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The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag Mass Market Paperback – March 1, 1989
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- Print length214 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAce
- Publication dateMarch 1, 1989
- Dimensions4.25 x 1 x 7 inches
- ISBN-100441854575
- ISBN-13978-0441854578
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Product details
- Publisher : Ace (March 1, 1989)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 214 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0441854575
- ISBN-13 : 978-0441854578
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.25 x 1 x 7 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,177,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #53,229 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #142,183 in Science Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Robert Heinlein was an American novelist and the grand master of science fiction in the twentieth century. Often called 'the dean of science fiction writers', he is one of the most popular, influential and controversial authors of 'hard science fiction'.
Over the course of his long career he won numerous awards and wrote 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections, many of which have cemented their place in history as science fiction classics, including STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and the beloved STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.
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I do want to mention that the Kindle version consists of just this one short story. When this was published in paperback, it was accompanied by five or six other stories & it's a little disappointing that this is being published solo. Hopefully, the other stories from the original collection will appear in Kindle editions sometime in the future--I want to read them on my Kindle too! But if you're wondering if this edition contains anything other than "Hoag", it doesn't. I'm not complaining, but wanted to let potential buyers know that this was different from the paperback edition.
2. Long review:
2.1. What I liked: Heinlein's name. The line level writing.
Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park? Walk in the park trying to be a scary roller coaster.
2.2. What I did not like: The nebulous conclusion. The ludicrous cover.
2.3. Who I think is the audience: Serious RAH fans. Rod Serling's Night Gallery fans.
2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read? No. No blood, no violence, no foul language; but the story does not resolve its issues in a way that is satisfying to children. I think of it as Little Red Riding Hood had that story ended with "What big teeth you have."
2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book? No, but on the basis of reading RAH's other works, I shall.
2.6. The plot in a nutshell: Read en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/ The_Unpleasant_Profession_of_Jonathan_Hoag#Plot_summary
2.7. Other:
First, I am a big fan of RAH and his works. Big fan.
I heard about The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag many years ago and searched for it without success. When I found it as an ebook on Amazon, I bought it immediately.
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag is a novella, not a novel (130 pages = 32,500 words). It is not science fiction; it is fantasy. Not even science fantasy like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. If you ever read RAH's Magic, Inc., it is in that vein. RAH's version of fantasy. Dark and not promising.
RAH published his beloved science fiction under his own name and pseudonyms. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag is the only story he published under the pseudonym John Riverside. RAH published in second-tier markets under the pseudonym Lyle Monroe so as not to tarnish the brand of Robert A Heinlein. That he chose another one-off pseudonym for The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag should tell you something.
RAH did the mechanics well even when the story was weak. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag is a weak story with good mechanics.
YMMV.
Overall, I must say that the book was enjoyable and thought provoking and I certainly recommend it to other readers. Give it a try and remember, if it is a little slow at the beginning, be patient, for as you continute to read, you will get caught up with the author's tale and soon you will really want to know what is Mr. Hoag's profession.
For anyone who has never read it... it is a bit of a mystery, a little thriller, a lot of innuendo (as is normal for Heinlein), with a surprise at the end. Worth the trip!
Top reviews from other countries
This short novel was written for Unknown, John Campbell's short-lived fantasy magazine, and Heinlein went off to war work soon after so there was no opportunity to follow it up.
Jonathan Hoag doesn't know what he does during the day and a visit to a doctor to check what is under his dirty fingernails only gets him thrown out in disgust. The Randalls, a married couple of private investigators, are approached and paid to track his profession down. This doesn't go well and the Randalls are soon in trouble with a bunch of supernatural villains (Straight out of Neil Gaiman, fifty years before his time.) The ending sorts it all out and contains Heinlein's best ever joke - Hoag's profession.
This is a classic in a number of ways. The main plot denouement is one of the first examples of its kind. The main characters are a mature married couple and clearly have sex - something usually eliminated by Campbell so it needed to be sneaked in, and the hard-boiled prose in a contemporary setting is excellent.
I read this first about fifty years ago and didn't like the plot outcome,frankly it scared me. I missed the elegance of the writing and certainly failed to see the innovations in his plotting. It stands up as one of the best, if neglected, fantasy novels of its time.
The other really note-worthy story here is '...All you zombies', one of the author's seminal time travel stories which, with his other classic 'By his bootstraps' (not in this collection but worth looking out for), set many of the basic rules for future stories of this type.
The others are still worth savouring as they give a clue to the range of which Heinlein was capable in his early writing. The spare, savagely edited prose is a hallmark of this early period before his more discursive and, some would say, self-indulgent style that can be seen in much of his later period writing.
This collection is a fitting tribute to a great writer written during what many believe to be near to his imaginative peak.








