Revolt in 2100

Robert Heinlein has always been the subject of some controversy, and that's putting it mildly. At this point I should admit to having an affection for much of his work - even his later stuff - despite the highly dubious political and moral views that often come to the fore in these books. I liked Time Enough for Love and Number of the Beast. I liked Stranger In A Strange Land. Not very many people will own up to that sort of thing. A long long time ago I read The Puppet Masters and one or two of his books for juveniles, and I seem to remember liking them. Basically, I've always thought that Robert Heinlein was very good at thinking up interesting science fiction gizmos (by which I mean both technological gizmos, and plot devices). I thought, therefore, that Revolt in 2100 would be a pretty good bet. A nice bit of pulp sci-fi, I thought.

How wrong can you be?

Revolt in 2100 turned out to be a compilation of 3 short stories. I have since found out that the first one, If This Should Go On ..., was the first thing Heinlein ever had published, and it shows.

Today, the plot seems a little hackneyed, though I admit that 50 years ago it probably had a little more spark to it. Essentially, America is in the grip of a religious cult, and Our Heroes realise The Awful Truth, and have many adventures while trying to right the wrongs of society. I could put up with the dated and somewhat jingoistic plot, if the story had anything else going for it, but it doesn't. There is little or no character development - Our Heroes are two dimensional idiots in the main part, and it is next to impossible to feel any sympathy for them. Character development has never been a strength of Heinlein's - his goodies are always a little too good, and his baddies a little too bad, and in later years, his sagely mentors were always a little too similar to the person Heinlein himself would have liked to have been - but I can generally forgive him these faults because the plots are interesting, and the gadgets are fun. Sadly, If This Should Go On ... has no such redeeming qualities.

So what about the other two stories? They were better, but not much. I confess that I can't remember their names (though one mught have been called Misfit) which I suppose serves as a measure of how memorable they were. Again, they were stories about an America gone mad.

There's not a lot else you can say about Revolt in 2100. Not a great read. Why did I suffer all the way to the end, you may ask. Pigheadedness. It's very rarely that I will give up on a book, though I nearly gave up on this one several times!

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page