Glory Road (Robert A. Heinlein)

[Rob Lister]

I just re-read this. I found it at a yard salel for a quarter. I first read it as a teen. I enjoyed it then but not as much as I enjoyed it as an adult. The irony of the book completely escaped my young senses, but not not my adult ones.

Just wondering if anyone else has, as an adult v teen, re-read this book.

I also got Farnham's Freehold for another quarter, but I haven't yet re-read that one.

 

[Mark]

I just re-read this. I found it at a yard salel for a quarter. I first read it as a teen. I enjoyed it then but not as much as I enjoyed it as an adult. The irony of the book completely escaped my young senses, but not not my adult ones.

Just wondering if anyone else has, as an adult v teen, re-read this book.

I also got Farnham's Freehold for another quarter, but I haven't yet re-read that one.

I love Robert Heinlein...but these two books (esp. FF) have always seemed very weak to me (possibly his only weak efforts!). According to his published letters, he wrote FF in 25 days. It shows.

 

[rwguinn]

I just re-read this. I found it at a yard salel for a quarter. I first read it as a teen. I enjoyed it then but not as much as I enjoyed it as an adult. The irony of the book completely escaped my young senses, but not not my adult ones.

Just wondering if anyone else has, as an adult v teen, re-read this book.

I also got Farnham's Freehold for another quarter, but I haven't yet re-read that one.

Yep- And I loved the way he tied it to the Lazarus Long future history series in some of his last ("soft-core porn") novels..."The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" and "To Sail beyond the Sunset"
Farnham's Freehold" is severely racist, IMHO--and although I read it a long time ago, I simply find it unreadable today.

 

[Rob Lister]

Farnham's Freehold" is severely racist, IMHO--and although I read it a long time ago, I simply find it unreadable today.

I've yet to re-read that one but even as a teen I didn't take it as racist at all -- in fact, it was more a testimony to anti-racism than anything else. I shall re-read it and report back.

 

[Beerina]

I love Robert Heinlein...but these two books (esp. FF) have always seemed very weak to me (possibly his only weak efforts!). According to his published letters, he wrote FF in 25 days. It shows.

He also took a lot of ◊◊◊◊ for it since it takes place in the far future where race relations have reversed.

 

[Hutch]

I love Glory Road; but never have been able to finish Farnham's Freehold.

Shouldn't this be in the Literature subforum?

 

[luchog]

I've yet to re-read that one but even as a teen I didn't take it as racist at all -- in fact, it was more a testimony to anti-racism than anything else. I shall re-read it and report back.

That's exactly the same feeling I got from them. The reversal of the race relations merely goes to point out the irrationality and ultimate purility of racism.

Personally, I am a huge fan of Heinlein; there are only two authors that have had as big an influence on me. However, I found Glory Road to be a bit too close to adolescent fantasy, and Friday was almost unreadable. There's another I tried to read recently, that I also found to be not worth my time, but i can't recall what it was. After Stranger in a Strange Land, his output became inconsistent, and increasingly poor. Some excellent stuff, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; but also some truly bad stuff, like Job: a Comedy of Justice.

 

[Rob Lister]

That's exactly the same feeling I got from them. The reversal of the race relations merely goes to point out the irrationality and ultimate purility of racism.

Personally, I am a huge fan of Heinlein; there are only two authors that have had as big an influence on me. However, I found Glory Road to be a bit too close to adolescent fantasy, and Friday was almost unreadable. There's another I tried to read recently, that I also found to be not worth my time, but i can't recall what it was. After Stranger in a Strange Land, his output became inconsistent, and increasingly poor. Some excellent stuff, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; but also some truly bad stuff, like Job: a Comedy of Justice.

Job took an already skeptical eye toward religion to be enjoyable. It hit too close to emotional home too often for all but the truely agnostic to not dispise at least to some extent.

That said, It was Heinlein's earlier work that was the best, not his latter works. I think Time Enough for Love was his last great novel...the rest he was (and he all but addmitted it in Grumbles From the Grave) just wordsmithing...he was paid by the word.

Glory Road was a fantasy, Heinlein's one and only, I think. It was also the only fantasy book that I've ever really enjoyed...certainly the only one I've ever read twice (now).

The Moon is a Harsh...Citizen of the Galaxy...have spacesuit will travel...these were Heinlein at his best: juvie books but very 'molding'.

 

[Rob Lister]

I love Glory Road; but never have been able to finish Farnham's Freehold.

Shouldn't this be in the Literature subforum?

Yea, but I didn't know how to post there. It's like you need special permission.

Plus, you can't say Heinlein without raising politics.

 

[Beerina]

That's exactly the same feeling I got from them. The reversal of the race relations merely goes to point out the irrationality and ultimate purility of racism.

Personally, I am a huge fan of Heinlein; there are only two authors that have had as big an influence on me. However, I found Glory Road to be a bit too close to adolescent fantasy, and Friday was almost unreadable. There's another I tried to read recently, that I also found to be not worth my time, but i can't recall what it was. After Stranger in a Strange Land, his output became inconsistent, and increasingly poor. Some excellent stuff, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; but also some truly bad stuff, like Job: a Comedy of Justice.

Stranger In A Strange Land is to novels what Full Metal Jacket is to movies. Two books, the first half of which is absolutely spectacular and the second half of which is good, but definitely loses something.

Mercifully, the "first half" of Stranger is actually about the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the book, all before Michael turns into some sixties hippie.

BTW, the "director's cut" of Stranger came out a few years back, wherein Heinlein's wife released the original version submitted for publishing, which was then severely cut back in size. It had been awhile since I had originally read it, and the additional 70,000 words I couldn't tell what was new (to me) and what wasn't.

 

[Beerina]

Farnham's Freehold.

My old paperback had a painting of a guy and woman seemingly floating, with the guy holding a baby. It is in fact the very end, when they go back to the present, and fall down a few feet.

More interesting to me than the race relations were that this book probably pissed off any middle aged woman who read it, since the main character unloads his ever fattening freeloader wife for a young piece of @$$ (who, true to Heinlein tradition, is also a highly intelligent, witty, freedom-lovin' gal.)

 

[Mark]

He also took a lot of ◊◊◊◊ for it since it takes place in the far future where race relations have reversed.

For me, the main problem with the book was it was so heavy handed as to be cartoonish. From the emasculating of the one character to the idiotic race viewpoints you mentioned, it just reads like an amateurish first novel; certainly it's not up to the the level of such a master story teller.

 

[CriticalThanking]

Of all the Heinlein I like - and those that I dislike, I found the most moving to be the stories between the short stories in a collection called The Past Through Tomorrow. They center around the character who helps develop space travel but never gets to go himself for some reason or another (I won't spoil anything for those who have not read it). I found it incredibly powerful.

As for politics, I found Starship Troopers to have the most political commentary per page of any of his books.

I also recently read For Us The Living. Don't waste your time unless you are interested in seeing some of his themes in an early, not-that-well written form. It is not a terrible book, but it is easy to see why it was rejected by publishers. Almost every chapter is a different theme that gets a full treatment as a separate book later in his career.

CT