Rating: 
Summary: Solid short stories, but not Heinlein's best
Review: This is a collection of some Heinlein short stories from, I believe, the Forties. Titles include "Delilah and the Space Jockey." They are written for adults, but, unlike his later stuff, there's no sex in them. They are part of his Future History series. Most of them are set in, say, 1980 to 2050 -- the early days of space travel.Each tale is quite solid, with an interesting psychological twist. I read it straight through, with considerable enjoyment. Still, this book is mostly for Heinlein devotees. Heinlein's a great novelist, but the short story is too limited a form for him to exercise his vast gifts of painting a society in all its variety. And these short stories seem a little more perfunctory than his others. This book is one of his least memorable -- I was halfway through it before I realized I'd already read it a couple of decades ago. If you've already read 20 Heinlein books, then this is a good choice to round out your collection. If you haven't read any Heinlein yet, then you'd be much better off starting with almost anything from his peak years of roughly 1950 through 1966's great "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress." (Although I'd be wary of the self-indulgent "Stranger in a Strange Land", and the uncompelling "Glory Road.") -- Steve Sailer,
Rating: 
Summary: A little dated, but classic sci-fi
Review: This is a collection of ten short stories, all set in the not too distant future, but somehow the characters all maintain a 1950's feeling about them. It's quite a small book, which makes each of the stories quite short too, good for young and old. When you compare this against some of Heinlein's novels, it simply doesn't have the breadth or the complexity of the novels, but then, I suppose how could it? The style is fairly simple and to the point. The stories all have a beginning, middle and end. Some short stories, by other authors, seem to start somewhere in the middle of some crisis, and leave you there to figure it out. Not this, each story explains itself right from the beginning, and you know what's going on all the time. The themes of the stories range from what would happen if a woman went to work among an all male crew assembling a space station (yes, I know! Shocking!), to how one man had a traumatic experience being left floating in space and ended up with terminal vertigo. Another tells the story of how a family long to go home to earth from their job on the moon, but find themselves instead longing to go "home" to the moon again. As you can see, fairly innocent stuff. But what is good about this book, is to see what a man who clearly thought about the future and science predicted for the future. At this stage in Science Fiction's development, atomic rockets were all the rage, the moon was called "luna", anyone who stayed on earth and who didn't want to go out into space was obviously some form of backwards trogladyte, colonies on mars and venus were commercial and politically viable, and several forms of alien life had been discovered all over the solar system. The characters are very obviously nineteen fifties in their behaviour, although "modern" at the same time, really totally different from actual behaviour nowadays. You can almost visualise the men still wearing hats indoors, and the women wearing high heeled shoes and nylon stockings with seams up the back. But enough of my fantasising! (Mmmm, nylons...) If you're a budding fan of sci-fi, then get this book. It'll give you a good idea of where things were in the early days, and from one of the greats too. If you're only just getting into it, then leave this 'till later, but do get it eventually. For veterans, this is a good nostalgia piece, great for train or plane rides, as you can dip in and out as you please.
Rating:
Summary: A little dated, but classic sci-fi
Review: This is a collection of ten short stories, all set in the not too distant future, but somehow the characters all maintain a 1950's feeling about them. It's quite a small book, which makes each of the stories quite short too, good for young and old. When you compare this against some of Heinlein's novels, it simply doesn't have the breadth or the complexity of the novels, but then, I suppose how could it? The style is fairly simple and to the point. The stories all have a beginning, middle and end. Some short stories, by other authors, seem to start somewhere in the middle of some crisis, and leave you there to figure it out. Not this, each story explains itself right from the beginning, and you know what's going on all the time. The themes of the stories range from what would happen if a woman went to work among an all male crew assembling a space station (yes, I know! Shocking!), to how one man had a traumatic experience being left floating in space and ended up with terminal vertigo. Another tells the story of how a family long to go home to earth from their job on the moon, but find themselves instead longing to go "home" to the moon again. As you can see, fairly innocent stuff. But what is good about this book, is to see what a man who clearly thought about the future and science predicted for the future. At this stage in Science Fiction's development, atomic rockets were all the rage, the moon was called "luna", anyone who stayed on earth and who didn't want to go out into space was obviously some form of backwards trogladyte, colonies on mars and venus were commercial and politically viable, and several forms of alien life had been discovered all over the solar system. The characters are very obviously nineteen fifties in their behaviour, although "modern" at the same time, really totally different from actual behaviour nowadays. You can almost visualise the men still wearing hats indoors, and the women wearing high heeled shoes and nylon stockings with seams up the back. But enough of my fantasising! (Mmmm, nylons...) If you're a budding fan of sci-fi, then get this book. It'll give you a good idea of where things were in the early days, and from one of the greats too. If you're only just getting into it, then leave this 'till later, but do get it eventually. For veterans, this is a good nostalgia piece, great for train or plane rides, as you can dip in and out as you please.
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