- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (Nov 15 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312872453
- ISBN-13: 978-0312872458
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,509,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Amazon
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was one of the most influential SF writers of any era (four of his 31 novels won Hugos, and he was the first to receive the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Award). The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein gives newer SF readers and fans a less-known side of his work and opportunity to savor crisp sentences filled with telling detail, sardonic observations of character, and engrossing tales.
The stories, originally published in the 1940s and '50s, showcase Heinlein's science-fictional approach to fantasy. Though magic works and the supernatural underlies ordinary life, the reader is always firmly anchored in a lawful reality. The setting is the USA, sometimes in the mid-20th century, sometimes in a near future, always featuring very American characters. It's just that the salesman sells elephants and encounters fictional characters and ghosts ("The Man Who Traveled in Elephants"), the reporter covers a sentient whirlwind that collects old newspaper ("Our Fair City"), and the bartender is a time-traveling recruiter ("All You Zombies"). The ambitious, young California architect builds a house where doors and windows open on many places--but not to the outside he came in from ("And He Built a Crooked House"). And the paranoid patient's reality is saner than you think ("They"). The three novellas: "Magic, Inc.," "Waldo," and "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" are vintage Heinlein; the last is a Lovecraftian tale of an amnesiac who hires PIs to find out what he does all day--what they uncover isn't illegal but is supernaturally evil, and Hoag is neither perpetrator nor victim.
These stories feel a bit old-fashioned, but no one ignited the sense of wonder in readers better than Heinlein. This collection offers a golden opportunity to sample a master at his best. --Nona Vero
From Booklist
Heinlein didn't write fantasies; he wrote hard sf. Or, to be more precise, he wrote adventure stories grounded in credible scientific speculation. Even the wonderful stories collected here feature his trademark cool reasoning, though each also depends on the inexplicable. The oldest of them is his small masterpiece, "Magic, Inc.," about a Mafia-like group hitting up honest businesspersons for protection against black magic and one honest man's sojourn to hell to put the universe right. The novella hasn't dated at all; the passage of time has only enriched it. Besides "Magic," two more novellas appear, "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" and "Waldo." The latter introduced the concept of remote sensing, now a staple of hard sf, and its exploration of life under weightless conditions is as fresh as ever. Then there are four short stories, one of which, "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants," features Heinlein in a rare sentimental mood. Superb stories--old friends, really--that are well worth the book's price. John Mort
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heinlein, a Master of Fantasy,
By Gregory Bernard Banks ", author" (Atlanta area) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (Paperback)
Robert A. Heinlein is considered one of the greatest, most influential writers of all time in the genre of Science Fiction. He was a master of weaving fantastical tales of wonder and depth that often left the reader reflecting upon its social relevance to society as a whole. He had the ability to blend elements of both Science Fiction and Fantasy to create imaginative new worlds that were drastically different, yet strikingly similar to our own world. Though Heinlein was chiefly known as a writer of SF, he was also quite an accomplished fantasist."The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein" is a collection of eight of his best fantasy stories and novellas. In this book, the author of such books as "Stranger In A Strange Land," "Starship Troopers," and my favorite, "Have Space Suit, Will Travel," fully displays his unique ability to write about the mundane, ordinary people like ourselves and bring them to life in vivid, tales of fantasy and the supernatural. The stories of this collection cover a broad range of themes, from the tongue in cheek portrayal of an average businessman dealing with demon troubles in "Magic, Inc." to the eerie tale of a man believing that the whole world is plotting against him in "They--" to the provocative and touching story of an old man rediscovering love in "The Man Who Traveled In Elephants." Heinlein's style is distinctive, straightforward, and strong. He easily achieves what so many of would-be writer's like myself yearn to, which is to paint pictures with our words. Once you've read this book, you'll understand why "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" says that Heinlein "...rewrote US SF in his own image..." If you're specifically a Heinlein fan, a lover of Science Fiction and Fantasy in general, a writer aspiring to write in this field or merely a reading enthusiast (personally, I qualify for all of the above), this book is a wonderful addition to your library.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some good short work of Heinlein's,
By Escott Fleming (Minneapolis today) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (Hardcover)
I love Robert Heinlein's work. This is a repackaged set of sort stories previously published in Waldo and Magic, Inc. and The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag.So beware! Make sure you don't already have these works -- but if you don't, get it quick.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of Robert Heinlein,
This review is from: The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (Hardcover)
I am a big fan of Robert Heinlein, although I find all his Hugo award winning novels especially "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" pretty hard to digest. However "The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein" collects 8 intriguing stories from one of the true masters of SF."All you Zombies", where a man in a bar reveals that he is his every relation (father, mother et al) through a series of time paradoxes and "And he built a crooked house" where an architect constructs a house in the shape of a tesseract (a four dimensional hypercube) in which he and the new occupants of the house find themselves trapped are simply masterpieces. Check out "They --" as well. A must read for any Heinlein and serious SF fan.
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