A review by manuphoto
Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein

emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

As usual with Heinlein, the novel starts out strong. He grabs you with a very interesting concept and quite good prose. The first characters you meet are interesting, and you quickly get a feeling that there is some depth to them and to the story.

However, as usual with Heinlein, the gender politics are absolutely disastrous. The first female characters we encounter are purely judged on their looks, or are beaten into submission and actually enjoy it! I know this book was written in the 1940s, but still, not every author from that era was so macho and pigheaded!

I did roll my eyes quite a few times. And it’s a shame, really, as I happened to enjoy the plot and the world-building. I usually like Heinlein’s ideas and prose, but his political and social stances are hard to swallow, even for a writer of the 1940s.

Anyhow… the book moves at a fairly good pace (in the first half or so) and touches on themes such as our humanity, societal organization, etc. There is some action too, quite well done actually, and surprisingly violent at times. Heinlein does know how to write a fight, I’ll give him that.

That being said, the second half of the book, where the most far-fetched concepts are explored, is a bit of a mess. It’s like Heinlein wanted to look into racial prejudice, telepathy, and other ideas but had no real plan as to how to go about it. It’s messy, and I actually found myself quite bored in the last 75 pages or so.

It’s classic Heinlein for me. He starts out strong and then he gets drowned in his own story. That plus the awkward social issues with the author himself. The more I read him, the more I find that he’s not an author for me. I like his ideas, his concepts, his action scenes, and his introductions. But boy, he can be boring as hell and is a pig sometimes.