Posted on 06/23/2006 10:43:25 PM PDT by narses
This is presumably the last book in Heinlein's Future History, taking place during the late Coventry period (circa Methuselah's Children or late 23rd Century). Heinlein completed a detailed outline and partial draft of this book in 1955 and then abandoned it to work on other projects. Recently, the estate arranged for Spider Robinson to complete the work. Without giving anything away, this story would have taken the History in another direction from the body of his published work.
On all but one page, Spider Robinson has done a great job here of channelling the Master, and for the most part this book is extremely well done, both in the style and flavor of late 50's Heinlein, and in the way it winds itself into the Future History canon. I recommend it for all Heinlein fans. But...
Alas, that one page. Mr. Robinson has big issues with the War and couldn't resist an extremely cheap and gratuitous shot at George Bush. Judging by nearly everything he wrote, and particularly his dislike of pacifism, Heinlein would never have allowed such a rant in a book he co-wrote. But, being 20 years dead, all he can do is spin.
Except for this unforced error, I'd give it four stars. Maybe between the galleys and the bookstores someone will have enough respect for Heinlein to not put factually challenged rants in his mouth. One would hope.
(the rant, with a mild spoiler appears below the fold)
A character is speaking about the group's shock and dismay over a large and murderous attack (pp 263-264 of the uncorrected proof), trying to talk them out of hasty action. This is couched in the timeline of Heinlein's Future History, but it's not exactly rocket science to figure out the context. Nehemiah Scudder (The Prophet) is an American Christian theocratic dictator in the canon, overthrown at great cost.
"I will offer only a single example: the Terror Wars that led inexorably to the Ascension of the Prophet.
"Shortly after Captain Leslie LeCroix returned home safely from the historic first voyage to Luna, fanatical extremist Muslims from a tiny nation committed a great atrocity against a Christian superpower. Suicide terrorists managed to horribly murder thousands of innocent civilians. The grief and rage of their surviving compatriots must have been at least comparable to what we all feel now.
"Intelligently applied, that much national will and economic force could easily have eliminated every such fanatic from the globe. At that time there were probably less than a hundred that rabid, and by definition they were so profoundly stupid or deranged as to be barely functional. It was always clear their primitive atrocity had succeeded so spectacularly only by the most evil luck.
"We all know what the superpower chose to do instead. It crushed two tiny bystander nations, killing some dozens of actual terrorists, and hundreds of thousands of civilians as innocent as their own dead loved ones had been. The first time it was suggested that nation's leaders had perhaps known about the terror plot and failed to give warning. The second invasion didn't even bother with an excuse, even though that nation had been famously hostile to terrorists. Both nations were Muslim, as the nineteen killers had been: that was enough. The nation nearly all of them had actually come from remained, inexplicably, the Christian superpower's almost only Muslim ally in that region.
'The generation of a large planetary web of enraged Muslim extremists was so inevitable it is difficult for us now to conceive of the minds that did it. They were some of the most intelligent and humane people in the history of the planet: what could they have been thinking?
"Of course they were not. They were feeling.
'They were a superpower, and monotheist. No one had ever hurt them remotely that badly, and they were utterly certain no one had any right to hurt them at all. They reverted to tribal primate behavior. Beaten and robbed of your banana by a bigger ape or a more clever chimp ... you find some smaller, stupider primate, beat him, and steal his banana.
"So doing, they ignited a global religious war that threatened to literally return the whole world to barbarism. The only thing to do then was crush it under the iron and silicon heel of a slightly smarter barbarism, a marginally less bloodstained religion, the best of all possible tyrannies. Nehemiah Scudder became the Holy Prophet of the Lord, smote the false prophets, and darkness fell."
Contrast this with actual Heinlein (Notebooks of Lazarus Long):
Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be defined as "murder" in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be "Using deadly weapons inside city limits," or "Creating a traffic hazard," or "Endangering bystanders," or other such misdemeanor.
I grew up reading Heinlein. His future history series no doubt had am impact on my world view...back in the late 60s...
I'm much younger, but I grew up in a public library. Heinlein was one of many favorite writers.
Like many others, I found that 9/11 focused my worldview - and that it was very Heinleinian in outlook.
Spider apparenty doesn't remember his own words.
This reminds me of "Black Coffee," an Agatha Christie stage play which was turned into a novel by Charles Osborne. It features Hercule Poriot and Hastings but is so lacking in the original Christie style that it seemed a terrible waste of time to read it. I understand that it was almost slavishly devoted to the play's original dialogue and stage direction. What was missing was the Christie flair. What I so like about Christie are the laugh-out-loud moments. She could take an observation of human behavior or foible and craft a sentence which so piqantly described it, that one could not help but audibly laugh.
Thrones, Dominations, Jill Paton Walsh's finishing up of Dorothy L. Sayers last Peter Wimsey novel, is an exception, except for two unfortunate word choices. But basically you're right: resurrecting dead novelists' dead novels doesn't work.
Spider IMO jumped the shark a long time ago.
I dunno...Todd McCaffrey seems to pull off Anne McCaffrey's _Pern_ very well, at least from the two stories I've seen so far.
Some of the best of MZB's _Darkover_ books were the ones released a few years after she died, co-written by Deborah Ross from MZB's notes and outlines. The style is like the best of MZB. I've even seen a fanfic written by a random nobody who likewise picked up her style perfectly.
Really, for me a co-author or fanfic author is judged on how closely they can pull off the original author's style...it really becomes a part of the way the world itself is presented, at least for the worlds I know best.
Roleplays are another extension of this. Bending canon a little is one thing...female blueriders in Pern, for example...but when roleplayers "rush" the story or completely trash any feel of it being canon Pern, that ruins it for me.
I'm always amazed when I discover how many Heinlien fans there really are. I think I've read everything he ever wrote, but I have never met a single person who even heard of him.
Yet every time his name is mentioned in a site like this, lots of people know even more about the writer than I do.
Incidentally, "Starship Troopers" was filmed in Wyoming, not far from where I lived -- A friend of mine was one of the extras behind the white masks.
Also incidental -- if the heinlien family was willing to sign off on the movie, I'm guessing they won't mind a ghost writer doing a work-up on some old notes.
Thanks for the link, good read.
I might but Spider's bull will have to be skipped so that I can try to enjoy it.
"They did a fairly good job with Puppet Masters - but it got crushed by the premiere of Stargate at the box office."
It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but a couple of minor, no-cost tweaks could have made it much better.
You lived near Hell's Half Acre? Cool.
I visited there as a child several times. I have family still in Riverton, where my Grandparents homesteaded, as well as family in Dubois.
I love Wyoming. I've always said I would love to live there... as long as I knew I didn't have to live there. I'd probably never want to leave, but the idea of not being able to if I wanted to might drive me a bit nuts. <g>
Robert A Heinlein
I would say that, based on this example of his talent, Spider Robinson is appropriately named (arachnids are close enough to insects to make the point).
Any Catholic Heinlein fans? Any thoughts on his books, his life and how they relate to our current culture?
Because of a long ago reply to me, I thought you might want to see this topic. :')
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/653287/posts?page=88#88
see message 38 in this thread.
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