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1.0 out of 5 stars
Spend your money on RAH's works instead, Dec 30 2003
By A Customer
I consider Robert Heinlein one of the great moral and intellectual guides in my life. His science fiction and essays were guideposts as I grew up. However, I can't recommend J. Neil Schulman's compilation of his interactions with RAH.The book is rife with typos and is printed in a typeface big enough to qualify for a "Large Print Edition," stamp. ... I should have realized the amateur quality of the publication from the cover photo: a snapshot taken in dim light without a flash. The publisher couldn't even make the effort to color-correct the picture. Most of the content is Schulman name-dropping and pushing a Libertarian agenda. Not that Libertarianism is a bad thing, it's just Schulman harps on it relentlessly. The foreword by Brad Linaweaver, another flaming Libertarian, intimates that Schulman is a master author, only reined in by Organized Media because of his hard-hitting, challenging, Libertarian-based efforts. If the work in this book is any indication of Schulman's other writing, it isn't a Libertarian stance that's holding him back, it's talent. The Q&A interview between Schulman and RAH show, to an embarrassingly degree, how shallow Schulman's questions were. Many read like something Comic Book Guy from "The Simpson's" would ask. Granted, Schulman was in his early 20s when he conducted the interview, but most of the interview devolves down to political discussions with a tolerant old man showing a vertically-educated young turk how to think beyond his narrow outlook. Sadly, you won't get much insight into RAH's thoughts on writing or his creative process; Schulman's too busy asking RAH what he thinks life will be like in a 24th Century inhabited by Lazarus Long. Spend your money on RAH's own works and you'll get a much better idea of what the man was like and what he thought.
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