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65 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
RAH, RAH, RAH - and Spider, October 10, 2006
This book, like many posthumous `collaborations' that are attempts to complete an unfinished work, has both good and bad things about it.
First, yes, Heinlein's touch is definitely evident, mainly in the basic story setting and its main characters. Clearly the outline and notes that Spider worked from defined these elements unambiguously, and anyone familiar with Heinlein's work will find much here that will evoke that feeling that so many of his YA books from the fifties had. The story is very definitely set in the `Future History' line, with references to Red Planet, If This Goes On, Coventry, Time for the Stars, Starman Jones, Space Cadet, and multiple other stories. Its protagonist is, at least at the start of this book, a rather typical Heinlein older teen, a young man who starts with no clear idea of what he wants from life, and while quite intelligent has a tendency to leap without fully considering all the consequences.
But it is also true that this is Spider writing, and as such it's told in Spider's voice, with his own very distinctive style, which includes his penchant for punning, and to some extent, mysticism, neither of which Heinlein would normally touch. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I've enjoyed many of Spider's other books, and his style normally complements his story material very well. But here I found some of this a little jarring, as it simply didn't match my expectation of how Heinlein's voice would have told this story. Not that Spider either should or could have really matched Heinlein's voice - any attempt to do so would have probably been a disaster.
The objections some others have raised about Spider inserting some commentary about current events into the Future History time line (as `The Terror Wars') I found was actually fairly well done, giving a more solid basis to the rise of Nehemiah Scudder than Heinlein ever did (though this was an area that Heinlein himself avoided, as too depressing to write about). Spider does manage to create characters that I could fully believe in, and they bear a strong resemblance to what these characters would have been like under Heinlein's pen, and this does much to keep this story highly readable and enjoyable.
But I found that the direction of the plot for about the last third of this book rather upsetting, as it plays havoc with the Future History as we have come to know and love it - and this area is pure Spider, for as stated in the afterword, Heinlein's notes were incomplete, and did not include an ending. The ending that is here has both a deus-ex-machina device (but one that Heinlein himself used in one of his other stories) and a clear path to a possible sequel, as clearly there is more story to tell, if Spider (and the Heinlein estate) would so desire.
I finished this book with very mixed feelings. Yes, it's another entry into the Future History corpus; yes, it's well written, engrossing, and enjoyable; but no, it's not Heinlein, and it branches in a direction well outside the known Future History, at the very least requiring another major branch in the World-as-Myth world view. But if Spider ever does write a sequel to this, I'll be there at the bookstore waiting to buy it when it comes in.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't expect Heinlein, but does have some redeeming features, September 20, 2006
First the bad news. According to the afterword, all Spider started with was 7 pages of notes (there were more, but any additional pages have been lost) and 14 3x5 cards with more notes. So the plot in broad terms is recognizably Heinleinesque, but he didn't have much to go on. But the real disappointment is that Spider's agent told him not to write the novel in a Heinlein style, but in his own. Understandable, sure. But it just doesn't feel like a Heinlein book (much less a Heinlein Juvenile, which the Publisher's Weekly semi-compares it to in their review). It has a fair amount of profanity, multiple drug references (soft, hard and alcohol) and sentences like "Damned souls condemned to yearn forever, and destroy all they touched, knowing it was pointless." As a Spider Robinson book it's OK, but he's really pushing it to include RAH's name on it (no matter how lovingly he tried to do him justice).
OK, now onto the good parts. Throughout the first, oh, half of the book (but then it peters out), Spider peppers the story liberally with RAH allusions. For example: The story starts with Joel (the hero) and Jinny (as in Mrs. Ginny Heinlein?) dancing. Afterwards, she says, "After dancing like that ... a couple really ought to get married". Sound familiar? It should. The Number of the Beast (with its own ton of allusions) starts the same way -- "After a tango like that the couple ought to get married." In both books they go to (Jinny's home) which "isn't anywhere" and (Deety's/Jake's cabin) "It's ... a nowhere place." And there are many, many more. If you're like me and have read and re-read Heinlein's works so often you've practically got them memorized, you'll have fun picking out the references. Trivia question: In Variable Star, on several occasions people use the phrase "Crave pardon." Where else in the RAH canon is this phrase used?
And did I mention a character named Solomon Short? (Presumably used by permission of David Gerrold.)
Side comment -- Kathleen Moore complains that the book's resolution is based on a deus ex machina. Well, so it is. Which is ironic, because it's essentially the same deus ex machina used at the end of Time for the Stars that she mentions. So in a way that's another allusion. And while, yes, there is a lot of Time for the Stars in this novel, it doesn't take much thought to realize that in many ways, Variable Star is closest, structurally, to The Door Into Summer.
So the bottom line is that I gave this only 3 stars. If I'd read it without knowing the author(s), this is probably how I'd rate it. Which is a shame. I wish it had been better.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Heinlein Only By Courtesy, January 9, 2007
Anyone buying this book in the hope that even a Heinlein outline must result in a half decent novel, as I did, will be deeply dissapointed.
While I have always enjoyed Robinsons' Callahans stories, and I am eternally in his debt for his eloquent defending of Heinlein; this novel simply does not feel nor read like any form of Heinlein. Now I know that Robinson has stated clearly that he didn't try to write in the style of Heinlein,(a wise decision!), and as a Robinson novel this is sort of OK, if a bit self consciously hip for my taste, but Heinleins' name should not be on the cover.
-and the rather convenient ending seems a direct pinch from Time For The Stars. Maybe it was meant as homage, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
I would like there to be more new Heinlein as much as the next person, but if there truly isn't any, then please,let his work stand as it is.
He gave us so very much. Let it be enough.
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