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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
An enjoyable short story by Heinlein that could just as well have been written by Alfred Bester or A. E. Van Vogt for its questioning of reality and touch of Cosmic Horror. Held my attention because of the gradual revelation, but wouldn’t re-read or recommend to someone over other Heinlein or other shorts.
Several of Heinlein's most excellent short stories, a genre he excelled at. Creepy and wonderful.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3007207.html
I really liked this when I first read it 30 years ago, and it hadn't lost much in the intervening decades - Heinlein in fantasy mode, approaching Philip K. Dick in some ways, with the young couple at the centre of the narrative discovering that our world is very different from what they thought.
I really liked this when I first read it 30 years ago, and it hadn't lost much in the intervening decades - Heinlein in fantasy mode, approaching Philip K. Dick in some ways, with the young couple at the centre of the narrative discovering that our world is very different from what they thought.
I wish Goodreads had a 10-point scale because I kind of want to give this 3.5 stars. I give 4 to the main novel, but the short stories included are kind of hit/miss.
Anyway the main novel is quite interesting. Picture Mad Men fusing with a Steven Moffat episode of Doctor Who. It fuses mystery and science fiction really well and Heinlein also makes some interesting observations about humanity. I was kind of blown away when he pointed out that humans have made an art out of providing our bodies with energy. Now I'll talk about the short stories:
"The Man Who Traveled in Elephants:" This one was ok--I think I know where he was going with it and I liked the characters but I didn't love the story.
""--All You Zombies--":" I think Chuck Palahniuk must have read this before writing Invisible Monsters. Probably my favorite of the short stories in this volume.
"They:" This probably isn't the worst story of it's type and it may even be an earlier example, but as an early 21st century reader the ending is just too obvious.
"Our Fair City:" I just didn't get this story at all.
""--And He Built a Crooked House--":" I quite liked this one as well. Even though I'm pretty sure it made no sense I liked the concept of it.
Anyway the main novel is quite interesting. Picture Mad Men fusing with a Steven Moffat episode of Doctor Who. It fuses mystery and science fiction really well and Heinlein also makes some interesting observations about humanity. I was kind of blown away when he pointed out that humans have made an art out of providing our bodies with energy. Now I'll talk about the short stories:
"The Man Who Traveled in Elephants:" This one was ok--I think I know where he was going with it and I liked the characters but I didn't love the story.
""--All You Zombies--":" I think Chuck Palahniuk must have read this before writing Invisible Monsters. Probably my favorite of the short stories in this volume.
"They:" This probably isn't the worst story of it's type and it may even be an earlier example, but as an early 21st century reader the ending is just too obvious.
"Our Fair City:" I just didn't get this story at all.
""--And He Built a Crooked House--":" I quite liked this one as well. Even though I'm pretty sure it made no sense I liked the concept of it.
Continuing with my very limited reading for the 1943 Retro Hugos, I decided to reread the collection of Heinlein stories containing the novella “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag,” which has been published both under the title of that novella, and as 6 X H.
The novella is quite a neat, if occasionally terrifying, piece of prose. I enjoyed the combination of mystery and horror, the sense of discovering a secret, occult history of the world, the image of the world as art, compete with Critics who assess its virtues - though given their ability to decide on changes to the work, perhaps they are better viewed as editors (either way, labelling Jonathan Hoag’s profession as an unpleasant one is a delightful writerly in-joke). As usual, Heinlein’s gift for character and dialogue is strong, and his ability to pull off a complex and baffling plot yields considerable entertainment.
Heinein could write stories that make you cry as easily as he could change his shoes. The Man Who Travelled in Elephants is a n unsurpassed love story. Not just the story of Johnny, who travelled in elephants and his beloved Martha, lost and then found, but the story of an America that was passing, an America of spectacle and circus and county fairs and amusement parks. The small, intimate details of Johnny and Martha’s life together as they travelled the country, first fir work, later for their own joy, are delightful, bittersweet, familiar to any family that creates its own secret shared mythology. The growing anticipation of the reader once the truth of the tale becomes clear and you know that somewhere in the vast carnival crowd, Martha is waiting for her Johnny, that’s what starts the tears, slowly brimming, finally flowing at the end. It’s a beautiful love story.
—All You Zombies— is a tale that, oddly enough, treats intersex/transgender realities very sympathetically but can’t seem to imagine a role for women in space that doesn’t involve sexually servicing men. It’s the story of a temporal agent who is his own father and mother... or his own son and daughter, depending on what part of his timeline you’re looking at. Heinlein seemed to enjoy the time paradox theme, he wrote several of them. This is perhaps the best one.
They is an interesting piece of psychological fiction. Wr’ve all felt, at times, that we are alone in the world, different, that no one understands us. We know that in some people, at some times, this feeling intensifies, slides into a kind of delusion in which all the world is united in some strange kind of manipulative conspiracy. We call this madness. But what if it were the truth?
Political satire is a tricky thing to write well. Heinlein’s satire was usually well-disguised, but in Our Fair City, he gives us a very funny look at corrupt municipal politics, thanks to an unlikely alliance between a newspaperman, a parking lot attendant, and a playful sentient whirlwind named Kitten with a penchant for collecting pretty bits of paper and string and other sorts of things.
The final story, —And He Built a Crooked House—, is just plain fun. An architect tries to build a house modelled after an unfolded tesseract... but then an earthquake causes the house to fold up through a fourth spacial dimension and the architect and his clients are trapped inside. The set-up requires a certain degree of spacial perception to begin to visualise it, but the story itself is mostly an interesting but throw-away idea.
The novella is quite a neat, if occasionally terrifying, piece of prose. I enjoyed the combination of mystery and horror, the sense of discovering a secret, occult history of the world, the image of the world as art, compete with Critics who assess its virtues - though given their ability to decide on changes to the work, perhaps they are better viewed as editors (either way, labelling Jonathan Hoag’s profession as an unpleasant one is a delightful writerly in-joke). As usual, Heinlein’s gift for character and dialogue is strong, and his ability to pull off a complex and baffling plot yields considerable entertainment.
Heinein could write stories that make you cry as easily as he could change his shoes. The Man Who Travelled in Elephants is a n unsurpassed love story. Not just the story of Johnny, who travelled in elephants and his beloved Martha, lost and then found, but the story of an America that was passing, an America of spectacle and circus and county fairs and amusement parks. The small, intimate details of Johnny and Martha’s life together as they travelled the country, first fir work, later for their own joy, are delightful, bittersweet, familiar to any family that creates its own secret shared mythology. The growing anticipation of the reader once the truth of the tale becomes clear and you know that somewhere in the vast carnival crowd, Martha is waiting for her Johnny, that’s what starts the tears, slowly brimming, finally flowing at the end. It’s a beautiful love story.
—All You Zombies— is a tale that, oddly enough, treats intersex/transgender realities very sympathetically but can’t seem to imagine a role for women in space that doesn’t involve sexually servicing men. It’s the story of a temporal agent who is his own father and mother... or his own son and daughter, depending on what part of his timeline you’re looking at. Heinlein seemed to enjoy the time paradox theme, he wrote several of them. This is perhaps the best one.
They is an interesting piece of psychological fiction. Wr’ve all felt, at times, that we are alone in the world, different, that no one understands us. We know that in some people, at some times, this feeling intensifies, slides into a kind of delusion in which all the world is united in some strange kind of manipulative conspiracy. We call this madness. But what if it were the truth?
Political satire is a tricky thing to write well. Heinlein’s satire was usually well-disguised, but in Our Fair City, he gives us a very funny look at corrupt municipal politics, thanks to an unlikely alliance between a newspaperman, a parking lot attendant, and a playful sentient whirlwind named Kitten with a penchant for collecting pretty bits of paper and string and other sorts of things.
The final story, —And He Built a Crooked House—, is just plain fun. An architect tries to build a house modelled after an unfolded tesseract... but then an earthquake causes the house to fold up through a fourth spacial dimension and the architect and his clients are trapped inside. The set-up requires a certain degree of spacial perception to begin to visualise it, but the story itself is mostly an interesting but throw-away idea.
I remember, I purchased this collection when I was a youngster, but not in my home town. I was on a visit to Melbourne or Sydney. I do not recall the year or the actual city, but I remember the joy I felt when I stumbled upon this book and its titular story in a dusty, tiny bookshop (maybe even on the last shelf?). I read "Hoag" immediately, and was astounded, it was so different from any other Heinlein I had read. It was also genuinely scary. A scariness that snuck up on the unwary reader. An ingenious story, briefly and powerfully told, with an illustrative, wordly backdrop of the US metropolitan world of the mid-20th C. If you have not read this, do yourself a favour and do so.
It looks like a lot of these reviews are for a story collection. The one I have is the Kindle version of only the Unpleasant Profession. (I'm wondering if it should be listed as a separate book on here.)
Edit: Meh, DNFing this at a little over half-way. It's trying to be mysterious and enticing, but the constant lack of any answers at all is just irritating, and I don't find the characters very interesting either. (And looking ahead, it looks like the ultimate answer to the mystery is so much made-up nonsense that it would have been unsatisfying anyway.)
Edit: Meh, DNFing this at a little over half-way. It's trying to be mysterious and enticing, but the constant lack of any answers at all is just irritating, and I don't find the characters very interesting either. (And looking ahead, it looks like the ultimate answer to the mystery is so much made-up nonsense that it would have been unsatisfying anyway.)
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
A collection of Twilight Zone - esque stories with surprisingly compelling characters for the most part.
The first story, or rather a novella which over half of the book is comprised of, is an engaging detective story with an SF spin on it, which I really enjoyed. My favourite tales were the ones that where mostly concerned with the human mind in one way or another.
I'm looking forward to reading more of Heinlein's works, since his ideas, style and character interactions please me.
The first story, or rather a novella which over half of the book is comprised of, is an engaging detective story with an SF spin on it, which I really enjoyed. My favourite tales were the ones that where mostly concerned with the human mind in one way or another.
I'm looking forward to reading more of Heinlein's works, since his ideas, style and character interactions please me.
Fun, quick, old-school (a-la Outer Limits perhaps this even was made into an ep?) creepy story.