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The Invaders #1
The Invaders
The Invaders orbit the Earth in flying saucers. Some have already landed. The others are waiting.
The Invaders are merciless, inhuman creatures from a dying planet. They know more about science than we do. They have weapons of incredible power.
The Invaders have already begun to take over. Their scouts have settled among us. Their agents have infiltrated our highest councils.
The Invaders must be stopped! But only one man - David Vincent - even knows they exist!
The Invaders is based on the sensational ABC-TV series starring Roy Thinnes.
The Invaders are merciless, inhuman creatures from a dying planet. They know more about science than we do. They have weapons of incredible power.
The Invaders have already begun to take over. Their scouts have settled among us. Their agents have infiltrated our highest councils.
The Invaders must be stopped! But only one man - David Vincent - even knows they exist!
The Invaders is based on the sensational ABC-TV series starring Roy Thinnes.
142 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Keith Laumer
498 books225 followersJohn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 23, 2017
This was a grade-B TV s that was novelized into a paperback that sold for 50¢ when most were 75¢, so I didn't expect much. It was a handful of old tropes shuffled together into a Campbellian universe. Lone man defies all odds, thwarts the conspiracy with some timely help, & inordinately lucky coincidences. For all that, it was a lot of fun hence the 3 star rating.
One thing that saved it was there was no simpering Jane yearning by the home fires for this Tarzan. For that matter, his opponents are such that rarely is any great physical deed called for, just toughness, mental acuity, & a concern for what is right that damns all odds. While he is the lone warrior, he gets some help from unexpected quarters occasionally including some heroic misfits. Unfortunately, they have about the same life expectancy as a Red Shirt in Star Trek.
Unsurprisingly, it's very reminiscent of The Fugitive since it was a direct replacement by many of the same folks. Only the window dressing was changed. IMO, it was somewhat better than The Time Tunnel, not that that is saying much.
I believe this is the first book which is the first episode in a series that (Amazingly!) ran 2 years. Only 10 books were published, all by different authors (I think), but there were 43 episodes (17 & 26). Read more about it on Wikipedia here. I wouldn't worry too much about spoilers. It's pretty obvious.
I'm glad I read it again, but don't think I'll bother with the second book in the series, the last that I have. I don't recall being that thrilled with it when I got it as a kid & it was new. I know I didn't waste money getting a third. I really have no idea why I even have these around still. Nostalgia, I suppose. Well, it was a fun visit to simpler days.
One thing that saved it was there was no simpering Jane yearning by the home fires for this Tarzan. For that matter, his opponents are such that rarely is any great physical deed called for, just toughness, mental acuity, & a concern for what is right that damns all odds. While he is the lone warrior, he gets some help from unexpected quarters occasionally including some heroic misfits. Unfortunately, they have about the same life expectancy as a Red Shirt in Star Trek.
Unsurprisingly, it's very reminiscent of The Fugitive since it was a direct replacement by many of the same folks. Only the window dressing was changed. IMO, it was somewhat better than The Time Tunnel, not that that is saying much.
I believe this is the first book which is the first episode in a series that (Amazingly!) ran 2 years. Only 10 books were published, all by different authors (I think), but there were 43 episodes (17 & 26). Read more about it on Wikipedia here. I wouldn't worry too much about spoilers. It's pretty obvious.
I'm glad I read it again, but don't think I'll bother with the second book in the series, the last that I have. I don't recall being that thrilled with it when I got it as a kid & it was new. I know I didn't waste money getting a third. I really have no idea why I even have these around still. Nostalgia, I suppose. Well, it was a fun visit to simpler days.
March 1, 2017
INVASION VON DER WEGA - - - das ist doch mal der rare Fall, wo der deutsche Titel viel besser klingt als das Original, oder? Und überhaupt, woher der Übersetzer die Erkenntnis hatte, dass die Invasoren nun gerade von diesem Hauptstern aus dem Sternbild der Lyra kommen, wird wohl auf ewig sein Geheimnis bleiben. Es klang damals für mich Neunjährigen jedenfalls absolut überzeugend, wenn ich aufgerissenen Munds vor der Glotze saß; dass auf Sonnen wenig Leben gedeihen dürfte und wohl gemeint war, die Aliens kämen aus dem Sonnensystem der Lyra, solche Klugscheißereien waren mir fern. Schließlich ging es hier nicht um Sternenkunde, sondern um die gute alte Paranoia, die in den Sechzigern nicht weniger gefragt war als im Jahrzehnt zuvor, und irgendwie saugt man so etwas wie die Angst vor der Atombombe oder dem bösen Kommunismus ja sozusagen mit der Muttermilch auf, selbst wenn sie Milupa hieß.
Zurück zu Keith Laumers INVADERS: Da muss man also fast ein Tattergreis werden, bevor man erfährt, dass es das Buch zur Serie gibt (richtiger: Bücher). Aber mir sagt ja keiner was, nie. Mit fünfzigjähriger Verspätung also hat das Buch zu mir gefunden, und ich kann sagen: Es hat mein Herz erfreut!
Inzwischen kennt man natürlich hunderte von Romanen und Erzählungen gleichen Strickmusters, die sich größtenteils zum Verwechseln ähnlich sind. Aber wer noch die Titelmusik und die einleitenden Sätze der Serie in den Ohren hat, für den werden die INVADERS immer etwas Besonderes sein sein:
"The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun."
Laumers Roman beinhaltet die ersten drei Episoden, in denen David Vincent den Invasoren auf die Schliche kommt, ihre technische Überlegenheit zu spüren bekommt und realisiert, dass er im Kampf gegen sie ganz auf sich alleine gestellt ist: An ihm alleine liegt es, die Erde zu retten - vor Begeisterung klatsche ich noch heute in die Hände.
Laumer erzählt die Episoden erfreulich schmerzfrei / ordentlich, das Opfer des Intellekts wird nicht bis zum letzten gefordert, es genügt, sich Mulders Prämisse "I want to believe" anzuschließen.
Fazit: Eine schöne Frischzellenkur für Zwischendurch.
Zurück zu Keith Laumers INVADERS: Da muss man also fast ein Tattergreis werden, bevor man erfährt, dass es das Buch zur Serie gibt (richtiger: Bücher). Aber mir sagt ja keiner was, nie. Mit fünfzigjähriger Verspätung also hat das Buch zu mir gefunden, und ich kann sagen: Es hat mein Herz erfreut!
Inzwischen kennt man natürlich hunderte von Romanen und Erzählungen gleichen Strickmusters, die sich größtenteils zum Verwechseln ähnlich sind. Aber wer noch die Titelmusik und die einleitenden Sätze der Serie in den Ohren hat, für den werden die INVADERS immer etwas Besonderes sein sein:
"The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun."
Laumers Roman beinhaltet die ersten drei Episoden, in denen David Vincent den Invasoren auf die Schliche kommt, ihre technische Überlegenheit zu spüren bekommt und realisiert, dass er im Kampf gegen sie ganz auf sich alleine gestellt ist: An ihm alleine liegt es, die Erde zu retten - vor Begeisterung klatsche ich noch heute in die Hände.
Laumer erzählt die Episoden erfreulich schmerzfrei / ordentlich, das Opfer des Intellekts wird nicht bis zum letzten gefordert, es genügt, sich Mulders Prämisse "I want to believe" anzuschließen.
Fazit: Eine schöne Frischzellenkur für Zwischendurch.
July 14, 2013
review of
Keith Laumer's The Invaders
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 14, 2013
This is the 9th, &, maybe, the last for awhile, Laumer bk that I've read (all in a mnth) & reviewed. In my last Laumer review, of Galactic Odyssey ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76... ) I ruminate somewhat haphazardly on the excessive use of fantasy to distract one's self from dealing w/ 'real life'. I've found myself resorting to such escapism b/c my recent attempts to interface w/ 'real life' have been largely pretty unrewarding. Nonetheless, the struggle goes on, eh?
As a part of my project of reading a slew of Laumer bks & exploring them, I've actually stooped so low as to read a bk "First in a thrilling new series based on the smash ABC-TV hit" as the front cover proclaims: viz: The Invaders. When I bought it, it was cheap, I was still hesitant: did I really want to be so thorough in my exploration of Laumer that I'd read this drek?!
This bk was published in 1967. I stopped watching TV sometime around 1969 or 1970. SO, this wd've still been when i was watching it. Stopping watching TV was one of the best things I ever did. When I was in my early teens, when this bk was published, I'd spend Friday nites watching things like "Get Smart" & snacking. Now that I have almost no friends & very little social life what do i do almost EVERY nite? Watch movies & drink alcohol. It's not what I do all day, it's my R&R - usually after a long time of working on projects & going out & about in the world. Still, it's a little too much like what i was doing when I was 13. & reading The Invaders makes me feel like I've come full-circle to nowhere.
I don't remember The Invaders as a TV show. Maybe it wasn't available where i lived. Dunno. But I DO remember The Avengers & The Prisoner: 2 programs that I thoroughly enjoyed & still, admittedly, have a fondness for. & Laumer wrote novels based on The Avengers too. May I never go so far down the entertainment rabbit-hole as to read them.
Last nite I watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider &, yes, the heterosexual male in me pd rapt attn to Angelina Jolie's full breasts & athletic body. But, shit. it's just like any other porn, it's just an image in the end, an inaccessible image, & a real woman's body, albeit not as 'perfect' as Jolie's, in the hand is worth 20,000 Jolie's (or whomever's) on the vid shelf. SO, witnessing the movie was a waste of time - &, in my own defense, I only resorted to it late at nite when I found I cdn't sleep. At 1st I was even a little interested: there was a central alignment of the planets: GEE, I can't help but wonder, was that plot element inspired by the Krononautic Organism, wch i was a member of (& wch was conceived of & founded by Richard (Ellsberry)), wch threw a widely publicized Party For People From The Future during an alignment of the planets on march 9th, 1982?
ANYWAY, The Invaders was more of the same, except, obviously, an earlier version of it than Tomb Raider: you've got yr 'impossible' hero battling great odds, blah, blah.. & w/ Laumer's personal military history in mind (see my review of Nine by Laumer here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63... ) it might not be a surprise that weapons play a heavy role. I'm tempted to end this review right here but, shit!, I haven't even gotten around to referencing my notes yet & it seems like a waste to not do so so here goes:
The hero has a typically macho male background - one that I've never personally found to be very conducive to intelligence (altho there are always exceptions):
""That's right—and came close to killing a man in the process. Maybe I'm out of my mind. Maybe the thing is nothing but a new model egg-beater. But I don't think so, Al. I'm scared. Scared all the way through."
""You—David Vincent—the toughest line-backer that ever wore a Phi Beta Kappa key? Scared? the lad that won more decorations in Viet Nam than—"
""This isn't Viet Nam, Al, It's worse. Much worse."" - p 30
Yep, the character's a jock, a frat-boy, a military guy, a Viet Nam vet no less. He's military, he's smart, he's tough, & he's figuring out that earth is being invaded by aliens from outer space who've gone hitherto unnoticed. & there's nary a drop of introspection about Viet Nam, etc, etc.. In other words, the character hardly inspires my confidence in him given his rather nasty correlatives in 'real life'. Of course, this was 1967 - resistance to the Viet Nam War was going strong in the US but it still wasn't as criticized as it is in retrospect today. & the lack of introspection continues;
"For seven days and seven nights, hardly pausing for food, kept in a state of artifical alertness by special nerve-drugs supplied by the physicist, pausing only for brief catnaps, necessary to prevent breakdown" - pp 33-34
Yep, speed. Was Hitler a speed addict? Was Alice Sheldon ("James Tiptree, Jr") a speed addict b/c of her military-supplied use of the drugs during WWII? Is the use of speed a big problem? Yes. But, of course, we can't blame the drug abuse problem entirely on the military - even if they're more responsible for the heroin problem than any other organization (see Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin). It was Chicago-based researcher Sherman Skolnick who confronted the Yippies & asked them where their cocaine came from - the implication being that it came from the CIA. Alas, that's not entirely unlikely.
Well.. let's just say that Laumer 'wrote this for the money' & that the money bought some reinforcement of popular propagandistic clichés. The Invaders inhabit an environment like this; "a featureless, grey corridor, stretched away. The air here was hot, stifling, bearing an acrid odor of sulphur." (p 42) In other words, aliens are hellish, even in SF religion rears its myths.
Ah.. Those were the days when bank accts were hypothetically less under surveillance, less likely to be frozen, when there wasn't some sort of sufficiently central control over it all: "Thank God for the healthy balance in his bank account. It would keep him for a while—a year, perhaps if he were careful. he couldn't risk returning to his home." (p 57) He's on the lam from the space invaders, he can't go home but he can fearlessly go to the bank. Don't think anyone wd write that anymore!
& he pokes fun at the 'news'paper's trivializing of "SAUCER CULTISTS" but, ultimately, makes fun of the 'cultists' even more. So, who does he select from the 'cultist' crowd to team up w/? A guy who appears reasonable & 'normal' who then takes him home to a booby-trapped house into his private operating rm. It's all to evoke the feeling of paranoia, of one-man-against-the-world. His few close allies get killed. he even pokes fun at Wilhelm Reich's Orgone theories: ""But you came to hear Alphonse—to hear about the positively incredible vibrations he picked up last night on his orgone tube oscillator..."" (p 62) But i seriously doubt that Laumer ever wrote anything as intelligent as Reich's bks & I don't really find it so funny that Reich's bks were burned in 1950s Amerikkka & that he died in prison b/c his ideas were too unusual for the mainstream. Apparently Laumer did.
"David shook his head, glancing at the wild-eyed bearded, floppy-hatted, unhappy people, misfits all, each intent, it seemed, on gaining some miniscule measure of support for a favorite theory". (p 65) Yes, Laumer, the ex-military man, sees fit to make fun of "misfits" but doesn't seem to question the ethics of the US invading Viet Nam to suppress the internal politics there. In the end, Laumer is very mainstream & doesn't question the status quo that's supported him so well. &, indeed, that's the world i grew up in.
Laumer's hero, like the propaganda image of other militaristic figures, is improbably super-sensitive: "There was an archway ahead. He halted, studying it, saw a small disc set in one side, emitting an almost invisible glow. Tentatively he passed a hand in front of it. Above, there was a snick of a release mechanism, and with a rush and hiss of metal on oiled rollers, a glittering blade of polished steel slammed down against the massive oak threshold with a blow that shook the floor. David stared at it with incredulous eyes. A guillotine! One more step and the infernal machine would have halved him like a melon." (p 81) More likely, if he'd survived such a situation it wd've been b/c the situation wdn't've have existed or b/c of dumb luck.
Later, as the hero tries to enlist the aid of the military, he's left waiting:
""Just between the two of us,' David said, "Is there any point in my waiting?"
""Just between the two of us—no," the man answered. "Look, fella—we get half a dozen nut cases a week, you know? The colonel hasn't got time—"" - p 112
"[H]alf a dozen nut cases a week"?! I'd like to hang around that waiting rm, it sounds like the crossroads of the world. In other words, it doesn't seem very plausible. But, what the fuck am I saying/ It's fiction, it doesn't have to be - but, still, it rubs me the wrong way.. & it gets even more unlikely when David teams up w/ a sergeant who helps him steal a military vehicle after a rather superficial encounter. At least it involves booze - that makes the stupidity a little more likely.
All in all, reading this has probably pushed me over the edge away from reading any more Laumer for the moment. Maybe I'll read less, watch movies less, & get out into the 'real world' more. Better stop before I think that reading The Invaders & witnessing Lara Croft Tomb Raider are a good idea. It's about time.
Keith Laumer's The Invaders
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 14, 2013
This is the 9th, &, maybe, the last for awhile, Laumer bk that I've read (all in a mnth) & reviewed. In my last Laumer review, of Galactic Odyssey ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76... ) I ruminate somewhat haphazardly on the excessive use of fantasy to distract one's self from dealing w/ 'real life'. I've found myself resorting to such escapism b/c my recent attempts to interface w/ 'real life' have been largely pretty unrewarding. Nonetheless, the struggle goes on, eh?
As a part of my project of reading a slew of Laumer bks & exploring them, I've actually stooped so low as to read a bk "First in a thrilling new series based on the smash ABC-TV hit" as the front cover proclaims: viz: The Invaders. When I bought it, it was cheap, I was still hesitant: did I really want to be so thorough in my exploration of Laumer that I'd read this drek?!
This bk was published in 1967. I stopped watching TV sometime around 1969 or 1970. SO, this wd've still been when i was watching it. Stopping watching TV was one of the best things I ever did. When I was in my early teens, when this bk was published, I'd spend Friday nites watching things like "Get Smart" & snacking. Now that I have almost no friends & very little social life what do i do almost EVERY nite? Watch movies & drink alcohol. It's not what I do all day, it's my R&R - usually after a long time of working on projects & going out & about in the world. Still, it's a little too much like what i was doing when I was 13. & reading The Invaders makes me feel like I've come full-circle to nowhere.
I don't remember The Invaders as a TV show. Maybe it wasn't available where i lived. Dunno. But I DO remember The Avengers & The Prisoner: 2 programs that I thoroughly enjoyed & still, admittedly, have a fondness for. & Laumer wrote novels based on The Avengers too. May I never go so far down the entertainment rabbit-hole as to read them.
Last nite I watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider &, yes, the heterosexual male in me pd rapt attn to Angelina Jolie's full breasts & athletic body. But, shit. it's just like any other porn, it's just an image in the end, an inaccessible image, & a real woman's body, albeit not as 'perfect' as Jolie's, in the hand is worth 20,000 Jolie's (or whomever's) on the vid shelf. SO, witnessing the movie was a waste of time - &, in my own defense, I only resorted to it late at nite when I found I cdn't sleep. At 1st I was even a little interested: there was a central alignment of the planets: GEE, I can't help but wonder, was that plot element inspired by the Krononautic Organism, wch i was a member of (& wch was conceived of & founded by Richard (Ellsberry)), wch threw a widely publicized Party For People From The Future during an alignment of the planets on march 9th, 1982?
ANYWAY, The Invaders was more of the same, except, obviously, an earlier version of it than Tomb Raider: you've got yr 'impossible' hero battling great odds, blah, blah.. & w/ Laumer's personal military history in mind (see my review of Nine by Laumer here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63... ) it might not be a surprise that weapons play a heavy role. I'm tempted to end this review right here but, shit!, I haven't even gotten around to referencing my notes yet & it seems like a waste to not do so so here goes:
The hero has a typically macho male background - one that I've never personally found to be very conducive to intelligence (altho there are always exceptions):
""That's right—and came close to killing a man in the process. Maybe I'm out of my mind. Maybe the thing is nothing but a new model egg-beater. But I don't think so, Al. I'm scared. Scared all the way through."
""You—David Vincent—the toughest line-backer that ever wore a Phi Beta Kappa key? Scared? the lad that won more decorations in Viet Nam than—"
""This isn't Viet Nam, Al, It's worse. Much worse."" - p 30
Yep, the character's a jock, a frat-boy, a military guy, a Viet Nam vet no less. He's military, he's smart, he's tough, & he's figuring out that earth is being invaded by aliens from outer space who've gone hitherto unnoticed. & there's nary a drop of introspection about Viet Nam, etc, etc.. In other words, the character hardly inspires my confidence in him given his rather nasty correlatives in 'real life'. Of course, this was 1967 - resistance to the Viet Nam War was going strong in the US but it still wasn't as criticized as it is in retrospect today. & the lack of introspection continues;
"For seven days and seven nights, hardly pausing for food, kept in a state of artifical alertness by special nerve-drugs supplied by the physicist, pausing only for brief catnaps, necessary to prevent breakdown" - pp 33-34
Yep, speed. Was Hitler a speed addict? Was Alice Sheldon ("James Tiptree, Jr") a speed addict b/c of her military-supplied use of the drugs during WWII? Is the use of speed a big problem? Yes. But, of course, we can't blame the drug abuse problem entirely on the military - even if they're more responsible for the heroin problem than any other organization (see Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin). It was Chicago-based researcher Sherman Skolnick who confronted the Yippies & asked them where their cocaine came from - the implication being that it came from the CIA. Alas, that's not entirely unlikely.
Well.. let's just say that Laumer 'wrote this for the money' & that the money bought some reinforcement of popular propagandistic clichés. The Invaders inhabit an environment like this; "a featureless, grey corridor, stretched away. The air here was hot, stifling, bearing an acrid odor of sulphur." (p 42) In other words, aliens are hellish, even in SF religion rears its myths.
Ah.. Those were the days when bank accts were hypothetically less under surveillance, less likely to be frozen, when there wasn't some sort of sufficiently central control over it all: "Thank God for the healthy balance in his bank account. It would keep him for a while—a year, perhaps if he were careful. he couldn't risk returning to his home." (p 57) He's on the lam from the space invaders, he can't go home but he can fearlessly go to the bank. Don't think anyone wd write that anymore!
& he pokes fun at the 'news'paper's trivializing of "SAUCER CULTISTS" but, ultimately, makes fun of the 'cultists' even more. So, who does he select from the 'cultist' crowd to team up w/? A guy who appears reasonable & 'normal' who then takes him home to a booby-trapped house into his private operating rm. It's all to evoke the feeling of paranoia, of one-man-against-the-world. His few close allies get killed. he even pokes fun at Wilhelm Reich's Orgone theories: ""But you came to hear Alphonse—to hear about the positively incredible vibrations he picked up last night on his orgone tube oscillator..."" (p 62) But i seriously doubt that Laumer ever wrote anything as intelligent as Reich's bks & I don't really find it so funny that Reich's bks were burned in 1950s Amerikkka & that he died in prison b/c his ideas were too unusual for the mainstream. Apparently Laumer did.
"David shook his head, glancing at the wild-eyed bearded, floppy-hatted, unhappy people, misfits all, each intent, it seemed, on gaining some miniscule measure of support for a favorite theory". (p 65) Yes, Laumer, the ex-military man, sees fit to make fun of "misfits" but doesn't seem to question the ethics of the US invading Viet Nam to suppress the internal politics there. In the end, Laumer is very mainstream & doesn't question the status quo that's supported him so well. &, indeed, that's the world i grew up in.
Laumer's hero, like the propaganda image of other militaristic figures, is improbably super-sensitive: "There was an archway ahead. He halted, studying it, saw a small disc set in one side, emitting an almost invisible glow. Tentatively he passed a hand in front of it. Above, there was a snick of a release mechanism, and with a rush and hiss of metal on oiled rollers, a glittering blade of polished steel slammed down against the massive oak threshold with a blow that shook the floor. David stared at it with incredulous eyes. A guillotine! One more step and the infernal machine would have halved him like a melon." (p 81) More likely, if he'd survived such a situation it wd've been b/c the situation wdn't've have existed or b/c of dumb luck.
Later, as the hero tries to enlist the aid of the military, he's left waiting:
""Just between the two of us,' David said, "Is there any point in my waiting?"
""Just between the two of us—no," the man answered. "Look, fella—we get half a dozen nut cases a week, you know? The colonel hasn't got time—"" - p 112
"[H]alf a dozen nut cases a week"?! I'd like to hang around that waiting rm, it sounds like the crossroads of the world. In other words, it doesn't seem very plausible. But, what the fuck am I saying/ It's fiction, it doesn't have to be - but, still, it rubs me the wrong way.. & it gets even more unlikely when David teams up w/ a sergeant who helps him steal a military vehicle after a rather superficial encounter. At least it involves booze - that makes the stupidity a little more likely.
All in all, reading this has probably pushed me over the edge away from reading any more Laumer for the moment. Maybe I'll read less, watch movies less, & get out into the 'real world' more. Better stop before I think that reading The Invaders & witnessing Lara Croft Tomb Raider are a good idea. It's about time.
December 13, 2023
1960s scifi is something else. From a secret organization named ISIS ( Interplanetary Surveillance and Interpretive Society ), to aliens using US manufactures to make disintegration rays, to a maniac trapping the main character inside their booby trapped house, this book has it all.
It is dated with its descriptors of women and ethnicities other than white, but its far more detailed than anything I've read of late. I wish the book held up better through time. The red cover fell off and the pages crinkled and tore in my fingers when I turned the pages, poor old book. I hope this series isn't lost to time.
David finds out aliens are among us, and proceeds to try and take them down, from finding where they operate, where they plan to land in a meteor shower, to making friends along the way to help. Unfortunately the book ends kind of on a cliff hanger with hi escaping the military after taking down the alien nest racks, running into the night to find more aliens.
It is dated with its descriptors of women and ethnicities other than white, but its far more detailed than anything I've read of late. I wish the book held up better through time. The red cover fell off and the pages crinkled and tore in my fingers when I turned the pages, poor old book. I hope this series isn't lost to time.
David finds out aliens are among us, and proceeds to try and take them down, from finding where they operate, where they plan to land in a meteor shower, to making friends along the way to help. Unfortunately the book ends kind of on a cliff hanger with hi escaping the military after taking down the alien nest racks, running into the night to find more aliens.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 13, 2023
Three separate stories. David Vincent comes on parts of a disintegrator gun that could not have been designed on Earth. From that moment on, aliens (The Invaders) want to kill him as he destroys their gun manufacturing plans. The second story has Vincent come up against a fanatic who wants to kill The Invaders, and he thinks Vincent is one of them. In a mansion full of death traps, Vincent tries to save himself from the madman, and from two aliens who want to kill him. In the last story, an alien vessel hides in a meteor shower, Vincent tries to convince the military who look on him as a crank, so he has to take matters into his own hands, helped by a man who a year ago saw a living alien, and ran from it as they try to stop an invasion force of super human aliens landing.
January 6, 2021
Quinn Martin’s The Invaders was a late-1960s TV series which owed much to The Fugitive as engineer David Vincent, week after week in different settings, encountered aliens disguised as humans intending to take over Earth. Of course logically it was rubbish as they could have killed him at any time, but it was quite gripping as is this novelisation of the first few episodes; very strong on the descriptions of escape and the loneliness of the only one who knows of the invasion. Interesting nostalgia
December 10, 2025
If you’re expecting this novel to line up with the TV series The Invaders, you’ll be disappointed. Other than the character David Vincent, the book is very different from the show. It doesn’t add any new insight to the series or expand its mythology, though Laumer’s writing itself is solid and keeps the story moving.
As a standalone sci‑fi read, it works fine, but as a tie‑in for fans of the series, it misses the mark.
As a standalone sci‑fi read, it works fine, but as a tie‑in for fans of the series, it misses the mark.
March 4, 2024
A few details borrowed from the TV show, otherwise just a fun pulp Sci-fi adventure. Page-turning action from start to finish.
July 8, 2024
This tie-in novel to the 1960s SF series actually changes the premise. According to David Spencer's excellent book "The Novelizers," Keith Laumer didn't care for the the original premise of architect David Vincent accidentally stumbling across evidence of a secret alien invasion of Earth. In the book, Vincent is a consulting engineer who inspects factories and submits ways they can improve production. While doing this, he discovers a number of small factories are each making different components that can be assembled into something... well, something alien.
He investigates and soon is up to his neck in danger. He confirms that there are hostile aliens on Earth, but any potential ally is soon murdered or seriously injured. Vincent is pretty much on his own trying to find proof. Along the way, he finds another believer, only for that guy to think Vincent is an alien and locks him in a booby-trapped mansion. Later, David figures out when an alien ship will be landing and finds an Air Force non-com willing to help him steal a machine-gun equipped halftrack to take out that ship.
It's a well-written, fast-paced story with a lot of good action in it. David Vincent's plight--fighting a war to save humanity pretty much on his own--gives the book an effective sense of urgency. I'm a fan of the original series, so I do kind of miss the original premise (and aliens who glow and vanish when killed--that was a cool visual), but Laumer's changes can be argued to be an improvement on that premise.
He investigates and soon is up to his neck in danger. He confirms that there are hostile aliens on Earth, but any potential ally is soon murdered or seriously injured. Vincent is pretty much on his own trying to find proof. Along the way, he finds another believer, only for that guy to think Vincent is an alien and locks him in a booby-trapped mansion. Later, David figures out when an alien ship will be landing and finds an Air Force non-com willing to help him steal a machine-gun equipped halftrack to take out that ship.
It's a well-written, fast-paced story with a lot of good action in it. David Vincent's plight--fighting a war to save humanity pretty much on his own--gives the book an effective sense of urgency. I'm a fan of the original series, so I do kind of miss the original premise (and aliens who glow and vanish when killed--that was a cool visual), but Laumer's changes can be argued to be an improvement on that premise.
March 21, 2010
An interesting book for those who study adaptation. The author was asked to novelize a bad TV show. He agreed IF he could change the premise to make it believable. He failed, but the book keeps the basic idea while changing things that made the show fun for its fans, such as aliens turning to flame as they die and the entire origin story. While it is more plausible that an engineer discover what the aliens are up to, the book is marred by passages of painfully bad writing, implausible incidents (even for a sci-fi novel), ridiculous coincidences, and padding to bring the book to length. It has some entertainment value for the permissive and those who want to see what Laumer did with the show.
July 15, 2013
THE INVADERS was a not-particularly-terrific science fiction television program from nearly fifty years ago. I remember watching it when I was in the third or fourth grade and liking the aliens; they burned away to nothing when they died, had an extra little finger so the careful viewer always knew who they were, and they had cool flying saucers. None of these items are in Laumer's novelization, which seems really odd to me. I had to do some research on the show just to check and see if my memories were all wrong. All I can think is that his work was based on a very early concept for the show, or perhaps they let him make changes that made sense to him for some reason. Anyway, the book is an acceptable paranoia-themed story, but fails as a novelization.
November 21, 2010
Based on the ABC television series, these stories were likely written just from the concept. Laumer's aliens are completely unlike those presented on television. They look human, but are described as dry, flat looking. They are immensely strong and fast, they don't have the stiff little fingers, a hallmark of identity on the show, and when they die, they don't fade away in a burning glow. They just die. One was chopped up and kept trying to get Vincent.
That said, the book is by a real SF author and reads pretty well. The book is made up of three novelettes and the first has a completely different method of Vincent learning of the aliens on Earth than that of the show.
That said, the book is by a real SF author and reads pretty well. The book is made up of three novelettes and the first has a completely different method of Vincent learning of the aliens on Earth than that of the show.
June 3, 2012
The Invaders (1967) was a true rarity in television history; a truly original series that had an influence far beyond its meager 43-episode run. It's story of a man who unwittingly discovers a secret plot by aliens to take over the Earth, yet can't find the evidence to convince anyone else of the danger introduced television audiences to something that was new to the medium: Stark, unrelenting paranoia.
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April 19, 2020
Very loosely based on the two-season 1960's tv series (a good show, by the way), this book is divided into three different stories of David Vincent's discovery of, then resistance against, the covert invasion of the aliens bent on taking over the earth. The first story was a 3 star; the other two were 2 star. It would have been better if the author had adhered more closely to the details of the tv show. This book is the first of a three book "series", which, once you know the premise, can presumably be read in any order (best of luck finding #2 or 3 at a reasonable price).
August 23, 2014
Veteran science fiction writer Keith Laumer took the assignment of novelizing the 1967 cult television series "The Invaders" about an alien invasion, reinvented the story and threw in some twists of his own. I read this in the mid '70s, and didn't really remember the show. Unlike "Star Trek", "The Invaders" was not on reruns, and I didn't see it until some time later. if anything, Laumer's treatment would have made a better show.
August 3, 2009
this is based on the TV show rather than begin an original book but this was a fun TV show and the book lived up to it. I wish I had more.
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