The novel “The Visitors” by Clifford D. Simak was published for the first time in 1979.

Lone Pine is a small town in Minnesota where generally nothing strange happens until one day a huge object that looks like a giant black box appears in the sky. The local barber reacts like he’s facing an invasion and shoots the mysterious object with a rifle he causes just one reaction, a beam that incinerates him.

The object lands on Jerry Conklin’s car and he gets captured and held prisoner for several hours. There isn’t exactly a communication between Jerry and the box yet he understands that it’s a form of intelligent life. Meanwhile, the news of its arrival starts spreading and everyone is wondering where it comes from and what it wants, also because there are many others in orbit.