jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (11/23/85)
[...] The new Heinlein book is available for about $24 at most serious bookstores now (e.g. W.H.Smith). The name is "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls", subtitled "A Comedy of Manners". The good news is that the first two thirds of the book are very good. The bad news is that the last third is rushed and sketchy and incomplete (can you say "sequel"?). My wife speculates that Heinlein is tidying up his literary output while he has good writing years left (he is 80 or so). To do so, he is tying together most of what he has ever written. This means that Cat smacks a little of Number of the Beast towards the end as many characters from many dimensions and many times are brought together by the Time Patrol to do something. I won't spoil the book any further, but almost all of Heinlein's leading characters make an appearance. Think of such books as "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Friday", "The Rolling Stones", "Glory Road", and so on. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo