In Print: Methuselah's Children by Robert Heinlein

I finally decided to read some other work by Robert A. Heinlein. He's generally regarded as one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, and when you think about his works and the time they were written, many in the 1950s and 60s, his mind was way ahead of anything out there. Plus I wanted to judge for myself by reading something other than his incredible tome "Starship Troopers."

With that, I want to stress how impressive was Heinlein's grasp of what culture and space travel might be like in the future. The story takes place in a very different world, some five centuries from now, by my reckoning. The Earth, or Terra as they refer to it in his books, had already been devastated by nuclear war and many parts were only just becoming habitable. Society had taken a new shape and new direction. Freedom and civil liberty were natural born rights. That is, until the populace learns about the Howard families. The Howard families were bred for long lifespans, living centuries. Of course this creates a stir and the members of the families were rounded up and put in prison so that the secret of longevity would be revealed. Only there was nothing to reveal. Long life was achieved simply by marrying off couples who had family history of long life. That simple. This was unacceptable as an answer, so the families had to escape persecution by leaving home.

The bulk of the book is about the adventures of Lazurus Long, the eldest among the families, and the rest as they search the stars for a new home. The search didn't go very well and they end up back on Earth.

It's a nice flowing story, but brief by today's standards. Back in the day novels weren't written like they are today. I'm sure that if Heinlein was given the go ahead he could've easily elaborated more and add to the adventures, but he kept it brief which is fine too. It's a fun book that's very interesting to read. The characters are very clever and at times shocking. Definitely a worthwhile book to read if you love science fiction.

The pic included in this review is the cover of the UK printing that I read. The first copyright date for this book was 1941. My edition was dated 1973.