Today I conclude my examination of some of the stories by legendary science fiction writer Robert Heinlein (1907-88), who inserted a great deal of social commentary into his works as well as much speculation on the future of our space program...sadly, while in our real world we beat his 1978 first moon landing prediction by nine years, we've done little since other then repeatedly circle Earth in low orbit. Here are my reactions to the remainder of the fiction stories appearing in his 1980 collection of short stories and essays titled Expanded Universe...
A BATHROOM OF HER OWN (1946)
Not at all science fiction, this is a story about how elections are manipulated by powerful and often corrupt brokers with their own agendas that don't necessarily correspond to what the public's interests are...fine, tell me something I don't already know. A candidate for a local seat tries to maneuver himself past the forces that oppose him, including a compelling woman candidate surging ahead of him in the race...a behind-the-scenes look at running for political office that became tedious to read...
ON THE SLOPES OF VESUVIUS (1947)
This story's title is allegorical: imagine standing on the slopes of that Italian volcano in ancient times, just before the massive explosive eruption that engulfed and destroyed Pompeii. Now switch to a New York City bar at the story's writing in '47, two years after the atom bomb was developed and dropped and two years before the announcement that the Soviets had exploded one of their own. In this scary period was a lot of doomsday speculation on what would happen if some subversive elements were to get the basic materials for the bomb and set it on off in a big city...a scientist at the bar lays out the odds and pretty much freaks out the bartender, who suddenly finds that he needs to make a very quick decision...
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON THE MOON (1949)
Boy Scouting on the moon? Evidently Heinlein was a big promoter of the Scouts, for this is the story of a boy from the American Midwest who is determined to collect his scouting badges for the moon and later Venus (we're to assume our "sister" planet actually could support life). Visiting Luna City, he gets to know other Scouts and has a serious adventure on the unforgiving lunar landscape with life-or-death implications. In spite of the story's goofy premise I thought it was the best of the four tales I'm reviewing today...
CLIFF AND THE CALORIES (1950)
Evidently somebody complained to Heinlein that he never wrote stories with female protagonists, so he wrote this one about a young woman concerned that her weight will keep the guy she likes from pursuing her, so she comes up with a strategy...turns out, though, that Cliff is totally okay with her as she is: the characters are sympathetic, but why this ever became a published story is beyond me and convinced me that maybe it's time to steer away from more of his stories and return to my year-by-year short story reviews...
So next week I'll be resuming those year-by-year reviews of excellent old science fiction short stories, picking back up at the year 1957...
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