The Grand Masters create worlds where we may vacation for 15 minutes at a time

books:


	• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls Robert A. Heinlein Ace, 1988 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 98 reviews view larger image
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If you like banter, the first 2/3 of the book is pretty good....

After surviving an assassination attempt, author and ex-military man Richard Ames escapes the fallout with a run through outer space with new bride Gwen and bonsai tree in tow. Life becomes more and more complicated as the hit men and conspiracies multiply, eventually culminating in a revolution that began before Richard was even born.

Initially, this book is full of intrigue and fast-paced action, with a dose of comic banter for contrast. As it goes on though, the intrigue is lost and the story becomes more of an old-time radio skit where the plot plays second fiddle to dialogue. As a fan of comic wit, I didn't mind this shift, but die hard Sci Fi fans might. The problem I had was with the final portion of the book: it tried to make the story do too many things, which was ultimately a turn off. A dozen or so new characters were introduced, all with complicated relationships, and then a completely new plot line came into play that involved much time shifting and quantum physics- I felt like I should have been taking notes to keep it all straight. To top it off, the ending was ambiguous and open-ended, which considering the amount of effort I invested, was a big letdown.

Though the ending was disappointing, I did enjoy the first part of the book enough to give Robert A. Heinlein another try.

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Read this some time ago

It's been a while since I read this one. One thing that stands out for me is the disappointment at the ending. I felt like the author got tired of writing and took the easy way out.

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The Grand Masters create worlds where we may vacation for 15 minutes at a time

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" will not change the world the way "Stranger in a Strange Land" did. Nevertheless, you may find yourself reading it with a highlighter. There are dozens of one-liners suitable for sig lines. None are found in "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long" (1978) as this book was released in 1985.

Grand masters like RAH create worlds into which you can vacation for 15 minutes at a time and feel recharged. Alas, all such books all have a last page. Do you start reading it again? Do you start another in the same canon? In the case of RAH there is a lot from which to choose, so both options are open.

Fans of RAH will feel very much at home here. If you are new to his work, you will be tempted by references to prior work, on which you must then surely feast. That is no reason to skip this work or not make it your first RAH meal. It stands on it's own very nicely.

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