The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Rating:
Summary: Better than you've heard, but don't start with it
Review: This isn't by any means Robert Heinlein's finest work, and I highly recommend _not_ reading it as one of your first few Heinleins. But you'll want to get around to it eventually, because (a) you should read it before you read the marvelous _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_, and (b) it's really not that bad.

Oh, you have to be really into Heinlein in order to appreciate it. As in _Friday_, the cool intrigue at the beginning peters out partway through and never quite comes back. (It does get resolved to a degree at the end, but in my view not very satisfactorily.) So you have to be prepared to enjoy a few hundred pages of character interaction and dialogue.

If you like the way Heinlein handles such things, you'll like this; otherwise not. Me, I like Col. Colin Campbell a.k.a. Richard Ames, and I like Gwen Novak, so I enjoy their company (and their arguments, and their lectures).

Some readers have had misgivings about the ending, but I don't mind it; besides, if you have trouble figuring out what happened, you'll find out in _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_. The real problem here is that the first two-thirds of the novel is two-thirds of a good novel, the last third is one-third of a good novel, but they're the good parts of two different novels.

You'll see what I mean if/when you read it; I can't explain it any further without giving things away. But do read it if you like Heinlein; it's better than you've heard.

Rating:
Summary: An involved and interresting read for the Heinlein Fan
Review: I came here and read the reviews before undertaking this book and I decided to take the suggestions of a few of the reviewers here and put aside this book for a while to read some others before this one. I'm very glad I did so as the book would have been totally confusing without having read the previous works. So, a list of books you should read before this one: Time Enough for Love, Methusla's Children, Glory Road, and The Number of the Beast. Without reading these books the second half of the book will make no sense and the new charachters coming in will serve to confuse you.

Now, that out of the way...this book is an excellent adventure tale as the protoganist is pulled and bounced around by forces outside his control and byond his understanding. However, he soon finds himself leaning of the reasons behind his troubles and gets recruted by none other than Lazurus Long, to work as a special agent on a rescue mission.

All in all an enjoyable book, and I can't wait to read the next book "To Sail Byond the Sunset"

Rating:
Summary: A Regrettable Read
Review: There are very few books among the 1000+ I have read that I regret reading. This book is one of them.

First, the "witty banter" style of conversation is overdone to the point of invoking feelings of nausea within the first ten pages. Second, the pace is wildly off--a hundred pages could go by with little happening and then in the next few pages so much happens (with little explanation) the reader is left confused and reeling.

The story starts out interesting, then gets a bit dull (quite a chore at that point to keep reading as one must endure the ridiculously florid dialogue.) A little before the middle, it suddenly gets very interesting. If the whole book were like this part of the story, it would be a masterpiece. Unfortunately this lasts only a few pages and then the story gets slower and slower over the second half of the book, and right before the end a lot of new characters are brought in to the story for no apparent reason. Then the climax of the story is skipped, that is, left out; and the last few pages give a murky, unclear view of what happened in the missing climax, making clear only the point that it ended in tragedy.

The book left me feeling cheated.

On the other hand, the attempt was very original, and for that I applaud Mr. Heinlein. It's easy enough to repackage old formulas, coming up with a new approach takes artistic ability and guts; therefore I give it two stars.

If you decide to read this book, I hope you see this review, or other reviews which have said similar things, so that you can be prepared to read it with the proper attitude: Approach it as a study of an interesting literary experiment, and try not to become emotionally involved in it.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this unless....
Review: It's too bad that the publishers couldn't put a disclaimer on the cover of this book. I just read a reviewer that said he read 'Starship Troopers' and thought he'd try another Heinlein because he liked Starship. What a shame. To appreciate Heinlein a reader must start at the beginning of his career (or near it) and then move on.
I am glad the movie sparked so much interest in Heinlein, he remains the greatest sci fi writer of all time. The only way to win an arguement that he isn't the best would be to argue that he really didn't write sci fi in the first place but rather a weird combination of social/polictical/religeous adventure stories that span past/present and future.
I loved this book. Every bit, even the confusion. I'll admit I wasn't happy with the ending, but that is only because I wanted it to end differently, not because it was poorly written.

BUT, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, either you love Heinlien already and you will read this, or you should start elsewhere and fall in love with his work for what it is.

Rating:
Summary: A Regrettable Read
Review: There are very few books among the 1000+ I have read that I regret reading. This book is one of them.

First, the "witty banter" style of conversation is overdone to the point of invoking feelings of nausea within the first ten pages. Second, the pace is wildly off--a hundred pages could go by with little happening and then in the next few pages so much happens (with little explanation) the reader is left confused and reeling.

The story starts out interesting, then gets a bit dull (quite a chore at that point to keep reading as one must endure the ridiculously florid dialogue.) A little before the middle, it suddenly gets very interesting. If the whole book were like this part of the story, it would be a masterpiece. Unfortunately this lasts only a few pages and then the story gets slower and slower over the second half of the book, and right before the end a lot of new characters are brought in to the story for no apparent reason. Then the climax of the story is skipped, that is, left out; and the last few pages give a murky, unclear view of what happened in the missing climax, making clear only the point that it ended in tragedy.

The book left me feeling cheated.

On the other hand, the attempt was very original, and for that I applaud Mr. Heinlein. It's easy enough to repackage old formulas, coming up with a new approach takes artistic ability and guts; therefore I give it two stars.

If you decide to read this book, I hope you see this review, or other reviews which have said similar things, so that you can be prepared to read it with the proper attitude: Approach it as a study of an interesting literary experiment, and try not to become emotionally involved in it.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book I've ever read
Review: I could not finish this book. In fact this is the only fiction novel I have ever not finished. I've read hundreds. It does start off interesting as other have said, but everything from the prose to the plot falls apart during the middle.

The banter with the main characters wife gets very old... Il just stop here and say I agree with every criticism writen before my "review" and would not recomend this book to my enemies.

Rating:
Summary: Bizarre
Review: I read a lot of science fiction, and I enjoy it very much, but I simply could not finish this book. I was thirty pages from the end, but I just had to put it down. I was just completely lost when the characters were picked up by that spaceship, and it just went downhill from there. I guess if you like Heinlein, go ahead and pick this one up, but otherwise, there are better selections that you could spend your time reading. I hope Mr. Heinlein enjoyed writing this book, because I didn't really enjoy reading it. Otherwise enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Heinlein
Review: I'm starting to have trouble understanding why I like the works of Robert A. Heinlein so much. They're certainly fun to read, with a prose style that is somewhere between Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut, but some of the lesser read works (such as this one) are so self-referencial that they're almost unreadable to anyone who hasn't read a specific book in the Heinlein cannon. Case in point--I just finished The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, but I haven't read Number of the Beast. I think that was a mistake.

Why? Ok. The first two-thirds of this book is basically a humorous detective story. The last third is where Heinlein starts preaching, using many old characters from his other classic science fiction novels. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the change in tone, combined with the few characters I did not recognize and the odd gimicks that didn't make any sense really brought my opinion of the book down a lot. From several hints at the end of the book, it seems that Number of the Beast would have cleared some of this up for me. Oh well.

But I still had a blast reading the novel (hence the four stars). The story is fast-paced and included just enough of Heinlein's politics, such as his strangely deferencial, yet somewhat insulting opinion of women and gays, to make me enjoy reading it. I think the more Heinlein I read, the more I "get it." And that's the basic problem with recommending the book. If you haven't read much of his other stuff (especially the future history stories, Time Enough For Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and (it seems) The Number of the Beast), don't attempt this one. Otherwise, you've obvisouly gotten the hang of Heinlein already, so you won't be dissapointed with The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible start followed by literary suicide
Review: The early to middle portions of Heinlein's novel were extremely entertaining with unbelieveably comical dialog. I even managed to be charmed by the more than somewhat confusing plot and blatant sloshing about of intentionally incomprehensible technology. The self-terminating mistake? A horrific cut and paste ending that was more closely resembling of the eratic "art" of an easily bored two year-old suffering from ADHD than a fitting end to a fantastic literary journey.

Rating:
Summary: Worse Science Fiction book Ever
Review: Anyone who watches the TV show, "The Simpsons" would understand the meaning in my title. The book has plot holes you could drive a truck through, and I honestly believe Heinlein WANTED to write the book in this fashion. There are several parts in the novel where he uses "tired" plot devices such as having a person killed just prior to them trying to tell you something or having a computer waking up to become setinent. The narrator, Colin Campbell, acknowledges that these are ridiculous plot devices.

I don't think Heinlein meant this as high art. I think he had fun writing it, and I certainly had fun reading it.

If at all possible, I would recommend listening to the audio version of the book before reading the text version. While there are distinct differences between the two, the audio version, in my opionion, was more enjoyable to experience.