Página InicialGruposDiscussãoMaisZeitgeist
Pesquisar O Sítio Web
Este sítio web usa «cookies» para fornecer os seus serviços, para melhorar o desempenho, para analítica e (se não estiver autenticado) para publicidade. Ao usar o LibraryThing está a reconhecer que leu e compreende os nossos Termos de Serviço e Política de Privacidade. A sua utilização deste sítio e serviços está sujeita a essas políticas e termos.

Resultados dos Livros Google

Carregue numa fotografia para ir para os Livros Google.

They walked like men por Clifford D Simak
A carregar...

They walked like men (edição 1967)

por Clifford D Simak (Autor)

MembrosCríticasPopularidadeAvaliação médiaMenções
411860,857 (3.57)11
A reporter uncovers a terrifying conspiracy, in this thrilling classic from a Science Fiction Grand Master. After a night out on the town, Parker Graves returns home to life-threatening danger. The science reporter for the local newspaper barely misses a bear trap sitting on his doorstep. Then, the object transforms into what looks like a bowling ball and rolls off into the night all by itself. He begins to obsess over the question--Who put the trap there? And why? The following day, there is strange news floating around at the newspaper office. Someone with limitless funds is buying up hundreds of homes and businesses, only to close them up and tear them down. People are running out of places to live and to work. Suddenly, Parker finds himself in the middle of a story nobody will believe . . . Aliens? Dolls that walk like people? Talking dogs? With a little help from a fellow reporter and an unusual visitor, Parker just might be able to put a stop to this mess--if he survives. "Some surprising jolts of violence and mayhem and a goodly dollop of cosmic paranoia." --Fantasy Literature… (mais)
Membro:jhwhit
Título:They walked like men
Autores:Clifford D Simak (Autor)
Informação:Macfadden (1967), Edition: Reprint, 234 pages
Coleções:SF Collection
Avaliação:
Etiquetas:Nenhum(a)

Informação Sobre a Obra

They Walked Like Men por Clifford D. Simak

Nenhum(a)
A carregar...

Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro.

Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.

» Ver também 11 menções

Mostrando 1-5 de 8 (seguinte | mostrar todos)
This is good old fashion "aliens among us" fun. Well written as you expect from Simak. If you liked The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, you will probably like this one. As usual there is Simak oddness to the story. I really liked this one. ( )
  ikeman100 | Oct 13, 2023 |
3.25


"'Have you noticed, mister,' said the cabby, by way of starting conversation, 'how the world has gone to hell?'"


The core premise is scary in an unusually grounded way for an alien invasion novel. The aliens invade, but on man's terms. Disguising themselves as human, "legally" buying up all the land, and forcing people out of their homes; monopolising earth to a point that man has nowhere to go and the planet can eventually be sold off to a third party.

Economic abnormalities are also the inciting incident in another Simak book, Ring Around the Sun, although they take a different form and the source and motive of it all is very different. I prefer Ring Around the Sun, but it works well here too. Simak has a few tropes he often revisits (benevolent aliens, parallel universes, time travel, strange events disrupting small-town comfort), and I think sometimes it can make his novels predictable. Only a couple of those can be found here though, and (relatively uncommon for him) the alien force is sinister, which is refreshing.

Our protagonist is a newspaperman, as was Simak. Considering the latter is not known for his characters, I feel like his occupation maybe had a part to play in the tangibility of the faces on display here. No, they are not three-dimensional pillars of depth, but there are a handful with characteristics that make them... characters. More than just names on a page. Which is unfortunately rare in the sci-fi genre (of course, there are plenty of cardboard cutouts to accompany them as well). I also think that when Simak is writing in the environment of a paper office, it feels real. There is an atmosphere, a vibe. I credit the tangibility here to the experience he must have drawn from.

It's not his best writing, but very readable. During the first half, the prose and dialogue is snappy and pulpy. A little dry sometimes, but it carries the narrative at a relatively good pace.

The middle act felt a bit dragged out at points, but the setup is intriguing. The third act becomes a bit exposition-heavy, but also has more of Simak's token pastoral style coming through, which I enjoyed. The ending is on the cusp of Deus Ex Machina but narrowly dodges that criticism by dropping in sufficient foreshadowing earlier on. Still, it comes across as very convenient and less than satisfying.

Overall, not Simak's best or most engrossing, but far from his worst and certainly worth reading. Most of its strengths lie in the ideas at play and the initial build-up before our enemy is fully unmasked. As soon as things start to get a bit more whimsical, I think it loses its way a bit. I was never bored though, and the writing made for a pleasant read regardless.


I backed away across the room from the terror that writhed behind the door, with horror welling in me - the bubbling, effervescent horror that can only come when a man's own home develops fangs against him.
And even as the horror chilled me, I argued with myself - for this was the sort of thing that simply could not happen. A man's chair may develop fangs and snap him up as he bends to sit in it; his scatter rugs may glide treacherously from beneath his feet; his refrigerator may lie in ambush to topple over on him; but the closet is the place where nothing of the sort can happen. For the closet is a part of the man himself. It is the place where he hangs up his artificial pelts, and as such it is closer to him, more intimate with him than any room within his dwelling place.
But even as I told myself that it could not happen, even as I charged it all against an upset imagination, I could hear the rustling and the sliding and the frantic stealth that was going on behind the closet door.
( )
  TheScribblingMan | Jul 29, 2023 |
It’s the early nineteen sixties and some very peculiar things are going on. Newspaper reporter Parker Graves comes home one night to discover a strange semicircular patch cut out of the carpet in front of his apartment door. When he gets down to examine it he finds a thin piece of paper the color of the carpet is there and when be picks it up he sees a trap beneath it. Astonished he jumps back, but even as he does he sees its jaws wilting then something like a bowling ball comes out of the hole that’s opened up and rolls right towards him. Fortunately, the black ball misses him and goes tumbling down the staircase towards the first floor. The whole incident is so bizarre, that he wonders if he had a bit too much to drink at the bar after work that evening.

But the next morning the semicircular cut in the carpet is still there. Graves goes to work and the talk is all about a press conference that’s been called by the largest department store in the city, and some odd story about middle class people searching for a new home for months and not finding anything, not even a vacant motel room. The shock is that the large family owned department store has been sold, and the new owner plans to close the business and leave the building vacant. Something strange is happening in the real estate market. Sales are being made all over the area at good prices, but when the former owners leave with cash in hand, no one else is moving in.

When Parker investigates these purchase, what he discovers is an extraterrestrial takeover of the city and the planet is in progress, of course, no one but his fellow report Joy believes him, and she only after the aliens start circling her home to intimidate her. This time the invaders insist that they are doing everything legally in their hostile takeover of the planet. They’ve paid good money to purchase U.S. Steel and everything else they’ve been buying. It’s not an invasion, it’s just legitimate real estate. Legitimate, aside from getting rid of some nosey people that get in their way.

A newspaper man himself, Simak starts out with something like a horror tale as the characters discover the inhuman plot and their frustration at their inability to get anyone to believe them. Then when frantic attempts to confront the aliens, interrupted by several exciting chase scenes, fail the ending resolves into a pastoral escape and a spectacular if stinky conclusion. ( )
  MaowangVater | Mar 28, 2023 |
J'ai tendance à apprécier Simak, et ce roman ne fut pas exception à la règle. La forme que prend l'invasion dans ce volume, si elle n'est pas nécessairement illogique, est certainement novatrice (quoique le style "imitateurs" n'est pas sans rappeler [L'Invasion des profanateurs]). La conclusion nous arrive assez brusquement, mais est amusante, quoique passablement perturbante par ses implications: personnellement, je trouve l'idée d'une empilade d'extraterrestres de cette taille aussi terrifiante que l'invasion par achat en elle-même. ( )
  circeus | Apr 26, 2013 |
Romanzo un po' meno riuscito di altri, Simak tramite una storia fantasiosa si interroga sulla fragilità economica della nostra società, minacciata da misteriosi alieni mutaforma che riescono a sconvolgere le regole di produzione industriale facendo collassare l'economia mondiale. I loro fini sono misteriosi e l'unico ad avere da subito alcuni sospetti è un giornalista che per ciò si troverà a lottare con gli emissari degli alieni che cercano di ridurlo al silenzio. ( )
  senio | Mar 21, 2013 |
Mostrando 1-5 de 8 (seguinte | mostrar todos)
sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
Tem de autenticar-se para poder editar dados do Conhecimento Comum.
Para mais ajuda veja a página de ajuda do Conhecimento Comum.
Título canónico
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Título original
Títulos alternativos
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em francês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Data da publicação original
Pessoas/Personagens
Locais importantes
Acontecimentos importantes
Filmes relacionados
Epígrafe
Dedicatória
Primeiras palavras
Citações
Últimas palavras
Nota de desambiguação
Editores da Editora
Autores de citações elogiosas (normalmente na contracapa do livro)
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Língua original
DDC/MDS canónico
LCC Canónico

Referências a esta obra em recursos externos.

Wikipédia em inglês

Nenhum(a)

A reporter uncovers a terrifying conspiracy, in this thrilling classic from a Science Fiction Grand Master. After a night out on the town, Parker Graves returns home to life-threatening danger. The science reporter for the local newspaper barely misses a bear trap sitting on his doorstep. Then, the object transforms into what looks like a bowling ball and rolls off into the night all by itself. He begins to obsess over the question--Who put the trap there? And why? The following day, there is strange news floating around at the newspaper office. Someone with limitless funds is buying up hundreds of homes and businesses, only to close them up and tear them down. People are running out of places to live and to work. Suddenly, Parker finds himself in the middle of a story nobody will believe . . . Aliens? Dolls that walk like people? Talking dogs? With a little help from a fellow reporter and an unusual visitor, Parker just might be able to put a stop to this mess--if he survives. "Some surprising jolts of violence and mayhem and a goodly dollop of cosmic paranoia." --Fantasy Literature

Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas.

Descrição do livro
Resumo Haiku

Current Discussions

Nenhum(a)

Capas populares

Ligações Rápidas

Avaliação

Média: (3.57)
0.5
1
1.5 1
2 7
2.5 1
3 15
3.5 7
4 12
4.5 1
5 12

É você?

Torne-se num Autor LibraryThing.

 

Acerca | Contacto | LibraryThing.com | Privacidade/Termos | Ajuda/Perguntas Frequentes | Blogue | Loja | APIs | TinyCat | Bibliotecas Legadas | Primeiros Críticos | Conhecimento Comum | 203,233,621 livros! | Barra de topo: Sempre visível