Scan barcode
lakelady's review
4.0
Not sure what it was that caused this book to enter my list. Very glad it did. It's quite prescient to the US in the 21st century. We haven't gotten quite as far as the government in this novel but we're not far from it and may end up there if we don't stay vigilant to the forces on the fundamentalist religious right-wing and where they'd like to take us. It's not quite as well done as his later works but I think it's well worth your time.
markyon's review
3.0
This is the third collection of Robert A. Heinlein’s so-called Future History. The first was The Man Who Sold the Moon, the second was The Green Hills of Earth .)
By this third book stories are being deliberately connected together into Heinlein’s loose timeline framework, which developed from a conversation with Astounding editor John W. Campbell in 1941.
The stories in this edition are:
The original 1953 hardback also included, for the first time, a copy of Heinlein’s Future History chart and a Foreword by fellow author Henry Kuttner, "The Innocent Eye".
Although Revolt is the third in this series, most of the stories, in their original publication state, date back to those included in The Man Who Sold the Moon. As such, they are early Heinlein writing, albeit with some revision, and in some cases, it shows.
Despite this book having fewer stories, it is the biggest of the collection. To make the book even bigger, some later US editions included the novel Methusulah’s Children (1958) as well, which I may get to read next. In terms of context, this would make sense, as the novel, like many others of its time, was a ‘fix-up’ from what was published in the magazines – in this case, the three-part serial in Astounding from July-September 1941. This means that Heinlein was writing it at about the same time most of these other stories were published, and it is clearly mentioned in the Future History chart.
"If This Goes On—" begins this collection with a bang, and is a great start on the whole. In fifteen chapters and 133 pages, this novella tells of the ‘Crazy Years’, a time when a theocracy has taken hold of the USA and the country is in the despotic control of the infamous Nehemiah Scudder, who was mentioned in Logic of Empire in The Green Hills of Earth. It is bleak, grim and chilling, I suspect reflecting, in part, the global events of 1939-40. It questions Christian fundamentalism (although not all religions) through the eyes of John Lyle, initially a legate and guardsman in the Temple of the Lord in New Jerusalem, one of the elite guard of the Prophet Incarnate – never named here, but presumably Scudder. Lyle falls in love with Sister Judith, one of the Virgins ‘ministering’ to the Prophet, and as a result Lyle becomes part of the resistance in order to engineer her escape from the prophet’s palace.
The middle part of the novel is what happens when Lyle, at risk of being discovered, also escapes the temple. He becomes a courier, working as a sleeper agent with an unknown message buried deep in his subconscious by hypnosis. As Lyle runs away, in this part of the novella we see through Lyle the consequences and reality of living in a theocratic state – severe authority control, constant surveillance, fake news, and propaganda.
The conclusion of the story involves Lyle working at the secret headquarters of the resistance, ultimately becoming part of the revolution against Scudder. Showing all those traditional Heinlein values of honour, loyalty and ‘doing the right thing’ even at a personal cost, the end shouldn’t really be a surprise.
Despite its age, “If This Goes On…” is a sobering story, and even in its first form surprisingly mature for a story written by a writer at this point barely beginning his career*. (It must be said that this version is expanded from approximately 33 000 words to 57 300, nearly double its original length from the original two-part Astounding serial.) Whilst there are weak points (the initial romance is unconvincing, as most of its 1930’s contemporaries were), the overall impression is of an adventure story with a message, a salutary reminder of what can happen in a dictatorship state. Originally published in 1940, as the Germans were occupying Western Europe, it is perhaps as relevant now in 2018 as it was nearly 80 years ago.
*It may be worth reading the original version, which shows how far Heinlein had progressed as a writer from 1939-1953. (Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE.) The second 1953 version is more complex and more nuanced, but has lost a bit of its innocence and charm. (For example, in the original 1940 version at the end John Lyle leaves the military after the Revolution, marries Judith and takes up the career his covert character managed undercover, in textiles.) In the second edition we have more sex – Judith in the original first meets John when the Prophet is discussing taxes, in the 1953 version her role is more physical. There’s a scene of nude bathing in underground caves that applies Freudian imagery with a broad brush, to symbolise John’s spiritual and physical awakening.
In this Future History, Coventry and Misfit are stories set after “If This Goes On…”, when society has become more secular. Both stories are about the consequences of this time, when both of the story’s protagonists reject the society they live in, to forge their own destiny. Both are worth reading, though not as memorable as the first novel/novella.
Coventry (Link HERE) is a story of David MacKinnon, a professor in the time after “If This Goes On…”, who, after punching a man who offended him, is taken to trial. The State convicts him for being capable of morally judging his fellow citizens and feeling justified in personally correcting and punishing their lapses. He is given two choices as punishment - psychological readjustment or exile to Coventry, a place separated from the rest of the world by a force-field barrier. Obviously, MacKinnon chooses Coventry.
The world of Coventry is, in reality, the world in micro-cosm and split into different parts. Like Scudder’s theocracy before it, the so-called ‘New America’ is actually corrupt, relying on taxing its residents into submission. The “Free State” is even worse, a dictatorship, often at odds with New America. In the hills to the North of New America lies ”The Angels”, what is left of Scudder’s theocracy with a new Prophet. When MacKinnon and his prison buddy Fader Magee discover a plot by New America to invade the world outside Coventry, the story turns into more traditional Libertarian fare, and it ends as you might expect, albeit rather abruptly and conveniently.
Originally this was Heinlein’s seventh published story, published after The Roads Must Roll but before Blowups Happen. It’s a surprise to me in that it’s really a political story, which I tended to think came later in his career. (Admittedly, this was before For Us, the Living was discovered.) Yes, there’s an adventure story in there, but it’s basically political diatribe wrapped up in a romp, and one without the skills of the later Heinlein to totally make it work.
I think the most interesting point for me is that whilst Coventry seems to extol the virtues of the individual (as “rugged individualists”) in times of stress, Heinlein also shows us the consequences of the Second Revolution and does not like everything he sees. Despite all of the sacrifice shown in "If This Goes On—", this ‘brave new world’ has set itself up to repeat the mistakes of the past and possibly end up worse than before. It’s a reminder that once the war is won, the battle must continue, in order to maintain order and improve what has happened before. A message perhaps appropriate for 1940, when the globe was heading towards World War II.
Misfit (link HERE) is a tale of Andrew Jackson Libby, nicknamed ‘Pinky’. After an overtly political tale, this is Heinlein in a more typical mode, an adventure story of an outsider who has been sequestered to work and manages to face up to the challenge. It’s rather proto-Starship Troopers, though told in the second person rather than the first, of how young men will modify asteroids into habitats that will support future exploration into space. Libby is a red-headed, untrained misfit with a gift for Mathematics and, in the usual Heinlein way, is shown to be a hero.
I saw it as another story that is Heinlein’s call-to-arms, written at a time of approaching world war to show that the future can be bright. The minor point that Pinky is a redhead will become more important in later books. We will meet the character again (albeit briefly) in Methuselah’s Children and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls.
Lastly, there’s a short but intriguing postscript written by Heinlein long after the stories were originally published in 1953, explaining how the Future History stories came about and how they tied together. Most interestingly, he tells us of stories he may (or may not) write to fill in the gaps of the History.
Three are mentioned here. Firstly, The Sound of his Wings, originally planned to start shortly before Logic of Empire (in The Green Hills of Earth) and extending beyond Logic’s timespan, would have told of the early life and rise to power of Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet of ‘If This Goes On…’ Heinlein here, writing in 1953, suggests that the story would have been ‘down-beat’, and that there’s enough of that in the daily headlines to merit adding more.
The second unfinished story, Eclipse, would have told the story of the breakaway and independence of Mars and Venus, followed by ‘the cessation of interplanetary travel.’ It’s parallels with the American Revolution and the global breakup of colonialism is deliberate. Heinlein said that it would probably never get written because he had since written two novels following similar themes, not bound by the restrictions of a Future History.
Lastly, The Stone Pillow would have been about the growth of an underground counterculture leading up to the Second American Revolution. Like The Sound of his Wings, it was felt by Heinlein to be too downbeat to be worth pursuing further, although there are clearly elements of this in ‘If This Goes On…’ and Coventry.
All of these are intriguing ideas, but I do feel that Heinlein may have been right not to develop them more.
So: in summary, how do these stories hold up? Although the stories were first published in 1939-40, they were, of course, not easily available to reread until this collection was published in 1953, with expansion and revision. How does this collection fit in context? Well, 1953 was also the year of Starman Jones and the collection Assignment in Eternity, (containing the four novellas Gulf (1949), Elsewhen (1941), Lost Legacy (1941) and Jerry Was A Man (1947)) before The Star Beast in 1954).
Of the three collections that make up the history, this is perhaps the weakest of the three, although strangely, it is the biggest. Revolt in 2100 is worth reading just for the first novella alone, although Heinlein’s comments at the end intriguingly fill in some of the gaps. (I have also noted that For Us, the Living, Heinlein’s first novel published after his death, also mentions Scudder, so have added that to my reading list, as perhaps re-reading the Future History’s last hurrah, Methuselah’s Children.)
In short, then, are these stories worth reading? Whilst they are undoubtedly “of a time”, they do have their merits and their issues. These stories, compared with the later material, do show less complexity and style, but they are noticeably showing the writing voice that the author was cultivating, even in those early years.
Despite the naivety, perhaps more importantly they show less of the elements that Heinlein’s critics are unhappy with in his later work. They are worth reading, if not only to show how important Heinlein was in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Of all the work written by RAH, the Future History series exhibit the author’s strengths, with less of the weaknesses. (As an example, compare this with I Will Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love or To Sail the Sunset.) For all of their issues, if you want a flavour of the author’s best, I would steer you more towards this early work than the later ones.
By this third book stories are being deliberately connected together into Heinlein’s loose timeline framework, which developed from a conversation with Astounding editor John W. Campbell in 1941.
The stories in this edition are:
- "If This Goes On—" (Expanded from the version originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, February & March 1940)
- "Coventry" (1940; his seventh short story published, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1940)
- "Misfit" (1939; his second published story, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, November 1939)
- Afterword: "Concerning Stories Never Written"
The original 1953 hardback also included, for the first time, a copy of Heinlein’s Future History chart and a Foreword by fellow author Henry Kuttner, "The Innocent Eye".
Although Revolt is the third in this series, most of the stories, in their original publication state, date back to those included in The Man Who Sold the Moon. As such, they are early Heinlein writing, albeit with some revision, and in some cases, it shows.
Despite this book having fewer stories, it is the biggest of the collection. To make the book even bigger, some later US editions included the novel Methusulah’s Children (1958) as well, which I may get to read next. In terms of context, this would make sense, as the novel, like many others of its time, was a ‘fix-up’ from what was published in the magazines – in this case, the three-part serial in Astounding from July-September 1941. This means that Heinlein was writing it at about the same time most of these other stories were published, and it is clearly mentioned in the Future History chart.
"If This Goes On—" begins this collection with a bang, and is a great start on the whole. In fifteen chapters and 133 pages, this novella tells of the ‘Crazy Years’, a time when a theocracy has taken hold of the USA and the country is in the despotic control of the infamous Nehemiah Scudder, who was mentioned in Logic of Empire in The Green Hills of Earth. It is bleak, grim and chilling, I suspect reflecting, in part, the global events of 1939-40. It questions Christian fundamentalism (although not all religions) through the eyes of John Lyle, initially a legate and guardsman in the Temple of the Lord in New Jerusalem, one of the elite guard of the Prophet Incarnate – never named here, but presumably Scudder. Lyle falls in love with Sister Judith, one of the Virgins ‘ministering’ to the Prophet, and as a result Lyle becomes part of the resistance in order to engineer her escape from the prophet’s palace.
The middle part of the novel is what happens when Lyle, at risk of being discovered, also escapes the temple. He becomes a courier, working as a sleeper agent with an unknown message buried deep in his subconscious by hypnosis. As Lyle runs away, in this part of the novella we see through Lyle the consequences and reality of living in a theocratic state – severe authority control, constant surveillance, fake news, and propaganda.
The conclusion of the story involves Lyle working at the secret headquarters of the resistance, ultimately becoming part of the revolution against Scudder. Showing all those traditional Heinlein values of honour, loyalty and ‘doing the right thing’ even at a personal cost, the end shouldn’t really be a surprise.
Despite its age, “If This Goes On…” is a sobering story, and even in its first form surprisingly mature for a story written by a writer at this point barely beginning his career*. (It must be said that this version is expanded from approximately 33 000 words to 57 300, nearly double its original length from the original two-part Astounding serial.) Whilst there are weak points (the initial romance is unconvincing, as most of its 1930’s contemporaries were), the overall impression is of an adventure story with a message, a salutary reminder of what can happen in a dictatorship state. Originally published in 1940, as the Germans were occupying Western Europe, it is perhaps as relevant now in 2018 as it was nearly 80 years ago.
*It may be worth reading the original version, which shows how far Heinlein had progressed as a writer from 1939-1953. (Part One is HERE, Part Two is HERE.) The second 1953 version is more complex and more nuanced, but has lost a bit of its innocence and charm. (For example, in the original 1940 version at the end John Lyle leaves the military after the Revolution, marries Judith and takes up the career his covert character managed undercover, in textiles.) In the second edition we have more sex – Judith in the original first meets John when the Prophet is discussing taxes, in the 1953 version her role is more physical. There’s a scene of nude bathing in underground caves that applies Freudian imagery with a broad brush, to symbolise John’s spiritual and physical awakening.
In this Future History, Coventry and Misfit are stories set after “If This Goes On…”, when society has become more secular. Both stories are about the consequences of this time, when both of the story’s protagonists reject the society they live in, to forge their own destiny. Both are worth reading, though not as memorable as the first novel/novella.
Coventry (Link HERE) is a story of David MacKinnon, a professor in the time after “If This Goes On…”, who, after punching a man who offended him, is taken to trial. The State convicts him for being capable of morally judging his fellow citizens and feeling justified in personally correcting and punishing their lapses. He is given two choices as punishment - psychological readjustment or exile to Coventry, a place separated from the rest of the world by a force-field barrier. Obviously, MacKinnon chooses Coventry.
The world of Coventry is, in reality, the world in micro-cosm and split into different parts. Like Scudder’s theocracy before it, the so-called ‘New America’ is actually corrupt, relying on taxing its residents into submission. The “Free State” is even worse, a dictatorship, often at odds with New America. In the hills to the North of New America lies ”The Angels”, what is left of Scudder’s theocracy with a new Prophet. When MacKinnon and his prison buddy Fader Magee discover a plot by New America to invade the world outside Coventry, the story turns into more traditional Libertarian fare, and it ends as you might expect, albeit rather abruptly and conveniently.
Originally this was Heinlein’s seventh published story, published after The Roads Must Roll but before Blowups Happen. It’s a surprise to me in that it’s really a political story, which I tended to think came later in his career. (Admittedly, this was before For Us, the Living was discovered.) Yes, there’s an adventure story in there, but it’s basically political diatribe wrapped up in a romp, and one without the skills of the later Heinlein to totally make it work.
I think the most interesting point for me is that whilst Coventry seems to extol the virtues of the individual (as “rugged individualists”) in times of stress, Heinlein also shows us the consequences of the Second Revolution and does not like everything he sees. Despite all of the sacrifice shown in "If This Goes On—", this ‘brave new world’ has set itself up to repeat the mistakes of the past and possibly end up worse than before. It’s a reminder that once the war is won, the battle must continue, in order to maintain order and improve what has happened before. A message perhaps appropriate for 1940, when the globe was heading towards World War II.
Misfit (link HERE) is a tale of Andrew Jackson Libby, nicknamed ‘Pinky’. After an overtly political tale, this is Heinlein in a more typical mode, an adventure story of an outsider who has been sequestered to work and manages to face up to the challenge. It’s rather proto-Starship Troopers, though told in the second person rather than the first, of how young men will modify asteroids into habitats that will support future exploration into space. Libby is a red-headed, untrained misfit with a gift for Mathematics and, in the usual Heinlein way, is shown to be a hero.
I saw it as another story that is Heinlein’s call-to-arms, written at a time of approaching world war to show that the future can be bright. The minor point that Pinky is a redhead will become more important in later books. We will meet the character again (albeit briefly) in Methuselah’s Children and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls.
Lastly, there’s a short but intriguing postscript written by Heinlein long after the stories were originally published in 1953, explaining how the Future History stories came about and how they tied together. Most interestingly, he tells us of stories he may (or may not) write to fill in the gaps of the History.
Three are mentioned here. Firstly, The Sound of his Wings, originally planned to start shortly before Logic of Empire (in The Green Hills of Earth) and extending beyond Logic’s timespan, would have told of the early life and rise to power of Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet of ‘If This Goes On…’ Heinlein here, writing in 1953, suggests that the story would have been ‘down-beat’, and that there’s enough of that in the daily headlines to merit adding more.
The second unfinished story, Eclipse, would have told the story of the breakaway and independence of Mars and Venus, followed by ‘the cessation of interplanetary travel.’ It’s parallels with the American Revolution and the global breakup of colonialism is deliberate. Heinlein said that it would probably never get written because he had since written two novels following similar themes, not bound by the restrictions of a Future History.
Lastly, The Stone Pillow would have been about the growth of an underground counterculture leading up to the Second American Revolution. Like The Sound of his Wings, it was felt by Heinlein to be too downbeat to be worth pursuing further, although there are clearly elements of this in ‘If This Goes On…’ and Coventry.
All of these are intriguing ideas, but I do feel that Heinlein may have been right not to develop them more.
So: in summary, how do these stories hold up? Although the stories were first published in 1939-40, they were, of course, not easily available to reread until this collection was published in 1953, with expansion and revision. How does this collection fit in context? Well, 1953 was also the year of Starman Jones and the collection Assignment in Eternity, (containing the four novellas Gulf (1949), Elsewhen (1941), Lost Legacy (1941) and Jerry Was A Man (1947)) before The Star Beast in 1954).
Of the three collections that make up the history, this is perhaps the weakest of the three, although strangely, it is the biggest. Revolt in 2100 is worth reading just for the first novella alone, although Heinlein’s comments at the end intriguingly fill in some of the gaps. (I have also noted that For Us, the Living, Heinlein’s first novel published after his death, also mentions Scudder, so have added that to my reading list, as perhaps re-reading the Future History’s last hurrah, Methuselah’s Children.)
In short, then, are these stories worth reading? Whilst they are undoubtedly “of a time”, they do have their merits and their issues. These stories, compared with the later material, do show less complexity and style, but they are noticeably showing the writing voice that the author was cultivating, even in those early years.
Despite the naivety, perhaps more importantly they show less of the elements that Heinlein’s critics are unhappy with in his later work. They are worth reading, if not only to show how important Heinlein was in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Of all the work written by RAH, the Future History series exhibit the author’s strengths, with less of the weaknesses. (As an example, compare this with I Will Fear No Evil, Time Enough For Love or To Sail the Sunset.) For all of their issues, if you want a flavour of the author’s best, I would steer you more towards this early work than the later ones.
shanehawk's review against another edition
3.0
A novella + two short stories with a minimal narrative connection. The novella, “If This Goes On—“, was rather good and an interesting look at a theocratic dictatorship in America. The other two stories are still worth reading, but less fun than the first. For a much better review I recommend reading that of Mark here. He offers a lot more than I could along with interesting background for these stories. For instance, I had no idea these were originally written in 1939 and 1940. I was under the illusion they were written around the original publication of this collection in 1953. This fact totally changes my perspective.
hammard's review
3.0
I've been going through some of Heinlein's future history works and this rounds it off for now. The earlier (in universe) works tended to follow a set Ayn Randish pattern but this is a bit different. The first story (to which the title refers) is a Theocratic Dystopia which, whilst a little cliched and overwrought at times, is a pretty reasonable adventure.
The second, Coventry, is a sort of sequel but really is a cynical look at human nature. A man convicted of assault chooses to go into a reservation where people can live outside of government rules. He expects to find an anarchistic utopia, instead it's a series of petty dictatorships (to a more or lesser extent). Unfortunately, after this interesting set up it just peters out and lacks a good conclusion.
The final story, Misfit, is short and doesn't really fit in. It was published before the others and is more looking to the future of space travel. Didn't really work as well for me either.
An okay collection (helped by a lack of his usual ickyness) but doesn't quite make me fall in love with Heinlein.
The second, Coventry, is a sort of sequel but really is a cynical look at human nature. A man convicted of assault chooses to go into a reservation where people can live outside of government rules. He expects to find an anarchistic utopia, instead it's a series of petty dictatorships (to a more or lesser extent). Unfortunately, after this interesting set up it just peters out and lacks a good conclusion.
The final story, Misfit, is short and doesn't really fit in. It was published before the others and is more looking to the future of space travel. Didn't really work as well for me either.
An okay collection (helped by a lack of his usual ickyness) but doesn't quite make me fall in love with Heinlein.
More...