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kareilaMy LJ book club, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bookretorts, is reading The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress this month, but since I read that a year ago (or most of it, anyway), I decided to read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls instead, since it's a sequel of sorts.
It also turns out to be a sequel to pretty much every other Heinlein novel ever written, as far as I can tell. In the last third of the book, the characters from Time Enough For Love show up, followed by others I'd probably recognize from Heinlein's other books if I'd read them all. In fact, the last few chapters could almost be retitled "How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe" with all the self-awareness that implies.
I really enjoyed the more action-packed parts of the story. They reminded me of North By Northwest in space, or maybe even a non-amnesiac variation on Total Recall: a man finds himself suddenly embroiled in a covert plot he knows nothing about, with the assistance of a mysterious but beautiful woman who wins his heart.
Unfortunately, the story also suffers from the typical Heinlein ailments: an obsession with sex and a playful but creepy reaffirmation of the power dynamics inherent in traditional gender roles. His most offensive works also include a steaming helping of incest, which is thankfully not prominent here. The two protagonists start out monogamous, which is a refreshing change, but that's presented as an unusual circumstance and likely to be temporary.
Also, the ending was frustratingly open-ended, although given Heinlein's rules for his science fictional universe, I shouldn't have been surprised by that. In the end, they're all in Schrödinger's box, both alive and dead.
bookretorts, is reading The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress this month, but since I read that a year ago (or most of it, anyway), I decided to read The Cat Who Walks Through Walls instead, since it's a sequel of sorts.It also turns out to be a sequel to pretty much every other Heinlein novel ever written, as far as I can tell. In the last third of the book, the characters from Time Enough For Love show up, followed by others I'd probably recognize from Heinlein's other books if I'd read them all. In fact, the last few chapters could almost be retitled "How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe" with all the self-awareness that implies.
I really enjoyed the more action-packed parts of the story. They reminded me of North By Northwest in space, or maybe even a non-amnesiac variation on Total Recall: a man finds himself suddenly embroiled in a covert plot he knows nothing about, with the assistance of a mysterious but beautiful woman who wins his heart.
Unfortunately, the story also suffers from the typical Heinlein ailments: an obsession with sex and a playful but creepy reaffirmation of the power dynamics inherent in traditional gender roles. His most offensive works also include a steaming helping of incest, which is thankfully not prominent here. The two protagonists start out monogamous, which is a refreshing change, but that's presented as an unusual circumstance and likely to be temporary.
Also, the ending was frustratingly open-ended, although given Heinlein's rules for his science fictional universe, I shouldn't have been surprised by that. In the end, they're all in Schrödinger's box, both alive and dead.
