from the stroke and resumed writing. However, the quality of his work suffered and his career declined (Piers Anthony, How Precious Was That While, 2002). In later years Laumer also reused scenarios and characters from his earlier works to create "new" books, which some critics felt was to their detriment:

Alas, Retief to the Rescue doesn't seem so much like a new Retief novel, but a kind of Cuisnart mélange of past books.

-- Somtow Sucharitkul (Washington Post, Mar 27, 1983. p. BW11)

His Bolo creations were popular enough that other authors have written standalone science-fiction novels about them.

Laumer was also a model airplane enthusiast, and published two dozen designs between 1956 and 1962 in the U.S. magazines Air Trails, Model Airplane News and Flying Models, as well as the British magazine Aero Modeler. He published one book on the subject, How to Design and Build Flying Models in 1960. His later designs were mostly gas-powered free flight planes, and had a whimsical charm with names to match, like the "Twin Lizzie" and the "Lulla-Bi". His designs are still being revisited, reinvented and built today.
...more