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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
A collection of 4 early pieces. Published in different form for monthly publications. Gulf was a novella from 1949 that was a pre-quel to Friday, the novel published in the 80's. The Man Who Was Jerry is one of Heinlein's finer short works. Worth the read, as I near the finish line on completing my reading of all of RH's works.
Despite the relatively short listen time (just shy of 9 hours), I struggled to get through this book. I enjoyed the narrators voice but I felt the content itself was far too much of a lecture.
The first story started out good with a spy working to lose a tail, fairly exciting throughout the first part but later the spy joins up with a group of super humans and it's turns into a huge lecture about how some ppl have the intellect to be superhuman by learning how to read fast, learn a language that speaks in short syllables but conveys a wealth of knowledge, learning telekinesis etc. they ultimately foil a despots plans but the story ends very unsatisfactorially... So much so I've already forgotten what happened!
The second story also starts out promising again exploring why ppl only use certain parts of their brains and the running theory is that we have forgotten the skills we used to use. He uses a great analogy of a person growing up in a deaf/mute community. That person may never learn to speak and never uses that portion of his brain. We have three ppl who decide to expand their learning and learn how to use esp and telekinesis on their own. They find a colony of similar ppl and after they learned quite a bit decide to try and bring it to the world.
They run into similar super humans who exercise their super powers to stop them because they want to be the only ones with the power.
The ending of this story was also rather disappointing. They defeat (supposedly the head of the opposition ng faction) and when one of the protagonist's is asked what she's going to do next... She said I will get married. Response ? I thought so... What ?
Story 3 also an Inter dimension travel but again very full of lectures and I never really got the point.
Story 4 has a strong female lead and she takes on a large corporation who creates sentiant animals and essentially uses them as slave labor. Theyre self aware but not very smart and 'liquidated' when they read the end of their usefulness.
All of these stories had really interesting theories and nuggets of wisdom but the author really doesn't go anywhere with it and often leaves you hanging....
The first story started out good with a spy working to lose a tail, fairly exciting throughout the first part but later the spy joins up with a group of super humans and it's turns into a huge lecture about how some ppl have the intellect to be superhuman by learning how to read fast, learn a language that speaks in short syllables but conveys a wealth of knowledge, learning telekinesis etc. they ultimately foil a despots plans but the story ends very unsatisfactorially... So much so I've already forgotten what happened!
The second story also starts out promising again exploring why ppl only use certain parts of their brains and the running theory is that we have forgotten the skills we used to use. He uses a great analogy of a person growing up in a deaf/mute community. That person may never learn to speak and never uses that portion of his brain. We have three ppl who decide to expand their learning and learn how to use esp and telekinesis on their own. They find a colony of similar ppl and after they learned quite a bit decide to try and bring it to the world.
They run into similar super humans who exercise their super powers to stop them because they want to be the only ones with the power.
The ending of this story was also rather disappointing. They defeat (supposedly the head of the opposition ng faction) and when one of the protagonist's is asked what she's going to do next... She said I will get married. Response ? I thought so... What ?
Story 3 also an Inter dimension travel but again very full of lectures and I never really got the point.
Story 4 has a strong female lead and she takes on a large corporation who creates sentiant animals and essentially uses them as slave labor. Theyre self aware but not very smart and 'liquidated' when they read the end of their usefulness.
All of these stories had really interesting theories and nuggets of wisdom but the author really doesn't go anywhere with it and often leaves you hanging....
Read this many moons ago, and the stories were written even longer ago than that: Gulf (1949), Elsewhen (1941), Lost Legacy (1941), Jerry Was a Man (1947).
All but the last story focus on the idea of psychic or supernatural powers; the idea that, if trained, humans could think faster, react faster, use telepathy and telekinesis, perhaps even levitate and travel through time and space.
In Gulf Joe Greene is "converted" to the cause of supermen/women against evil, taking on an evil genius determined to rule - or destroy - the Earth. Joe and his partner, Gail, are the literary and genetic grandparents to Heinlein's Friday.
In Elswhen, a professor learns how to slip into different time dimensions (this one's a precursor to The Number of the Beast), and helps five of his students relocate to different universes.
Lost Legacy explores the idea that humans all once had psychic powers, but they fell into disuse, as a child raised among deaf-mutes will still possess a speech center, but not know how to speak. Through training - and a fortuitous encounter with a group of advanced psychic elders upon/within Mount Shasta, the trio of beginners become adepts. This story inspired me in a recent trip to the foothills of Mt. Shasta, but sadly, I did not leave Mt. Shasta able to levitate or pick winning lottery numbers.
Jerry was a Man is a little different. Humans have come so far in bio-engineering that the very rich can buy miniature elephants able to hold a pen in their trunk and write their own names. You can buy a unicorn, or a Pegasus. Or, you can lease worker chimpanzees able to speak and sing.
This story is why the collection makes a contemporary reader uneasy, IMO. Is it racist? I don't *think* so, BUT... because there is a long history of slavery of African-Americans, a long history of A-A people being called monkeys and apes, the parallel can't help but feel pointed, and when as the ultimate demonstration of his ultimate humanity, modified chimp Jerry begins singing, "Way down upon de Suwannee Ribber..." I cringed. The intended take-away message is anti-racist, I think... or is it saying, "Men, human, but not of equal capabilities"?
It's a collection worth reading, and although I am not sure that Heinlein was the first to postulate them, there are pocket phones and other doodads we take for granted today, which were the wildest stretch of fantasy in the 1940's.
All but the last story focus on the idea of psychic or supernatural powers; the idea that, if trained, humans could think faster, react faster, use telepathy and telekinesis, perhaps even levitate and travel through time and space.
In Gulf Joe Greene is "converted" to the cause of supermen/women against evil, taking on an evil genius determined to rule - or destroy - the Earth. Joe and his partner, Gail, are the literary and genetic grandparents to Heinlein's Friday.
In Elswhen, a professor learns how to slip into different time dimensions (this one's a precursor to The Number of the Beast), and helps five of his students relocate to different universes.
Lost Legacy explores the idea that humans all once had psychic powers, but they fell into disuse, as a child raised among deaf-mutes will still possess a speech center, but not know how to speak. Through training - and a fortuitous encounter with a group of advanced psychic elders upon/within Mount Shasta, the trio of beginners become adepts. This story inspired me in a recent trip to the foothills of Mt. Shasta, but sadly, I did not leave Mt. Shasta able to levitate or pick winning lottery numbers.
Jerry was a Man is a little different. Humans have come so far in bio-engineering that the very rich can buy miniature elephants able to hold a pen in their trunk and write their own names. You can buy a unicorn, or a Pegasus. Or, you can lease worker chimpanzees able to speak and sing.
This story is why the collection makes a contemporary reader uneasy, IMO. Is it racist? I don't *think* so, BUT... because there is a long history of slavery of African-Americans, a long history of A-A people being called monkeys and apes, the parallel can't help but feel pointed, and when as the ultimate demonstration of his ultimate humanity, modified chimp Jerry begins singing, "Way down upon de Suwannee Ribber..." I cringed. The intended take-away message is anti-racist, I think... or is it saying, "Men, human, but not of equal capabilities"?
It's a collection worth reading, and although I am not sure that Heinlein was the first to postulate them, there are pocket phones and other doodads we take for granted today, which were the wildest stretch of fantasy in the 1940's.
Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal
I read this because I'd heard and loved the quote, "Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal" and wanted to read it in context. The story in which that appears, Gulf, is tremendous, with some very timely things to say about the dangers of democracy. The other three stories in this collection were fine, but I enjoyed them less.
I read this because I'd heard and loved the quote, "Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal" and wanted to read it in context. The story in which that appears, Gulf, is tremendous, with some very timely things to say about the dangers of democracy. The other three stories in this collection were fine, but I enjoyed them less.
I just couldn't finish it. It's not that the writing was bad (it wasn't), but I had a hard time with period people (from the mid-20th Century) in futuristic situations. It didn't quite work for me. I bailed midway through "Lost Legacy"
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
"Assignment in Eternity" is another Heinlein short story collection. The first story is a prelude to "Friday," which was an early favorite of mine. All four stories are loosely clustered around questions of human capacity, or what constitutes humanity.
This 1953 anthology collects four stories by Robert A. Heinlein originally published over the preceding decade. Each has its moments of rip-roaring sci-fi fun, but none are particularly great as a whole, and the author's flaws are unfortunately on full display throughout. There's casual misogyny in the treatment of female characters, enthusiasm for humanity's best that sometimes tips over into outright eugenics, and a tendency for the narrative to stall while pompous figures declaim at one another. Overall, I can't say that I'd recommend the book.
(Apparently the first novella Gulf is a prequel to the Heinlein novel Friday, but it's been long enough since I read that one that the connections haven't jumped out at me.)
(Apparently the first novella Gulf is a prequel to the Heinlein novel Friday, but it's been long enough since I read that one that the connections haven't jumped out at me.)
I hate to give 2 stars but for me it was just OK. I have liked his stories before but this pair of stories just didn't catch my attention. I haven't been a big sci fi fan so take my opinion based on that info.