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A review by jdhacker
Up the Line by Robert Silverberg
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I thought I had read some Silverberg before, I may have been mistaken. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but this was a lot more raunchy (Heinlein and then some) than I was expecting, and there's definitely some racist language to get over.
Think Heinlein-esque (but again, raunchier) 60s free love romp, without all the heavy political commentary. Instead we get a pretty decent time travel as corrupt capitalism story that's not half bad. The future world, culture, and subcultures are believable and I think at least at the time it was written most of the historical bits were at least semi-accurate (obviously some literary license is taken). The twist ending was unexpected and fun. It was, overall, a little heavy in parts on the history lesson, but at least it works within the framework of the time traveler as travel guide structure.
If you like Heinlein and his ilk, you'll like this. If, for various reasons, you find the house of Heinlein distasteful, you'll definitely want to skip this one.
Think Heinlein-esque (but again, raunchier) 60s free love romp, without all the heavy political commentary. Instead we get a pretty decent time travel as corrupt capitalism story that's not half bad. The future world, culture, and subcultures are believable and I think at least at the time it was written most of the historical bits were at least semi-accurate (obviously some literary license is taken). The twist ending was unexpected and fun. It was, overall, a little heavy in parts on the history lesson, but at least it works within the framework of the time traveler as travel guide structure.
If you like Heinlein and his ilk, you'll like this. If, for various reasons, you find the house of Heinlein distasteful, you'll definitely want to skip this one.