Comments on: Review: All About the Future

By: Steven Harris

Steven Harris — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:15:53 +0000

So true what you’re saying about growing to appreciate the adult characters later on in life. I’ve read Heinlein for more years than I care to mention and have just finished a run through of the short stories and juvenile books (The Rolling Stones/Space Family Stone still my favourite of these). What struck me was the way many of the older characters are prototypes for later figures like Jubal Harshaw and ‘Time Enough for Love’ version Lazarus Long. And for anyone who thinks Heinlein’s not up to scratch with the theories like Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke, they need to read something like ‘Gulf’ to discover just how intelligent Robert Anson was. Am still learning from the guy, still completely caught up in his narratives, even though I know the stories back to front.

By: Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:48:58 +0000

Cheers Steven. Yes. Though the technology is the focus in this piece, you are absolutely right. From my own personal point of view, his ability to make me identify with the characters in his juvenile books when I was young was one of the major factors turning me on to SF in general. Even now, when I listen (I’m an audio-phile for most things) to those very books as an adult, I am constantly amazed by my inner child (a poor expression, but for lack of a better one) responding the the young protagonists in those tales even after all these years. The added bonus is that I can now fully enjoy and understand the ‘more mature’ point of view of his adult characters.
Thanks for that Steven!! Aaron.

By: Steven Harris

Steven Harris — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:19:16 +0000

The collection ‘The Worlds of Robert Heinlein’ contains an updated version of this introduction. R.A.H acknowledges that some of his predictions haven’t come to pass, some probably won’t come to pass and others are still possible. For me his predictions are less interesting than his capacity to capture the constancy of human character despite technological change.