Customer Reviews

Expanded Universe

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For those readers of Heinlein who have limited themselves to his Future History stories, his Lazarus Long saga, or perhaps his early Juveniles, Expanded Universe presents an interesting alternate view of Heinlein's writing including many stories not featured in other anthologies and a number of his nonfiction pieces as well.

"Solution Unsatisfactory" tells of an alternate ending to World War II where the US develops an intensely radioactive dust with selective half-life rather than the atomic bomb; its use on Germany and its parallel discovery by the Soviet Union bring the world into a Cold War many times worse than what the world truly experienced. In short, the balance of terror doctrine was and will always be a "solution unsatisfactory."

"PRAVDA Means TRUTH" is a short nonfiction piece on the dangers of a state-run media and its influence on the lives of citizens, based on true-life experiences Heinlein and his wife had while traveling to Russia at the same time Francis Gary Powers' U2 was brought down. Similarly, "Inside Intourist" tells of the Heinlein's experiences with the Soviet tourism agency (through which all travel had to be arranged). Contrary to some reviewers' comments, Heinlein never condescends upon the people of Russia and its former republics; he merely explains the dangers the people face from their oppressive government. He in fact often discusses how nicely the actual people of Russia treated him and his wife on their trip.

Many other stories and nonfiction pieces (some dated by their survivalist Cold War era themes) are included; another of interest is "No Bands Playing, No Flags Flying," which tells the slightly fictionalized tale of courage and TB treatments (which Heinlein himself underwent) in the pre-WW2 Navy. His survivalist pieces may seem dated or extremist today, yet for the cold war climate (and today's constant threat of terrorism), the message is still clear: those who are ready will survive catastrophes, and those who aren't may very well not.

Give this Heinlein anthology a chance; for those already versed in Heinlein's other works, Expanded Universe will offer a fresh look into the mind of one of science fiction's Grand Masters.

Have you ever wanted to go to Europe and just wander around? See what Europe really is? Have you ever gotten "accidentally" lost from the cheesy package tour of all the touristy sites and said, "Hey! I'm tired of looking at what someone else tells me to look at. I am tired of Captain- Happy-Your-Friendly-Tour-Guide! I am so SICK of trying to soak in this different culture and ending up in McDonald's for lunch! I am sick! Sick sick SICK!"

Have you ever done that and immediately regretted it?

"Hmmm..." you ponder, "perhaps there is a REASON for package tours."

If the above applies to you, do not buy this book, "Expanded Universe."

However, if you've been to Heinlein-ville many times and taken the package tours (Stranger In A Strange Land, Friday) and thought "What an interesting guy. Wonder what makes him go tick-tock?" then this book is the equivelent of "Europe On $5-a-Day."

Containing some of his earliest works, some works considered by publishers, "not fit for paper," and some personal papers with some fascinating insights, "Expanded Universe" is a must-have for anyone who has that common feeling that resembles personal acquaintance with the master of sci-fi. The writing style itself is not his best -- some is quite primitive (being early Heinlein). Some of the stuff, to be quite honest, I had to struggle through. But some of the stories were incredible, and in my opinion, too short.

A wonderful reference manual. If you truly LOVE Heinlein, then your collection is obviously not complete without it, and it makes a good bathroom reader (of which there are so few).

This is an superior collection of fiction and non-fiction. Two fiction and two non-fiction pieces deserve note.

"Solution Unsatisfactory" is probably the finest piece of prophecy in science fiction. The story, written in 1940, predicts the ending of WW II by the use of an atomic weapon and the start of a nuclear standoff shortly thereafter. He get the details wrong of course, the atomic weapon is radiated dust, the city Berlin, and the cold war is between Germany and the United States, but the foresight is uncanny.

"Blowups Happen", also written in 1940, shows the tension of working in a nuclear power plant and what happens when an accident happens. Any similarity between this story and three-mile island is purely coincidental.

I gave this book to a friend who had never read any science fiction and after reading it, she swore Heinlein was a time-traveler.

The two nonfiction pieces, "PRAVDA means TRUTH" and "Inside Intourist". Both pieces are taken from a trip Heinlein and his wife took to the Soviet Union in 1960. Heinlein's observations about life in the Soviet Union at that time are both entertaining and enlightening.

If you are a hard-core devotee of Robert A. Heinlein's literature (not a casual fan, or someone who thought that Stranger In A Strange Land was "pretty cool") then your bookshelf is essentially empty without this book. Out of the nearly 30 works collected in this volume, none are without merit. It starts out with Life-Line, as any RAH retrospective must, and also includes such early classics as Solution Unsatisfactory and Blowups Happen. However, the majority of the book are far lesser known works. Among these, those of note include a trio of non-fiction (and a couple of fictional) articles on the atomic bomb and it's consequences that Heinlein wrote after WWII. Other interesting stories include two chronicles of the Heinleins' trip to the USSR. Also of note are the predictions that RAH made for the future, and his rants on such subjects as education, politics, and religion. However, the part of the book that I enjoyed most were the forewards and afterwards that are strewn throughout the book. They often reveal a lot about the author's character (perhaps more than he intended) and occasionally show fascinating insights. Overall, I found the book to be very entertaining, funny (at times), and written in Heinlein's typical witty prose (even the non-fiction.) Absolutely essential for any major fan of the Dean's work.

When all is said and done, you can't help respecting Robert Heinlein. The man knew what he wanted to say, and by jiminy he went out there and said it... This book, along with "Grumbles from the Grave," probably cleaves closer to the heart of Heinlein's spirit than any three of his other books combined. It is a collection of short pieces: some nonfiction articles; others, slightly fictionalized accounts of very real political concerns. My favorite piece is "Solution Unsatisfactory," which was one of the earliest pieces in science fiction to deal so intelligently with the threat of nuclear war. Heinlein also includes a few accounts of trips that he and his wife made to the Soviet Union. They really tried hard to be open-eyed, open-minded observers of everything they saw. Things have changed in Russia since they were there, but it's worth reading just to sate one's appetite for Heinlein's distinctive voice. (For anyone interested in more up-to-date accounts of Russia, read anything by David Shipler.) Heinlein's time at Annapolis shows through in many of these pieces, as it does in virtually everything else he wrote. He seemed to have a very, very clear sense of America as a "country," or even as a "nation," as opposed to a "society." What I mean by this is that many of these pieces reflect a powerful understanding of the fundamental reality that America is a MILITARY entity, apart from being an economic juggernaut and a staunch promoter, on the international scene, of youth culture and our entertainment-based value system. Heinlein's military and political understanding is a disturbing one, but it is more securely grounded in serious, military realities than that of most authors writing today.

The pre-eminent concern in "Expanded Universe" is the threat of nuclear war. Heinlein, as anyone familiar with his writings will know, wrote firmly out of the Cold War tradition. "Solution Unsatisfactory" is the best example of this kind of thinking in this volume. Personally, I'd like to interject, I see absolutely no correlation whatsoever between the end of the Cold War and any putative decrease in the threat to mankind posed by nuclear weapons. I, for one, couldn't care less whether the dude aiming MIRV missiles at my kitchen speaks Russian, Arabic, Chinese, or, heck, even Navajo -- the point is that armed conflict will always exist, and now that nuclear weapons exist too, the clock is frankly ticking away the last seconds/hours/days/years/decades (decades? Let's hope so...) on mankind's time remaining on Earth.

For anyone who is genuinely disturbed by Heinlein's ideas, I want to make a few recommendations. Try to find a copy of "Nuclear Shelterist," by Walton McCarthy. It's out of print right now, but it's obviously worth trying to track down. Ask your friendly local librarian for help in finding it. Also -- if you can locate a copy of the British movie "Threads," you should see it. It's extremely frightening and graphic -- do NOT watch it with your kids in the house. I'm very serious about that. That said, it is an absolutely uncompromising overview of the currently accepted, likely aftermath of a nuclear war, extrapolated over a period of thirteen years after the war happens. It's horrifying enough that it might prompt you to get involved in some way. You might have to search a little to find the video -- not all video stores carry it. However, fifteen minutes of calling all the video stores in the yellow pages will probably be enough to track it down. Finally, I'd like to recommend "Hydroponic Home Food Gardens," by Howard Resh. If we ever have a nuclear war, indoor hydroponic gardens will be just about the only way of growing food successfully, and people who have them will have a VASTLY higher chance of surviving the worldwide economic chaos and food shortages which will definitely follow such a war. Whether you would actually be glad you survived is, of course, another question.

Well, I just wanted to make a little contribution, online, to the kind of concerns that Heinlein wrote about in "Expanded Universe." I like to think that he would have approved of my passing on those tips... Anyway, this book is fantastic. Buy it, please, and get copies for your friends. People need to be more aware of this stuff. I give this book seven hundred billion thumbs up.

This is a collection of Heinlein works, selected by RAH himself, including some fiction but mostly non-fiction works. For a serious RAH fan this gives an insight into his philosophies, character, life, pet peeves, and prejudicies. For someone not already familiar with, and a fan of, RAH this is definitely not for you.

Some of the pieces have been published elsewhere, others are only available in this volume. EXPANDED UNIVERSE is an updated (1980) version of THE WORLDS OF ROBERT A. HEINLEIN (1966) plus additions making this work about three times as long as the earlier volume.

The fiction pieces include: RAH's first published work LIFELINE;
BLOWUPS HAPPEN; SEARCHLIGHT which have been published elsewhere and SUCCESSFUL OPERATION; THEY DO IT WITH MIRROS; FREE MEN;NO BANDS PLAYING, NO FLAGS FLYING; SOLUTION UNSATISFACTORY; CLIFF AND THE CALORIES; A BATHROOM OF HER OWN; and NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON THE MOON which are more difficult to find. The fact that RAH chose to include these works is as significant to the serious fan as the works themselves. He also includes either a foreward or afterward, sometimes both highlighting what his motivation was for writing the piece, where it fell in his career and what he now thought about it's merits.

Even more telling that the fiction pieces are the non-fiction articles included. In these works Heinlein discusses his views on patriotism, the current state of American education, the likelihood (or desirablity) of surviving a nuclear war and various other topics. As always with Heinlein's work whether the you agree or disagree with his opinions Heinlein will force you to think.

Here's a pretty amusing quote from one of his story forewords:

"I had always planned to quit the writing business as soon as that mortgage was paid off. I had never had any literary ambitions, no training for it, no interest in it- backed into it by accident and stuck with it to pay off debt, I being always firmly resolved to quit the silly bus iness once I had my chart squared away."

One pretty awful quitter, apparently. :)

So, given he failed to quit, we finally end up with this book. It takes The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein and adds more, so actually Expanded Worlds, if you want to be techincal.

It reprints some stories, and some of the non-fiction from there, and adds several more of each.

The non-fiction contents ranges from Foreword type anecdotes as found in other books, and he isn't taking himself particularly seriously in these.

More serious are things like essays on atomic war, how to survive such a thing, editorials, articles and lectures on American-Soviet relations, and even the odd related rant.

Some of this obviously informed some of the story content - and he does explicitly point this out afterwards, particularly some of the stories about veterans.

If you were going to pick just one Heinlein book, this would be a good choice.

Expanded Universe : Life-Line - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Successful Operation - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Blowups Happen - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Solution Unsatisfactory - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : They Do It with Mirrors - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Free Men - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : No Bands Playing No Flags Flying - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : A Bathroom of Her Own - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : On the Slopes of Vesuvius - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Cliff and the Calories - Robert A. Heinlein
Expanded Universe : Searchlight - Robert A. Heinlein


"I can tell you when the Black Camel will kneel at your door."

3.5 out of 5


Leader theatre conditions.

3 out of 5


Rocket scientist atomic observational pressure.

3.5 out of 5


Dead as dust by dust democracy defense.

3 out of 5


"I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing."

Killer.

4 out of 5


Irradiating the Resistance resistance.

3.5 out of 5


Veteran treatment lacking.

3.5 out of 5


Veteran housing problem.

3.5 out of 5


Bomb guys.

3 out of 5


Lunar scouting.

2.5 out of 5


Puddin' uni diet.

2.5 out of 5


Find Blind Betsy.

3 out of 5

Its been a few years since I picked up a Heinlein but a few days ago I was going through some of the few thousand books that use more of my home than I do and found my old copy of Expanded Universe.
I got my start on Heinlein when I was about ten years old, and sometime between ten and fourteen I picked up EU and then shelved it because the essays were not the action adventure and daring-do of Glory Road, or Tunnel in the Sky. The politics, philosophy etc. were lost on me at the time. This time around things are different.
I've read some of the previous reviews of this work, and am frankly disappointed that people who claim to be Heinlein fans, to appreciate Heinlein, would be turned off by this collection. Heinlein was always more than the stories. He often made very little attempt to veil the personal philosophy and politics he put into his works, so it strikes me that any "Heinlein fan" who is turned off by this collection isn't, actually, a Heinlein fan as much as a fan of a good story (not that there is anything wrong with that... it just sells the old man a bit short).
Not to say that RAH's politics are entirely my own. In this day and age I disagree with his ideas on nuclear policy greatly, however I understand where he was coming from. In a time when the threat of nuclear attack was a constant fact of life, and when one of the few reliable measures to prevent it was, simply, a matched set of H-Bombs on both sides that quietly said "No one will win, lets not do this at all", RAH was right.
He is still right today about patriotism and serving ones country in some capacity. The nation, the tribe, needs the service and support of its members to continue, there is no way around this no matter how many rationalizations can be offered up by the self-serving and the selfish.

Expanded Universe is a fantastic collection of fiction and non-fiction that gives the reader not only an insight into the writer, but a lot to think about. It gives the intelligent reader a window into the past, the reality, fears and hopes of a different time, and yet a handle on the unchanging facts and realities of the human condition. I have not enjoyed anything in my life as much as I enjoyed a quiet late afternoon sitting on my front porch smoking a cigar and reading from Expanded Universe.
Give the poltroons their due consideration and then buy a copy anyway - If you are an intelligent human you should be able to find something in the works that will delight, surprise, intrigue and perhaps even educate you.

"Expanded Universe" is a collection of fiction and non-fiction by Robert Heinlein. Some of the other reviewers have told you enough of the subject matter.

If you are not a hard core fan of Robert Heinlein, you will have some hard going in getting this thing read. I almost rated it lower, but there are some stories here that give unique insights into who Heinlein was and some fiction that is very, very, good. But, this book is not for a casual reader.

Also, it presents a very truthful look inside Russia during the Cold War. I spent more than 40 years of my life living through the Cold War. It was an aptly named period of time. Reading Heinlein's version of his trip reminds me, all too vividly, of those times.

Fair warning: Heinlein had some dark times in his head. This book does show Heinlein during one or two of such times.

However, if you want to read some Heinlein stories that are not available anywhere else or want to know more about this man, read this book. Personally, I enjoyed the book and was grateful for the insights on the man behind so many great novels.

Yet another work of art from Heinlein himself. I've read some other novels by him (Starship Troopers, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Red Planet) and this one is great! It's like driving through the brain of a mental patiant. With great works of sci fi and old stories.. It's fun to read over and over again.