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lillygabriella's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Heinlein is one of my favorite sci-fi authors. That said, this is an earlier work and not in my favorites. It's good but tends to suffer lot of the misconceptions of mid century "future history" stories. Also the "silent helicopter" tripped me out. Basically I know too much science for the science in old sci-fi to hold up my suspension of disbelief.
The book is really three stories set in the same world along the same timeline, with the first being the longest. Heinlein's military roots and libertarian proclivities show through. The story was interesting and some turns of phrase were gut busting my funny, at least to me and also my husband when I texted him the sentences at work.
If you enjoy Mid-Century science fiction and haven't read this one yet, I recommend it. It ends on a much more upbeat note than the other Mid-Century sci-fi I've read this month.
The book is really three stories set in the same world along the same timeline, with the first being the longest. Heinlein's military roots and libertarian proclivities show through. The story was interesting and some turns of phrase were gut busting my funny, at least to me and also my husband when I texted him the sentences at work.
If you enjoy Mid-Century science fiction and haven't read this one yet, I recommend it. It ends on a much more upbeat note than the other Mid-Century sci-fi I've read this month.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Vomit
bookwormerica's review against another edition
4.0
First read. Enjoyed. I enjoy all Heinelin to some extent
lakelady's review against another edition
4.0
Not sure what it was that caused this book to enter my list. Very glad it did. It's quite prescient to the US in the 21st century. We haven't gotten quite as far as the government in this novel but we're not far from it and may end up there if we don't stay vigilant to the forces on the fundamentalist religious right-wing and where they'd like to take us. It's not quite as well done as his later works but I think it's well worth your time.
jmartindf's review against another edition
3.0
This book is comprised of 3 stories, originally written as serials. The first could be called a novella, about the rebellion against the theocracy established by Jeremiah Scudder. The second, Coventry, concerns life outside of the Covenant, established after the overthrow of the theocracy. And the third concerns Libby, who has an instinct for math.
The stories were typical Heinlein fare with strong themes of personal morality and the choices men make.
The stories were typical Heinlein fare with strong themes of personal morality and the choices men make.
nickmiller's review against another edition
3.0
Heinlein hits us again with just a glimpse into his worlds rather than whole, self-contained novels.
I enjoyed this novel on a very surface level. Heinlein keeps his patented witty dialog going without diving too much into the concepts that made his classics...well, classics.
I enjoyed this novel on a very surface level. Heinlein keeps his patented witty dialog going without diving too much into the concepts that made his classics...well, classics.
markyon's review against another edition
3.0
This is the third collection of Robert A. Heinlein’s so-called Future History. The first was The Man Who Sold the Moon, the second was The Green Hills of Earth .)
By this third book stories are being deliberately connected together into Heinlein’s loose timeline framework, which developed from a conversation with Astounding editor John W. Campbell in 1941.
The stories in this edition are:
The original 1953 hardback also included, for the first time, a copy of Heinlein’s Future History chart and a Foreword by fellow author Henry Kuttner, "The Innocent Eye".
Although Revolt is the third in this series, most of the stories, in their original publication state, date back to those included in The Man Who Sold the Moon. As such, they are early Heinlein writing, albeit with some revision, and in some cases, it shows.
Despite this book having fewer stories, it is the biggest of the collection. To make the book even bigger, some later US editions included the novel Methusulah’s Children (1958) as well, which I may get to read next. In terms of context, this would make sense, as the novel, like many others of its time, was a ‘fix-up’ from what was published in the magazines – in this case, the three-part serial in Astounding from July-September 1941. This means that Heinlein was writing it at about the same time most of these other stories were published, and it is clearly mentioned in the Future History chart.
"If This Goes On—" begins this collection with a bang, and is a great start on the whole. In fifteen chapters and 133 pages, this novella tells of the ‘Crazy Years’, a time when a theocracy has taken hold of the USA and the country is in the despotic control of the infamous Nehemiah Scudder, who was mentioned in Logic of Empire in The Green Hills of Earth. It is bleak, grim and chilling, I suspect reflecting, in part, the global events of 1939-40. It questions Christian fundamentalism (although not all religions) through the eyes of John Lyle, initially a legate and guardsman in the Temple of the Lord in New Jerusalem, one of the elite guard of the Prophet Incarnate – never named here, but presumably Scudder. Lyle falls in love with Sister Judith, one of the Virgins ‘ministering’ to the Prophet, and as a result Lyle becomes part of the resistance in order to engineer her escape from the prophet’s palace.
The middle part of the novel is what happens when Lyle, at risk of being discovered, also escapes the temple. He becomes a courier, working as a sleeper agent with an unknown message buried deep in his subconscious by hypnosis. As Lyle runs away, in this part of the novella we see through Lyle the consequences and reality of living in a theocratic state – severe authority control, constant surveillance, fake news, and propaganda.
The conclusion of the story involves Lyle working at the secret headquarters of the resistance, ultimately becoming part of the revolution against Scudder. Showing all those traditional Heinlein values of honour, loyalty and ‘doing the right thing’ even at a personal cost, the end shouldn’t really be a surprise.
Despite its age, “If This Goes On…” is a sobering story, and even in its first form surprisingly mature for a story written by a writer at this point barely beginning his career*. (It must be said that this version is expanded from approximately 33 000 words to 57 300, nearly double its original length from the original two-part Astounding serial.) Whilst there are weak points (the initial romance is unconvincing, as most of its 1930’s contemporaries were), the overall impression is of an adventure story with a message, a salutary reminder of what can happen in a dictatorship state. Originally published in 1940, as the Germans were occupying Western Europe, it is perhaps as relevant now in 2018 as it was nearly 80 years ago.
*It may be worth reading the original version, which shows how far Heinlein had progressed as a writer from 1939-1953. (Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE.) The second 1953 version is more complex and more nuanced, but has lost a bit of its innocence and charm. (For example, in the original 1940 version at the end John Lyle leaves the military after the Revolution, marries Judith and takes up the career his covert character managed undercover, in textiles.) In the second edition we have more sex – Judith in the original first meets John when the Prophet is discussing taxes, in the 1953 version her role is more physical. There’s a scene of nude bathing in underground caves that applies Freudian imagery with a broad brush, to symbolise John’s spiritual and physical awakening.
In this Future History, Coventry and Misfit are stories set after “If This Goes On…”, when society has become more secular. Both stories are about the consequences of this time, when both of the story’s protagonists reject the society they live in, to forge their own destiny. Both are worth reading, though not as memorable as the first novel/novella.
Coventry (Link HERE) is a story of David MacKinnon, a professor in the time after “If This Goes On…”, who, after punching a man who offended him, is taken to trial. The State convicts him for being capable of morally judging his fellow citizens and feeling justified in personally correcting and punishing their lapses. He is given two choices as punishment - psychological readjustment or exile to Coventry, a place separated from the rest of the world by a force-field barrier. Obviously, MacKinnon chooses Coventry.
The world of Coventry is, in reality, the world in micro-cosm and split into different parts. Like Scudder’s theocracy before it, the so-called ‘New America’ is actually corrupt, relying on taxing its residents into submission. The “Free State” is even worse, a dictatorship, often at odds with New America. In the hills to the North of New America lies ”The Angels”, what is left of Scudder’s theocracy with a new Prophet. When MacKinnon and his prison buddy Fader Magee discover a plot by New America to invade the world outside Coventry, the story turns into more traditional Libertarian fare, and it ends as you might expect, albeit rather abruptly and conveniently.
Originally this was Heinlein’s seventh published story, published after The Roads Must Roll but before Blowups Happen. It’s a surprise to me in that it’s really a political story, which I tended to think came later in his career. (Admittedly, this was before For Us, the Living was discovered.) Yes, there’s an adventure story in there, but it’s basically political diatribe wrapped up in a romp, and one without the skills of the later Heinlein to totally make it work.
I think the most interesting point for me is that whilst Coventry seems to extol the virtues of the individual (as “rugged individualists”) in times of stress, Heinlein also shows us the consequences of the Second Revolution and does not like everything he sees. Despite all of the sacrifice shown in "If This Goes On—", this ‘brave new world’ has set itself up to repeat the mistakes of the past and possibly end up worse than before. It’s a reminder that once the war is won, the battle must continue, in order to maintain order and improve what has happened before. A message perhaps appropriate for 1940, when the globe was heading towards World War II.
Misfit (link HERE) is a tale of Andrew Jackson Libby, nicknamed ‘Pinky’. After an overtly political tale, this is Heinlein in a more typical mode, an adventure story of an outsider who has been sequestered to work and manages to face up to the challenge. It’s rather proto-Starship Troopers, though told in the second person rather than the first, of how young men will modify asteroids into habitats that will support future exploration into space. Libby is a red-headed, untrained misfit with a gift for Mathematics and, in the usual Heinlein way, is shown to be a hero.
I saw it as another story that is Heinlein’s call-to-arms, written at a time of approaching world war to show that the future can be bright. The minor point that Pinky is a redhead will become more important in later books. We will meet the character again (albeit briefly) in Methuselah’s Children and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls.
Lastly, there’s a short but intriguing postscript written by Heinlein long after the stories were originally published in 1953, explaining how the Future History stories came about and how they tied together. Most interestingly, he tells us of stories he may (or may not) write to fill in the gaps of the History.
Three are mentioned here. Firstly, The Sound of his Wings, originally planned to start shortly before Logic of Empire (in The Green Hills of Earth) and extending beyond Logic’s timespan, would have told of the early life and rise to power of Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet of ‘If This Goes On…’ Heinlein here, writing in 1953, suggests that the story would have been ‘down-beat’, and that there’s enough of that in the daily headlines to merit adding more.
The second unfinished story, Eclipse, would have told the story of the breakaway and independence of Mars and Venus, followed by ‘the cessation of interplanetary travel.’ It’s parallels with the American Revolution and the global breakup of colonialism is deliberate. Heinlein said that it would probably never get written because he had since written two novels following similar themes, not bound by the restrictions of a Future History.
Lastly, The Stone Pillow would have been about the growth of an underground counterculture leading up to the Second American Revolution. Like The Sound of his Wings, it was felt by Heinlein to be too downbeat to be worth pursuing further, although there are clearly elements of this in ‘If This Goes On…’ and Coventry.
All of these are intriguing ideas, but I do feel that Heinlein may have been right not to develop them more.
So: in summary, how do these stories hold up? Although the stories were first published in 1939-40, they were, of course, not easily available to reread until this collection was published in 1953, with expansion and revision. How does this collection fit in context? Well, 1953 was also the year of Starman Jones and the collection Assignment in Eternity, (containing the four novellas Gulf (1949), Elsewhen (1941), Lost Legacy (1941) and Jerry Was A Man (1947)) before The Star Beast in 1954).
Of the three collections that make up the history, this is perhaps the weakest of the three, although strangely, it is the biggest. Revolt in 2100 is worth reading just for the first novella alone, although Heinlein’s comments at the end intriguingly fill in some of the gaps. (I have also noted that For Us, the Living, Heinlein’s first novel published after his death, also mentions Scudder, so have added that to my reading list, as perhaps re-reading the Future History’s last hurrah, Methuselah’s Children.)
In short, then, are these stories worth reading? Whilst they are undoubtedly “of a time”, they do have their merits and their issues. These stories, compared with the later material, do show less complexity and style, but they are noticeably showing the writing voice that the author was cultivating, even in those early years.
Despite the naivety, perhaps more importantly they show less of the elements that Heinlein’s critics are unhappy with in his later work. They are worth reading, if not only to show how important Heinlein was in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Of all the work written by RAH, the Future History series exhibit the author’s strengths, with less of the weaknesses. (As an example, compare this with I Will Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love or To Sail the Sunset.) For all of their issues, if you want a flavour of the author’s best, I would steer you more towards this early work than the later ones.
By this third book stories are being deliberately connected together into Heinlein’s loose timeline framework, which developed from a conversation with Astounding editor John W. Campbell in 1941.
The stories in this edition are:
- "If This Goes On—" (Expanded from the version originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, February & March 1940)
- "Coventry" (1940; his seventh short story published, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1940)
- "Misfit" (1939; his second published story, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, November 1939)
- Afterword: "Concerning Stories Never Written"
The original 1953 hardback also included, for the first time, a copy of Heinlein’s Future History chart and a Foreword by fellow author Henry Kuttner, "The Innocent Eye".
Although Revolt is the third in this series, most of the stories, in their original publication state, date back to those included in The Man Who Sold the Moon. As such, they are early Heinlein writing, albeit with some revision, and in some cases, it shows.
Despite this book having fewer stories, it is the biggest of the collection. To make the book even bigger, some later US editions included the novel Methusulah’s Children (1958) as well, which I may get to read next. In terms of context, this would make sense, as the novel, like many others of its time, was a ‘fix-up’ from what was published in the magazines – in this case, the three-part serial in Astounding from July-September 1941. This means that Heinlein was writing it at about the same time most of these other stories were published, and it is clearly mentioned in the Future History chart.
"If This Goes On—" begins this collection with a bang, and is a great start on the whole. In fifteen chapters and 133 pages, this novella tells of the ‘Crazy Years’, a time when a theocracy has taken hold of the USA and the country is in the despotic control of the infamous Nehemiah Scudder, who was mentioned in Logic of Empire in The Green Hills of Earth. It is bleak, grim and chilling, I suspect reflecting, in part, the global events of 1939-40. It questions Christian fundamentalism (although not all religions) through the eyes of John Lyle, initially a legate and guardsman in the Temple of the Lord in New Jerusalem, one of the elite guard of the Prophet Incarnate – never named here, but presumably Scudder. Lyle falls in love with Sister Judith, one of the Virgins ‘ministering’ to the Prophet, and as a result Lyle becomes part of the resistance in order to engineer her escape from the prophet’s palace.
The middle part of the novel is what happens when Lyle, at risk of being discovered, also escapes the temple. He becomes a courier, working as a sleeper agent with an unknown message buried deep in his subconscious by hypnosis. As Lyle runs away, in this part of the novella we see through Lyle the consequences and reality of living in a theocratic state – severe authority control, constant surveillance, fake news, and propaganda.
The conclusion of the story involves Lyle working at the secret headquarters of the resistance, ultimately becoming part of the revolution against Scudder. Showing all those traditional Heinlein values of honour, loyalty and ‘doing the right thing’ even at a personal cost, the end shouldn’t really be a surprise.
Despite its age, “If This Goes On…” is a sobering story, and even in its first form surprisingly mature for a story written by a writer at this point barely beginning his career*. (It must be said that this version is expanded from approximately 33 000 words to 57 300, nearly double its original length from the original two-part Astounding serial.) Whilst there are weak points (the initial romance is unconvincing, as most of its 1930’s contemporaries were), the overall impression is of an adventure story with a message, a salutary reminder of what can happen in a dictatorship state. Originally published in 1940, as the Germans were occupying Western Europe, it is perhaps as relevant now in 2018 as it was nearly 80 years ago.
*It may be worth reading the original version, which shows how far Heinlein had progressed as a writer from 1939-1953. (Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE.) The second 1953 version is more complex and more nuanced, but has lost a bit of its innocence and charm. (For example, in the original 1940 version at the end John Lyle leaves the military after the Revolution, marries Judith and takes up the career his covert character managed undercover, in textiles.) In the second edition we have more sex – Judith in the original first meets John when the Prophet is discussing taxes, in the 1953 version her role is more physical. There’s a scene of nude bathing in underground caves that applies Freudian imagery with a broad brush, to symbolise John’s spiritual and physical awakening.
In this Future History, Coventry and Misfit are stories set after “If This Goes On…”, when society has become more secular. Both stories are about the consequences of this time, when both of the story’s protagonists reject the society they live in, to forge their own destiny. Both are worth reading, though not as memorable as the first novel/novella.
Coventry (Link HERE) is a story of David MacKinnon, a professor in the time after “If This Goes On…”, who, after punching a man who offended him, is taken to trial. The State convicts him for being capable of morally judging his fellow citizens and feeling justified in personally correcting and punishing their lapses. He is given two choices as punishment - psychological readjustment or exile to Coventry, a place separated from the rest of the world by a force-field barrier. Obviously, MacKinnon chooses Coventry.
The world of Coventry is, in reality, the world in micro-cosm and split into different parts. Like Scudder’s theocracy before it, the so-called ‘New America’ is actually corrupt, relying on taxing its residents into submission. The “Free State” is even worse, a dictatorship, often at odds with New America. In the hills to the North of New America lies ”The Angels”, what is left of Scudder’s theocracy with a new Prophet. When MacKinnon and his prison buddy Fader Magee discover a plot by New America to invade the world outside Coventry, the story turns into more traditional Libertarian fare, and it ends as you might expect, albeit rather abruptly and conveniently.
Originally this was Heinlein’s seventh published story, published after The Roads Must Roll but before Blowups Happen. It’s a surprise to me in that it’s really a political story, which I tended to think came later in his career. (Admittedly, this was before For Us, the Living was discovered.) Yes, there’s an adventure story in there, but it’s basically political diatribe wrapped up in a romp, and one without the skills of the later Heinlein to totally make it work.
I think the most interesting point for me is that whilst Coventry seems to extol the virtues of the individual (as “rugged individualists”) in times of stress, Heinlein also shows us the consequences of the Second Revolution and does not like everything he sees. Despite all of the sacrifice shown in "If This Goes On—", this ‘brave new world’ has set itself up to repeat the mistakes of the past and possibly end up worse than before. It’s a reminder that once the war is won, the battle must continue, in order to maintain order and improve what has happened before. A message perhaps appropriate for 1940, when the globe was heading towards World War II.
Misfit (link HERE) is a tale of Andrew Jackson Libby, nicknamed ‘Pinky’. After an overtly political tale, this is Heinlein in a more typical mode, an adventure story of an outsider who has been sequestered to work and manages to face up to the challenge. It’s rather proto-Starship Troopers, though told in the second person rather than the first, of how young men will modify asteroids into habitats that will support future exploration into space. Libby is a red-headed, untrained misfit with a gift for Mathematics and, in the usual Heinlein way, is shown to be a hero.
I saw it as another story that is Heinlein’s call-to-arms, written at a time of approaching world war to show that the future can be bright. The minor point that Pinky is a redhead will become more important in later books. We will meet the character again (albeit briefly) in Methuselah’s Children and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls.
Lastly, there’s a short but intriguing postscript written by Heinlein long after the stories were originally published in 1953, explaining how the Future History stories came about and how they tied together. Most interestingly, he tells us of stories he may (or may not) write to fill in the gaps of the History.
Three are mentioned here. Firstly, The Sound of his Wings, originally planned to start shortly before Logic of Empire (in The Green Hills of Earth) and extending beyond Logic’s timespan, would have told of the early life and rise to power of Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet of ‘If This Goes On…’ Heinlein here, writing in 1953, suggests that the story would have been ‘down-beat’, and that there’s enough of that in the daily headlines to merit adding more.
The second unfinished story, Eclipse, would have told the story of the breakaway and independence of Mars and Venus, followed by ‘the cessation of interplanetary travel.’ It’s parallels with the American Revolution and the global breakup of colonialism is deliberate. Heinlein said that it would probably never get written because he had since written two novels following similar themes, not bound by the restrictions of a Future History.
Lastly, The Stone Pillow would have been about the growth of an underground counterculture leading up to the Second American Revolution. Like The Sound of his Wings, it was felt by Heinlein to be too downbeat to be worth pursuing further, although there are clearly elements of this in ‘If This Goes On…’ and Coventry.
All of these are intriguing ideas, but I do feel that Heinlein may have been right not to develop them more.
So: in summary, how do these stories hold up? Although the stories were first published in 1939-40, they were, of course, not easily available to reread until this collection was published in 1953, with expansion and revision. How does this collection fit in context? Well, 1953 was also the year of Starman Jones and the collection Assignment in Eternity, (containing the four novellas Gulf (1949), Elsewhen (1941), Lost Legacy (1941) and Jerry Was A Man (1947)) before The Star Beast in 1954).
Of the three collections that make up the history, this is perhaps the weakest of the three, although strangely, it is the biggest. Revolt in 2100 is worth reading just for the first novella alone, although Heinlein’s comments at the end intriguingly fill in some of the gaps. (I have also noted that For Us, the Living, Heinlein’s first novel published after his death, also mentions Scudder, so have added that to my reading list, as perhaps re-reading the Future History’s last hurrah, Methuselah’s Children.)
In short, then, are these stories worth reading? Whilst they are undoubtedly “of a time”, they do have their merits and their issues. These stories, compared with the later material, do show less complexity and style, but they are noticeably showing the writing voice that the author was cultivating, even in those early years.
Despite the naivety, perhaps more importantly they show less of the elements that Heinlein’s critics are unhappy with in his later work. They are worth reading, if not only to show how important Heinlein was in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Of all the work written by RAH, the Future History series exhibit the author’s strengths, with less of the weaknesses. (As an example, compare this with I Will Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love or To Sail the Sunset.) For all of their issues, if you want a flavour of the author’s best, I would steer you more towards this early work than the later ones.
bobuva's review against another edition
4.0
Good selection of early stories considered part of the Future History series. These stories were helpful in laying some background for my later reading of Methuselah's Children. Highly recommended.
psteve's review against another edition
4.0
I don't know how long it's been since I read this book, but it's been many years, probably a good 50, since I think I read it in Jr High. Still, there's a lot I remembered of it, and it holds up today much better than I expected. The long story, "If This Goes On..." previously thought to be Heinlein's first novel, deals with a religious tyranny in the US and a revolution against it. The tyranny felt not unlike The Handmaid's Tale. The main character's distrust and desire to revolt against the government grows out of his infatuation with a young virgin who is pledged to be of of The Prophet's many mistresses. The main character (of course named "Lyle") is not really too bright, as he has to have many things explained to him, though part of that might be just Heinlein's way of doing expository lumps. I noted that the Christianity the tyranny uses is not necessarily a Christianity at all, as Heinlein keeps the religious references somewhat vague, and as the revolution grows, it includes members of sects such as Catholicism and Mormonism. The one thing that's pretty unique in this story is the way the revolutionary group borrows from such things as Freemasonry, the whole thing is kind of run like a lodge. A very entertaining novel, though sometimes it does bog down in the weeds.
The story Coventry is about some people who rebel in a way against the society produced by that revolution. Lots of good stuff in here, but basically it's pretty slim. The final story, Misfit, is at a target, it's misfit -- Libby, of course -- has remarkable mathematic abilities that set him apart from everyone else on a ship construction a station on an asteroid.
Generally, a lot of early Heinlein has been disappointing to me as I re-read it spottily, but this book worked very well, and I see why I liked it when I was in Jr. High.
The story Coventry is about some people who rebel in a way against the society produced by that revolution. Lots of good stuff in here, but basically it's pretty slim. The final story, Misfit, is at a target, it's misfit -- Libby, of course -- has remarkable mathematic abilities that set him apart from everyone else on a ship construction a station on an asteroid.
Generally, a lot of early Heinlein has been disappointing to me as I re-read it spottily, but this book worked very well, and I see why I liked it when I was in Jr. High.
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Heinlein, Robert A. Revolt in 2100. 1953. Baen, 1981.
Revolt in 2100 began as separately published magazine pieces—a novella, “If This Goes On--,” and shorter pieces, “Coventry” and “Misfit”— written at the outset of the second world war. In the early 1950s, the stories were expanded and joined with a short outline of Heinlein’s future history. In 1939-40, Heinlein seems to have been worried that religious fundamentalism with a charismatic tyrant could lead the United States into its own form of homespun fascism. In putting the book together, he shifts some of the focus to a distrust of a high-tech nanny state and of most of the alternatives to it. In the original version of “If This Goes On--,” he sent his hero back into civilian life after the despot was overthrown. The expanded novella has a more open-ended conclusion. “Coventry” in context seems like a sequel to it, in which the second American Revolution has produced its own kind of mind control, although it may be better than alternatives produced in the gulag. “The Misfit” is more optimistic—mathematical genius and engineering skill may get us to \the stars where other options can be tried. The book is not Heinlein at his best, but it remains readable, if you can overlook the novella’s similarity to Margaret Atwood’s much better take on religious tyranny in The Handmaid’s Tale.
Revolt in 2100 began as separately published magazine pieces—a novella, “If This Goes On--,” and shorter pieces, “Coventry” and “Misfit”— written at the outset of the second world war. In the early 1950s, the stories were expanded and joined with a short outline of Heinlein’s future history. In 1939-40, Heinlein seems to have been worried that religious fundamentalism with a charismatic tyrant could lead the United States into its own form of homespun fascism. In putting the book together, he shifts some of the focus to a distrust of a high-tech nanny state and of most of the alternatives to it. In the original version of “If This Goes On--,” he sent his hero back into civilian life after the despot was overthrown. The expanded novella has a more open-ended conclusion. “Coventry” in context seems like a sequel to it, in which the second American Revolution has produced its own kind of mind control, although it may be better than alternatives produced in the gulag. “The Misfit” is more optimistic—mathematical genius and engineering skill may get us to \the stars where other options can be tried. The book is not Heinlein at his best, but it remains readable, if you can overlook the novella’s similarity to Margaret Atwood’s much better take on religious tyranny in The Handmaid’s Tale.
ratbaggy's review against another edition
3.0
Early Heinlein from 1940, collected and published in 1952 with some edits. The longest story "If This Goes On" is novel length. These stories were the beginning of the future history series. "If this goes on" is of main interest here, detailing the US as it descends into a dictatorship/theocracy. Lots of interesting comments on religion taking over government. Ideas that don't seem out of place in today's world. I also found it interesting that a conversation in the book has one character giving another a hard time for smoking and mentions lung cancer. Recommended for you Heinlein fans.