"Almost Like People" by Clifford Simak, summary

The takeover of civilization is accomplished through the application of the laws of the free market, the financial system, and the institution of private property. Behind the fantastical plot lies a satire on consumer society, where legality replaces morality. The novel was published in 1962.

A camouflaged trap

Late in the evening, reporter Parker Graves returns to the Wellington Arms apartment building. Just outside his apartment, he discovers a strange semicircular cutout in the carpet, covered with thin paper with a fuzzy pattern. Beneath the fake carpet lies a heavy trap with sharp teeth. The metal structure suddenly softens, compresses into a coal-black ball, and rapidly rolls down the stairs.

A morning call from duty editor Joe Newman brings news of stray balls rolling along the road near the opulent Belmont estate. University biologist Carlton Stirling drops by the editorial office. The scientist shares his idea of a hypothetical organism with absolute adaptability, capable of existing beyond any environmental constraints.

Economics reporter Dow Crane reports on the plight of city residents unable to buy or rent homes. Soon, the president of the city’s oldest department store, Franklin, calls an emergency press conference.

Mr. Bennett appears before the reporters — a completely bald man with a frozen face and a barely perceptible scent of floral lotion. The stranger announces the acquisition of the department store by an unnamed client and its immediate and final liquidation. The city is left without a key shopping center. That afternoon, Graves finds in his mailbox a notice from the real estate firm Ross, Martin, Park & Gobel canceling the lease on his apartment. The building’s previous owner has suddenly sold it to make a parking lot.

Finds in the old building

Ed, the owner of the nearby bar, announces the cancellation of his lease on the premises after twenty-eight years of impeccable service. Small shopkeepers on the shopping street are closing down en masse as their premises are being bought up by mysterious buyers. Cash is flowing into the city’s banks in gigantic sums.

Graves decides to explore the real estate firm’s office in the semi-abandoned McCandless Building. A diamond glass cutter helps open the locked office door. The room is greeted by darkness and a lingering floral scent.

Behind a heavy curtain, a deep niche reveals dozens of sets of men’s and women’s clothing. A circular opening in the wall yawns, emitting a cosmic, icy chill. On a hat shelf lies a shoebox filled with tiny, nude dolls, about four inches tall. The figurines are anatomically perfect. One of them perfectly reproduces the features of the bald Bennett. On the desk lie the completed deeds transferring city real estate to Fletcher Atwood.

In the hallway, Parker is attacked by a faceless black silhouette. A punch sends the attacker plummeting four meters from the landing. A foul-smelling, wet streak, devoid of any sign of a body, remains on the marble steps.

At a nearby café, the reporter meets a beautiful blonde. The girl turns out to be a living replica of one of the dolls. The stranger offers a million dollars for cooperation, hands over a business card with the succinct inscription, "We buy everything," and disappears without a trace.

Buying the planet

The closet in Graves’ bedroom begins to move suspiciously. Grabbing a pistol and ammunition, the journalist leaves the dangerous abode. Dinner at a restaurant with colleague Joy Kane is interrupted by the decision to explore the abandoned Belmont estate.

In the basement of a luxurious home, Parker is met by Fletcher Atwood. The alien openly outlines a grand plan for invasion. Galactic agents are buying up Earth, strictly adhering to Earth’s laws and recognition of private property. The planet is destined for resale as a resort to extract valuable aromas.

The attempt to use the weapon fails. Atwood instantly disintegrates into black balls. Parker stretches a piece of plastic film over the hole in the wall, intercepts five of the balls, and gathers them into a tight knot.

A shaggy, talking Dog is discovered in the reporter’s car. The alien telepathically explains his status as a bona fide galactic realtor investigating the fraud of his competitors. The radio reports the death of an unknown car thief in Graves’s car bomb.

Growing chaos

Parker and Dog deliver the captured creatures to Stirling’s lab. The biologist transfers the spheres into a clear plastic bag. Some of the fragments slip down a drain.

Joy’s hysterical call forces Parker to arm himself with a lab-made rifle. Black, knobbly monsters are roaming near the girl’s house. With a blow from the rifle’s butt, the reporter crushes one monster into a sticky mess, saving his companion. On a country road, the fugitives’ car is pursued by a monstrous one-eyed machine. An ambush on a hill allows Graves to knock the pursuer into a ravine with well-aimed shots.

The fugitives reach Stirling’s cabin in the woods. Inside, they discover the family of a ruined merchant, thrown out onto the street by the sheriff after the bank was bought out by unknown individuals. A call to the lab brings terrible news: the biologist has been found dead, suffocated, with no external injuries.

Investigator Liggett interrogates reporters at police headquarters. Publisher William Maynard seeks the release of his employees. The conversation in his boss’s office reaches a dead end: the publisher dismisses the story of an alien purchase of Earth as a preposterous fabrication.

Joy steals the key to a sealed university laboratory. A nighttime visit to the lab results in an encounter with the deformed Atwood. The alien absorbs the doll model returned by Parker, restoring its body proportions. The visitor cynically reminds us of the formal legality of the ongoing urban devastation.

Panic and financial collapse

The reporters head to a motel on the outskirts of town. Dozens of homeless families have gathered there, including John Quinn, a respectable insurance vice president. Quinn is forced to drive his family around in his car for a month due to a lack of available rental housing.

The morning newspaper features a photograph of Dog near the White House fence. The talking animal unsuccessfully demands a personal meeting with the head of state. A phone call with Senator Roger Hill confirms the onset of a major crisis. Colossal amounts of money are disappearing from Wall Street: banknotes printed by aliens have simply vanished from bank vaults. The senator dismisses Parker’s warnings about an extraterrestrial threat.

At the Belmont estate, an unnamed blonde offers Parker a paid public relations consultant position. Before the journalist’s eyes, the black ball disintegrates into a wad of twenty-dollar bills. The aliens hand the reporter a brand-new white Cadillac to carry out his errands.

Life-saving weapon

Parker spots someone stalking him on a country road. A stowaway amidst a thicket of sumac on a hill reveals the pursuer, dressed in a shabby suit. A sudden lunge from a wild skunk leaves a thick cloud of stench in the air.

The werewolf instantly disintegrates into black balls. The money in Parker’s pocket transforms into a similar ball and rushes toward the ravine. Sphere after sphere rolls across the grass, bounces, and falls into ecstasy from the pungent musky scent. The pungent skunk’s scent turns out to be a coveted galactic narcotic.

A reporter turns to a forest recluse, Charlie Manzu, nicknamed "The Chatterbox," for help. The old man has spent decades studying the habits of wild skunks near rock crevices. After hearing the reporter’s incredible story, the hermit believes the reporter implicitly and agrees to pack the animals into Farmer Anderson’s truck.

The final confrontation

The return to the car turns into a new trap. The real Cadillac has been replaced by an alien trap. The steering wheel grips Graves’ hands with thick tendrils. The out-of-control vehicle hurtles at 100 kilometers per hour into the forest wilderness toward the Belmont estate and plunges off a cliff.

Thrown from the car, Parker regains consciousness on wet forest moss with broken ribs. On the horizon, the Belmont estate burns, set ablaze by the desperate Joy. Joy and the driver, Higgins, pick up the wounded man on a forest road.

The radio broadcasts a breaking news report from downtown. Charlie Munz has released a dozen and a half skunks at the intersection of Seventh and State Streets. Millions of black spheres are descending from across the continent, dropping human forms, acquired businesses, and counterfeit cash. The seething mass of orbs rises to the sixth floor of the McCandless Building.

The dog appears on the road, telepathically heals Parker’s fractures, and bids farewell to the earthlings before returning to their homeworld. The threat of a secret planet-buying operation is completely eliminated by the open exposure of the aliens. At the editorial office, Parker submits a sensational exposé for the front page of the morning edition.