An important detail of Heinlein's style is that he often uses a character's name very specifically as a synonym to convey their characteristics. His natural voice, stilted when reading the general narrative of the text was a little strange but I got more comfortable with it as I went along. (I always tell my adult friends to start with anything from 1959 or newer.) The narrator was an absolutely 1st rate voice actor, really fantastic.
I have also read a good number of Heinlein short stories, which were mostly from his early career and since this novel is also an early work, it stands to reason that its tone is similar. Truth be known this is his 1st novel, according to it was originally serialized in 1942. My guess is he needed an editor but it appears that the narration is rather choppy and though as strange as the book is, my guess is that part of the problem is the dated way that it reads and the other part is the editing. Instead of LOVING it, I only liked if a lot! I can't figure out if it's stilted, poor narration, or just poor editing. Having read over 2 dozen Heinlein novels, I find this to be the worst of his books that I've ever read. Heinlein's First Novel, not his Best NovelĪmazing writer. Heinlein has written some really good stuff, may I suggest you start with "The Green Hills of Earth" or "Starship Trooper" or "Starman Jones. If you have never read RH, please don't start with this book. He says that it took man four centuries to cross the America's, and given the size of space, it just has not happened yet. One statement he makes that I really liked was, "Women will forgive anything, otherwise the human race would have died out long ago." He also explains why we have not discovered life in space and why aliens have not discovered us. Heinlein can give you something to think about even when he is just throwing thoughts together. Towards the end a kid develops telepathy, but little is done with it. Everyone seems to know about it, but nothing is done to figure out how to build a time machine. There is a character who jumped to this time in a time machine from 1926. It talks about sperm and eggs and how they form babies. Chapter three sounds almost exactly like a two hour lecture I had in college biology. He had several issues, but never stuck to any. It is like Heinlein could not figure out what he wanted to write about. The story has almost no flow, it is full of lots of stutters and starts. If Heinlein would have stuck to genetics or westerns this might have been an ok book. This takes planned parenthood to a whole new level. Most of us are a product of carefully planned out genetics. In this future pictured by RAH, men carry guns in holsters, just like in the old west.
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