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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Fun, quick, old-school (a-la Outer Limits perhaps this even was made into an ep?) creepy story.
A bit dated, but a fun tale about the nature of existence. Heinlein had a gift for spinning a yarn.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Although a little predictable, this is a fun little collection of short stories, which each tap a bit into science fiction. Some stories are certainly better than others. I recommend.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a set of six tales—one novella, five short stories—covering almost 20 years in Heinlein's early career, from 1941 to 1959. As with so much Heinlein, especially early Heinlein, most of the stories walk an interesting tightrope between tongue-and-cheek, even folksy humor and complex speculative ideas.
What I think is perhaps most interesting is today, in 2021, most of the attempts to grapple with outrageous, speculative concepts have been superseded to the point of obsolescence: "And He Built a Crooked House," a little fable about building a physical home as a four-dimensional tesseract, has a brain-twisting complexity that still might have some readers stopping to doodle a little visual on paper, but the narrative surprises are more likely to cause a wry smile than shock today. "All You Zombies" mines the territory explored by movies like Looper, taken to an extreme most readers will probably see coming, and "They" is a natural precursor to The Truman Show and The Matrix. "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants," a very unusual story for Heinlein, was effectively trounced just three years later by Rod Serling's "A Stop at Willoughby." Even "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," the titular novella, is more fun because of Heinlein's pastiche of a Dashiell Hammett-style husband-and-wife detective team than because of the sci-fi surprise at the heart of the story, which recalls everything from 1960s Doctor Who to modern-day Marvel movies.
It can be interesting to see how outrageous concepts were depicted when they were still fresh and new, but short of giving the book to a pre-teen who hasn't encountered them before—which I probably wouldn't do, thanks to some of the old-fashioned social attitudes—the main entertainment is less in what Heinlein's doing than how he does it.
My favorite story is "Our Fair City," which I'm sure at the time of publication felt like an also-ran within the collection. Yet it has a freshness today that most of the others don't because it's not trying to surprise or shock; instead, Heinlein reveals the whimsical little idea at the center of his story right up front, and he delights himself and the audience by letting his imagination run free with it. The result is a delightful, light mid-century urban fantasy that could only have come from the author of "The Roads Must Roll" or "The Green Hills of Earth," two of my favorite Heinlein whimsies.
I actually listened to this book as two separate Blackstone audiobooks: first, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, read by Tom Weiner, and All You Zombies and Other Stories, read by Spider Robinson(!). Both were excellent productions and I recommend them.
What I think is perhaps most interesting is today, in 2021, most of the attempts to grapple with outrageous, speculative concepts have been superseded to the point of obsolescence: "And He Built a Crooked House," a little fable about building a physical home as a four-dimensional tesseract, has a brain-twisting complexity that still might have some readers stopping to doodle a little visual on paper, but the narrative surprises are more likely to cause a wry smile than shock today. "All You Zombies" mines the territory explored by movies like Looper, taken to an extreme most readers will probably see coming, and "They" is a natural precursor to The Truman Show and The Matrix. "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants," a very unusual story for Heinlein, was effectively trounced just three years later by Rod Serling's "A Stop at Willoughby." Even "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," the titular novella, is more fun because of Heinlein's pastiche of a Dashiell Hammett-style husband-and-wife detective team than because of the sci-fi surprise at the heart of the story, which recalls everything from 1960s Doctor Who to modern-day Marvel movies.
It can be interesting to see how outrageous concepts were depicted when they were still fresh and new, but short of giving the book to a pre-teen who hasn't encountered them before—which I probably wouldn't do, thanks to some of the old-fashioned social attitudes—the main entertainment is less in what Heinlein's doing than how he does it.
My favorite story is "Our Fair City," which I'm sure at the time of publication felt like an also-ran within the collection. Yet it has a freshness today that most of the others don't because it's not trying to surprise or shock; instead, Heinlein reveals the whimsical little idea at the center of his story right up front, and he delights himself and the audience by letting his imagination run free with it. The result is a delightful, light mid-century urban fantasy that could only have come from the author of "The Roads Must Roll" or "The Green Hills of Earth," two of my favorite Heinlein whimsies.
I actually listened to this book as two separate Blackstone audiobooks: first, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, read by Tom Weiner, and All You Zombies and Other Stories, read by Spider Robinson(!). Both were excellent productions and I recommend them.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
The ending was unexpected, and kind of cool. The rest of the story was okay, but might have been more compelling with more fleshed-out protagonists. Still, a quick read that is worthwhile for the ending.
fast-paced