A book I read a long time ago...

[vesperdem]

I can't remember the author's name, but I'm pretty sure it was three names like Orson Scott Card.

The premiss was an alien race that came to Earth and started helping us out by making very eco-friendly cars and other things.

The kicker was the end of the story where they made a house and the main character looked into one of it's windows to see a human looking figure in the house. The creepy factor being that the alien's somehow replicated a humanoid since they saw that houses had human's in them.

I would love to read that story again, but I just can't remember the title and who wrote it.

You guys have helped me out in the past with a movie called Quatermass and the Pit. I'm really hoping that what I described above was enough to come up with a title or at least an author.

Thanks in advance!
Dave

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm still looking around, thinking I can surely find this one. My initial reaction (and granted, it's an obvious knee-jerk reaction for me) was Clifford Simak. Unfortunately, I can only find the pile of his books that are whole books, not the pile that are short stories.

I keep thinking, also, of a story where a human or two were being kept on an alien planet (pets?) and the aliens made stuff for them from their memories, including the house with humans inside because that's how they thought of houses.

 

[vesperdem]

Your initial reaction was correct! The book was called "The Visitors". I saw the authors name and scratched my head. I went to Goodreads.com and looked through his bibliography and found it pretty quickly.

It's not a great story, but it was published back in 1980, so you have to look at it from that perspective. I just remember loving the concept that these visitors started producing vehicles and then later houses. The eco-friendly part of my memory was that the material came from the cellulose the visitors consumed.

Thanks for posting your initial reaction. It was the spark that allowed me to find the book!

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads.com:
The book outlines contact between Earth & the titular Visitors, a group of mysterious objects from deep space. Visitors are simple black oblong boxes, large as buildings, which take up orbit round the Earth before descending to the USA. Their nature remains mysterious. It's unclear if they're vehicles or living things. They're apparently unable to communicate with humans meaningfully. On one occasion someone is taken inside a Visitor, only to be released reporting experiencing a jumble of confusing colored lights & sounds.
Visitors are composed largely of a dense form of cellulose & proceed to consume plantlife. Eventually they start producing vehicles, superficially resembling cars but capable of flying using the same unknown principles as the Visitors themselves, apparently incorporating some element of intelligence, or at least instinct, since they don't crash into anything. Humans assume the Visitors have created these vehicles as a gift in return for the plants consumed. The novel touches on the disruption such well-meaning gifts might have to economic systems. Toward the end the Visitors start producing housing units. It's implied that something living may be inside—-maybe Visitor-produced humans.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Well now, don't I feel stupid! I passed right by that one, and it's been so long since I read it, I didn't make the connection. I was busy looking for a short-story book and didn't even realize that was the right one.

Anyway, glad I could help! Stick around and see what else we can do here.

I think I'll make it a goal for the year to read that pile of books again.

 

[vesperdem]

I'm always amazed at how well you folks here can track down the move cryptic references to actual books/movies.

I've looked at a few of the topics here and I can't make hide nor hair of what the story they are looking for is. I haven't really read that many books since I'm such a slow reader, but still. I have read a few. I guess I just haven't hit upon someone looking for a book I have read.

Also don't feel stupid! I almost passed it by too. If it were not for the cover art, I would have. Something in the back of my mind recognized the cover and I checked the synopsis and that was it.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and if I need help finding anything else, I definitely know where to look.