The Menace From Earth

Rating:
Summary: Robert Heinlein Still Speaks to Us!
Review: Despite a decade since the death of Robert A. Heinlein, his fiction remains vibrant and engaging! Heinlein's brave new worlds which examined both social and scientific change, are still the high standard by which I judge a lot of today's SF. It's wonderful to see a few publishers keeping RAH in print. "Menace from Earth," like other new editions of Heinlein's works, are welcome addition to any SF fan's library. More importantly, this book supports my personal belief that Heinlein is the most obvious heir to H.G. Wells and should be placed high in the firmament of the pantheon of the 20th century's great visionary and imaginative thinkers!

Rating:
Summary: Two Great Stories and Several Decent Ones
Review: Out of the handful of stories in this book there are two classics that make it a must-read for any Heinlein fan. Most notably is By His Bootstraps, one of Heinlein's most famous shorts, and quite possibly THE definitive fiction on the time travel paradox. This is the grandfather of many subsequent time travel stories and plots, it's told quite cleverly and has a highly complicated plot that must have taken Heinlein quite a while to fathom. It's a must read for any SF fan. The other must-read in this collection is Goldfish Bowl. A story so shocking in it's implications, for Heinlein, that it took him some major convincing to get John W. Campbell, Jr. to publish it in Astounding. It's a notably different take on the way that we usually see aliens treat human beings in science fiction. The rest of the stories in this collection vary from worthwhile but hardly earth-shattering (The Year of the Jackpot, the title story), to inconsequential (Sky Lift, Columbus Was A Dope, Water Is For Washing.) Still, a Heinlein fan should pick this up, though it's not really a book you should start with if you're new to the author.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag From Heinlein
Review: There are no truly bad stories in this collection though the title story features annoying teenagers in an annoying romantic plot. The teenagers annoy with their brilliance, and the plot annoys with its story of the girl narrator discovering, after the introduction of a beautiful Earth woman, that her boy friend is really her boyfriend. Still, you get a travelogue of Luna City, possibly the first example in science fiction of the sport of human-powered flight in low gravity, and another of Heinlein's Future History tales.

Not at all annoying, in fact a downright classic, "By His Bootstraps" is the grandfather of all those time travel stories where the protagonist crosses his own lifepath at different points to make a plot so confusing you need a diagram to sum it up. This one also features alien ruins and a changed humanity 30,000 years in the future.

"The Year of the Jackpot" is a tale about the cyclical nature of all sorts of natural and social phenomena from earthquakes to public nudity to ufo sightings to religious fervor and a whole lot more. Its mathematician hero notes that all the cycles will bottom out at the same time, and he decides to take his girlfriend and head for the hills to await the collapse of civilization. It's a fun story and distinguished by a shortage of the can-do spirit of much of Heinlein's work.

On the minor side are three stories. "Columbus Was a Dope" is a short, ironic tale about the sorts who are driven to explore and those that mock that drive. "Sky Lift" is about a space mission at very high gs to take emergency vaccine to an outpost on Pluto. "Project Nightmare" follows the efforts of a team of American psychics to stop a Soviet blackmail attempt that has concealed nukes in US cities.

The Gulf of California flooding the Imperial Valley after an earthquake is the engaging premise of "Water Is for Washing".

Stylistically, "Goldfish Bowl", one of the strongest and oddest stories in the collection, is typical Heinlein, but the plot and ideas reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft. Investigating the appearance of two permanent waterspouts, two scientists are captured by mysterious entities whose relation to us is not at all comforting.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag From Heinlein
Review: There are no truly bad stories in this collection though the title story features annoying teenagers in an annoying romantic plot. The teenagers annoy with their brilliance, and the plot annoys with its story of the girl narrator discovering, after the introduction of a beautiful Earth woman, that her boy friend is really her boyfriend. Still, you get a travelogue of Luna City, possibly the first example in science fiction of the sport of human-powered flight in low gravity, and another of Heinlein's Future History tales.

Not at all annoying, in fact a downright classic, "By His Bootstraps" is the grandfather of all those time travel stories where the protagonist crosses his own lifepath at different points to make a plot so confusing you need a diagram to sum it up. This one also features alien ruins and a changed humanity 30,000 years in the future.

"The Year of the Jackpot" is a tale about the cyclical nature of all sorts of natural and social phenomena from earthquakes to public nudity to ufo sightings to religious fervor and a whole lot more. Its mathematician hero notes that all the cycles will bottom out at the same time, and he decides to take his girlfriend and head for the hills to await the collapse of civilization. It's a fun story and distinguished by a shortage of the can-do spirit of much of Heinlein's work.

On the minor side are three stories. "Columbus Was a Dope" is a short, ironic tale about the sorts who are driven to explore and those that mock that drive. "Sky Lift" is about a space mission at very high gs to take emergency vaccine to an outpost on Pluto. "Project Nightmare" follows the efforts of a team of American psychics to stop a Soviet blackmail attempt that has concealed nukes in US cities.

The Gulf of California flooding the Imperial Valley after an earthquake is the engaging premise of "Water Is for Washing".

Stylistically, "Goldfish Bowl", one of the strongest and oddest stories in the collection, is typical Heinlein, but the plot and ideas reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft. Investigating the appearance of two permanent waterspouts, two scientists are captured by mysterious entities whose relation to us is not at all comforting.

Rating:
Summary: "An excellent collection of short stories"
Review: This collection presents itself as a very interesting and wonderful reading indeed. However, I'd like to comment on one brilliant piece: "By His Bootstraps". If you have ever thought or wondered about the paradoxes of the time travel, the nature of time/space and our relationship with it, go and read it. You will find an example of one of the best time travel related reading in the world. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: ENTER THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Review: THIS HAS SOME OF THE STORIES THAT BELONG TO FUTURE HISTORY, BUT OVERALL A COLLECTION OF INTERESTING AND ODD STORIES. AT ONE ONE POINT YOU WONDER IF ROD STERLING WILL POP OUT SOMEWHERE TO INTRODUCE TODAY'S EPISODE. DEFINITELY WORTH READING.

Rating:
Summary: ENTER THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Review: THIS HAS SOME OF THE STORIES THAT BELONG TO FUTURE HISTORY, BUT OVERALL A COLLECTION OF INTERESTING AND ODD STORIES. AT ONE ONE POINT YOU WONDER IF ROD STERLING WILL POP OUT SOMEWHERE TO INTRODUCE TODAY'S EPISODE. DEFINITELY WORTH READING.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Heinlein
Review: To me, "The Menace from Earth" is the book that sealed Robert Heinlein's place as the greatest science fiction author of all times. This little collection, considered to be one of his minor works, packs more creativity than most authors display in their entire career. For instance, in the story "Goldfish Bowl" Heinlein completely reinvents the human race's role on planet Earth, to quite scary effect. That's one that you won't stop thinking about anytime soon once you've read it.

In "By his Bootstraps" we read about a fellow who gets caught in a mysterious series of events involving other versions of himself time-traveling from the future. Contrary to some claims, Heinlein did not actually invent this concpet. What he does do here is to cook up an incredibly inventive, clever, and humorous plot for the story. He does a particularly good job handling the psychologoical state of the narrator as the stream of bizarre revelations comes in.

While the other stories may not break your head quite as totally as those two, they are all memorable. "Water is for Washing", the closing entry, has some quite memorable imagery. So, for that matter, does "The Menace from Earth", a tale of teenage angst and ambition on the Moon. Overall, I give this collection of stories a hearty recommendation.