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The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein

The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein

List Price: $16.95
Your Price: $11.53
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Collection, If You Don't Already Have This Stuff
Review: As has already been pointed out by other reviewers, this books is an omnibus containing the contents of two previous Heinlein collections, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag and Waldo & Magic Inc. in their entirety. So, should you buy this if you already have those two books? No, not unless you are a Heinlein obsessive who must have every book with his name on it. However, if you've never had the pleasure of reading those two books (especially Hoag, a very underrated collection, and possibly my favorite Heinlein book EVER), then you should most definately pick this up. The Hoag novella is a classic mix of fantasy and horror, and just begs to be read in one setting. "They" is one of Heinlein's best short stories, a paranoid, but all-too-realistic horror story of solipsism (one of RAH's pet interests.) And He Built A Crooked House is a neat "gimmick" short story that you will be the better for having read. "Our Fair City" may not be earth-shattering in plot or scope, but it is worthwhile and, in fact, quite hilarous. "All You Zombies" is a semi-disturbing time paradox tale. Rounding out the collection are two other novellas: Waldo, a unique early Heinlein tale that you will probably enjoy; and Magic Inc., a fairly interesting story that is quite different from anything else he ever wrote. This collection, in total, contains all of Heinlein's works that would normally be classed in the "fantasy" category (aside from Glory Road), and is definately worth picking up if you've never read the stories it contains before.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Collection, If You Don't Already Have This Stuff
Review: As has already been pointed out by other reviewers, this books is an omnibus containing the contents of two previous Heinlein collections, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag and Waldo & Magic Inc. in their entirety. So, should you buy this if you already have those two books? No, not unless you are a Heinlein obsessive who must have every book with his name on it. However, if you've never had the pleasure of reading those two books (especially Hoag, a very underrated collection, and possibly my favorite Heinlein book EVER), then you should most definately pick this up. The Hoag novella is a classic mix of fantasy and horror, and just begs to be read in one setting. "They" is one of Heinlein's best short stories, a paranoid, but all-too-realistic horror story of solipsism (one of RAH's pet interests.) And He Built A Crooked House is a neat "gimmick" short story that you will be the better for having read. "Our Fair City" may not be earth-shattering in plot or scope, but it is worthwhile and, in fact, quite hilarous. "All You Zombies" is a semi-disturbing time paradox tale. Rounding out the collection are two other novellas: Waldo, a unique early Heinlein tale that you will probably enjoy; and Magic Inc., a fairly interesting story that is quite different from anything else he ever wrote. This collection, in total, contains all of Heinlein's works that would normally be classed in the "fantasy" category (aside from Glory Road), and is definately worth picking up if you've never read the stories it contains before.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Heinlein in Dimension
Review: Fantasies of Heinlein? You mean like the one where he and Pam Anderson are naked with a jar of peanut butter? Sorry, I'm too straight for that. Heinlein's macho-man image often hid the fact that he was a softy who loved his wife beyond life. In his collection you'll see love triumph over everything, including ordinary death and the worse-than kind. He's often put down by folks who forget he invented half the concepts of SF; he was writing before Tolkien, as Gahan Wilson mentions. Here's the point: he was GOOD, and his stories are all gems, and if you haven't read everything in this collection you need it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantasy Life
Review: Fantasies of RAH? The title made me envision Heinlein surrounded by redheaded, brilliant, multi-lingual women, somewhere on the Moon. But it's actually a collection of this brilliant but warped author's non-science fiction works, and a great collection it is, too. Of COURSE it's repackaged from old stories, because RAH, being dead, hasn't written much lately. PC revisionists have tried to drive Heinlein into critical disfavor by pointing to his obsession with and peculiar treatment of women without taking into consideration that he was working in the early fifties, and that his later work attempted to make amends. But don't listen to them, or me: read this seminal work and see for yourself. He was the Dean of SF; he opened the doors for the rest, and his work will live forever. Wait and see.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Thumbs Down
Review: Heinlein, best known for his science fiction, was over his head in the fantasy genre. He has many die-hard fans that are loath to criticize any of his stories, but believe me, the fantasy is second rate at best. Try Jack Vances Lyonesse trilogy for high fantasy at its best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of Robert Heinlein
Review: I am a big fan of Robert Heinlein, although I find all his Hugo award winning novels especially "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" pretty hard to digest. However "The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein" collects 8 intriguing stories from one of the true masters of SF.

"All you Zombies", where a man in a bar reveals that he is his every relation (father, mother et al) through a series of time paradoxes and "And he built a crooked house" where an architect constructs a house in the shape of a tesseract (a four dimensional hypercube) in which he and the new occupants of the house find themselves trapped are simply masterpieces. Check out "They --" as well.

A must read for any Heinlein and serious SF fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of Robert Heinlein
Review: I am a big fan of Robert Heinlein, although I find all his Hugo award winning novels especially "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" pretty hard to digest. However "The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein" collects 8 intriguing stories from one of the true masters of SF.

"All you Zombies", where a man in a bar reveals that he is his every relation (father, mother et al) through a series of time paradoxes and "And he built a crooked house" where an architect constructs a house in the shape of a tesseract (a four dimensional hypercube) in which he and the new occupants of the house find themselves trapped are simply masterpieces. Check out "They --" as well.

A must read for any Heinlein and serious SF fan.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Some good short work of Heinlein's
Review: I love Robert Heinlein's work. This is a repackaged set of sort stories previously published in Waldo and Magic, Inc. and The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag.

So beware! Make sure you don't already have these works -- but if you don't, get it quick.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Some good short work of Heinlein's
Review: I love Robert Heinlein's work. This is a repackaged set of sort stories previously published in Waldo and Magic, Inc. and The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag.

So beware! Make sure you don't already have these works -- but if you don't, get it quick.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Repackaging of two earlier collections
Review: Namely, WALDO & MAGIC, INC. and THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG.

Nor are these the fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein. Those might include: What if I had my brain transplanted into the body of a woman and then had sex with my (male) attorney? What if I could time-travel into the past and have sex with my mom? What if I could clone myself as a woman and then have sex with the clone? What if I could clone myself as TWIN women and then have sex with them BOTH - perhaps at the same time? What if there were a world where mothers could have sex with their sons, and fathers with their daughters? What if theology is bunk, most soi-disant "morals" are just the "monkey customs" of intellectually inferior people, "religion" is a crutch for people who can't handle science, and the science of evolutionary genetics provides the only true foundation for "morality" (namely, "survival")?

Compared to his REAL fantasies, the short stories in this modest collection are tame indeed.

(At one time the remote manipulator arms used to handle, e.g., radioactive material were called "waldoes." They were named after the main character in one of these stories; read it and see why.)


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