reading (To Sail Beyond the Sunset)
Mar. 21st, 2007 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorI finished re-reading Heinlein's "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" last night. I really should have gone to bed and finished it today, but I just can't go to sleep when I'm that close to finishing a book.
Squick warnings for this book: incest, more incest, hell almost everyone sleeps with almost everyone else and likes doing it.
The layout of this book is well suited to Heinlein's late life desire to sermonize. It is composed of short bits where he can talk about a particular time or a particular theme for a few pages before going on to another. It's full of obvious advice, slightly less obvious advice, and lightly covered admiration for those the author admired.
Perhaps the most perfect of the perfect Heinlein characters is Maureen, the main character of this book. She even has red hair. She sometimes has problems with her voice and suddenly starts sounding like a white haired old man, but hey, what can you do.
There is a distinct shift in the book after 1946. It goes beyond the events that happen. It goes through the whole tone of the book. I'm not sure the sea change fits with the personality of Maureen. It goes beyond the events surrounding her move from Dallas back to Kansas City. I don't want to give it all away to support my complaint, but if you've read the book I'd be happy to pound out the details with you.
Pet peeve time: I like my alternate histories believable when they start from real history and diverge. I found Heinlein's scenario of Japan bombing San Francisco instead of Pearl Harbor too far fetched. Why would they? There are plenty of reasons why not. Look at a map. How much fuel would it have taken? How much time? What are the chances of being detected and thwarted. For such an attack you need a damn good reason. At Pearl they had a damn good reason: the fleet. To catch the fleet in port and destroy it was solid military tactic. To take greater risk to attack San Fran would have been silly.
The ending of this book is much more coherent than "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls", although it is a fairytale. Enjoy it as a fairytale. Well, an adult fairytale.
21. Robert Heinlein "To Sail Beyond the Sunset"
Squick warnings for this book: incest, more incest, hell almost everyone sleeps with almost everyone else and likes doing it.
The layout of this book is well suited to Heinlein's late life desire to sermonize. It is composed of short bits where he can talk about a particular time or a particular theme for a few pages before going on to another. It's full of obvious advice, slightly less obvious advice, and lightly covered admiration for those the author admired.
Perhaps the most perfect of the perfect Heinlein characters is Maureen, the main character of this book. She even has red hair. She sometimes has problems with her voice and suddenly starts sounding like a white haired old man, but hey, what can you do.
There is a distinct shift in the book after 1946. It goes beyond the events that happen. It goes through the whole tone of the book. I'm not sure the sea change fits with the personality of Maureen. It goes beyond the events surrounding her move from Dallas back to Kansas City. I don't want to give it all away to support my complaint, but if you've read the book I'd be happy to pound out the details with you.
Pet peeve time: I like my alternate histories believable when they start from real history and diverge. I found Heinlein's scenario of Japan bombing San Francisco instead of Pearl Harbor too far fetched. Why would they? There are plenty of reasons why not. Look at a map. How much fuel would it have taken? How much time? What are the chances of being detected and thwarted. For such an attack you need a damn good reason. At Pearl they had a damn good reason: the fleet. To catch the fleet in port and destroy it was solid military tactic. To take greater risk to attack San Fran would have been silly.
The ending of this book is much more coherent than "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls", although it is a fairytale. Enjoy it as a fairytale. Well, an adult fairytale.
21. Robert Heinlein "To Sail Beyond the Sunset"
