Woody.pasa@XEROX.ARPA (08/29/84)
Pico-review: Recommend
Mini-review: [Non-spoiler]
Heinlein has done it again. This novel is Heinlein at his best;
though
he does handle some of the subject material in ways which may be
offensive
to a strong believer in Judeo-Christianic beliefs, it is a wonderful
book.
I highly recommend it to everyone.
Review: *** SPOILER WARNING!!! ***
The main character in this new novel is a man by the name of
Alexander
Hergensheimer [Hiergenshemer, Hergenshiemer, I don't have the book with
me.]
He is an average person from a world where the Moral Majority would look
like a bunch of radical left-wingers. During an ocean voyage, he finds
himself in a bet with three other passengers, betting that he wouldn't
walk
through fire. [They're watching a group of natives from a south pacific
island walk through fire.] Well, he walks through, and finds himself in
a
different (parallel?) world.
Heinlein does use the consept of parallel worlds again, shuffling the
main characters (Hergensheimer included) from "world" to "world." But
the
parallel world shuffling (which really aren't parallel worlds, but the
tricks
of powers higher up--if you don't understand, just read the book)
doesn't get
in the way of the book as it does in Heinlein's earlier book "The Number
of
the Beast."
From here, the story begins. I won't say more about what happens in
the
book except to say that our "hero", Alex, goes through an ordeal similar
to
Job (the guy from the Book of Job in the Bible).
My personal favorite part of the book goes something like:
"Where are we? Are we in Hell, or Texas?"
"Is there a difference?"
Yeah, it's a fun book, Heinlein style. It actually manages to
combine the
flippent manner of "The Number of the Beast" with strong
characterizations,
an excellent (and solid) plot line, and leaves enough unanswered
questions
about how his universe works to make the story almost too believable.
[ie, he
doesn't sit down and explains why every sparrow falls in his universe,
he
just tells the story. Too many stories spend too much time explaining
how
things work; leaves too little to the reader's imagination.]
Unless you are shocked by references (by Saint Peter, of all people)
to
the Holy Ghost as "the Spook", or that Yahwah (the christian God) cheats
on bets with Loki (a devil in a different lore) by calling the Second
Comming
earlier than He promised, or that Texas is actually located in Hell; I
highly
recommend the book to you. Personally I enjoyed the book so much that
as soon
as I finished reading it, I reread the entire book again.
- From the scattered brains of
Bill Woody
WOODY.PASA@XEROX.ARPA (until September 7)
** No Net Address ** (after September 7)
"Charlie, can you get me the Spook on the line?" Pause. "Hi. Heard any
new ones lately? No, neither have I. Hey, could You do me a favor?..."