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A review by mpetruce
Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein
3.0
One of the other reviewers on here said it pretty well: Heinlein is just too darn readable, even if you can't get past some of his themes and attitudes. So even the long boring crap about supermen saving all us others who are too dumb to take care of ourselves is tolerable for a while longer than expected.
A word first about Bronson Pinchot as a narrator: Outstanding. Especially for Heinlein. He reads the characters as they sound in my head. He sounds older now, too, because he is, of course. And certainly he wasn't going to sound like Balki or Serge, but he really does read well. Extra star.
Heinlein fans and Ayn Rand acolytes will likely enjoy the first story. The Rand folks might start to like the third story, where people who have trained themselves to be exceptional retreat to a Galt's Gulch of sorts within Mt. Shasta, at least until the altruistic stuff starts (this story riffs of the old 'What if Mark Twain was an alien theme. He's not, no one is, but he is exceptional, despite not appearing in the story). I have to admit, Heinlein pulled a fast one on me by diverging from his usual benevolent dictatorship of the super-powered and just writing about people who simply act out of benevolence (though they are super-powered).
The usual pulp-era sexist attitudes on display here, of course, but the female major characters give as good as they get with plenty of sass and brass, for the most part, though unfortunately in the end they seem to want to just get married, though to be fair, they marry someone who is just as exceptional and deserves them and the matches seem more like partnerships, more or less equal, or at least containing mutual respect. The exception is Mrs. Van Vogel in the final story, "Jerry Was A Man," who is already married and very wealthy and has all the moxie to move the story forward despite her useless husband who clearly does not deserve her.
A word first about Bronson Pinchot as a narrator: Outstanding. Especially for Heinlein. He reads the characters as they sound in my head. He sounds older now, too, because he is, of course. And certainly he wasn't going to sound like Balki or Serge, but he really does read well. Extra star.
Heinlein fans and Ayn Rand acolytes will likely enjoy the first story. The Rand folks might start to like the third story, where people who have trained themselves to be exceptional retreat to a Galt's Gulch of sorts within Mt. Shasta, at least until the altruistic stuff starts (this story riffs of the old 'What if Mark Twain was an alien theme. He's not, no one is, but he is exceptional, despite not appearing in the story). I have to admit, Heinlein pulled a fast one on me by diverging from his usual benevolent dictatorship of the super-powered and just writing about people who simply act out of benevolence (though they are super-powered).
The usual pulp-era sexist attitudes on display here, of course, but the female major characters give as good as they get with plenty of sass and brass, for the most part, though unfortunately in the end they seem to want to just get married, though to be fair, they marry someone who is just as exceptional and deserves them and the matches seem more like partnerships, more or less equal, or at least containing mutual respect. The exception is Mrs. Van Vogel in the final story, "Jerry Was A Man," who is already married and very wealthy and has all the moxie to move the story forward despite her useless husband who clearly does not deserve her.