Weekly Short Stories: Robert Heinlein, Part 4

I conclude today my look through the late science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's collection of stories titled The Past Through Tomorrow with one short story, one novel and two novellas.  Heinlein had other collections as well...I might look into a couple of them during the next few weeks before I resume my weekly year-by-year review of past SF stories by other writers.  Here are my reactions to those four Heinlein tales with their years of publication following the titles...

LOGIC OF EMPIRE (1941)
Back when Heinlein wrote this novella there was a lot of speculation that Venus was habitable, usually depicted as swamp-like with dangerous exotic creatures.  Workers are being recruited to "tame" the planet for human habitation, but their long-term contracts and working conditions resemble slavery.  A wealthy lawyer on the moon gets drunk one night with a friend and the next day they find themselves bound by contract for six years and on the way as two more indentured workers to Venus...he spends the rest of the story trying to rectify the "mistake" and get free...

THE MENACE FROM EARTH (1957)
A young woman living on the moon works in a business partnership with a young man developing rockets and guiding tourists...they regularly insult each other but have a strong friendship and working relationship.  A sultry actress from Earth visits one day and the man falls for her as her guide...our heroine suddenly finds herself deep in jealousy over the "menace from Earth"...

"IF THIS GOES ON..." (1940)
In this short novel it is way off in the future from Heinlein's 1940...since 2016 the United States has been subjugated under a theocracy with the First Prophet serving as dictator.  One of his followers, certain to rise up the hierarchy of power, instead joins the revolt when he learns what the young virgin girls are doing when they visit the tyrant-in-chief after a young lady he had become infatuated with violently resists and flees the First Prophet's advances.  Heinlein was always skeptical of organized religion and its leaders' relative lack of accountability as opposed to other social institutions...

COVENTRY (1948)
In future America land out west has been set aside for the exile of those incapable or unwilling to abide by the terms of the Covenant, a document setting stringent standards of avoiding all violence and working to build a more peaceful society.  The land, called Coventry, is hidden by an opaque force field and can only be accessed through an opening requiring special authorization.  A young man is exiled after he punches another man who insulted him in the nose...he refuses mandatory psychological treatment and is sent over to Coventry.  After the initial enthusiasm about finally being free from the restrictive Covenant, he very quickly discovers that Coventry is quite different from what he expected.  There is an unusual degree of humor in this novella, I didn't expect that...

Next week I will review the stories from Heinlein's 1959 collection The Menace from Earth, minus the title story which I just wrote about in this article...