I’m starting a new feature of the blog: reviews of classic science fiction novels and movies. I’ll begin with one of my favorites: Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein.
It’s the far distant future, on a far distant planet, and an old man is dying … or is he? Woodrow Wilson Smith, aka Lazarus Long, awakens in a luxury suite in a hospital, where he’s been saved against his wishes. Lazarus is the oldest human in existence and the planetary ruler has chosen to “rejuvenate” him to health whether Lazarus wants the treatments or not.
Written primarily as a series of conversations with “The Senior,” this book is the rather rambling story of an old man’s very long, very loving, life. Heinlein is known for his tangents and long dialogues, but that’s part of what I like about his books. They feel more like you’re sitting across a table at a coffeeshop, chatting with an old friend, rather than reading a novel.
I love this book because I love the characters and their stories. Lazarus/Woodrow, who is an irascible old geezer with a nearly infinite capacity for love which he will deny until backed into a corner. Minerva, the computer who wants to be human because she has fallen in love with the planetary ruler, Ira. Dora, the greatest love of Lazarus’ life and the only short-lifer he ever married. And even “Galahad” Jones, clown and con man, who is a self-professed coward until he volunteers to accompany Lazarus on a possibly deadly mission into the past.
Minerva (the computer) realizes that the same drive which powers a starship can also be used to travel into the past. Lazarus is intrigued and decides to test the theory by traveling into his own childhood, where he will pose as a distant relative so he can meet his own family again as an adult. It works perfectly–until he meets his own mother and falls madly in love with the woman he never really understood until now.
If you enjoy classic science fiction, warts and all, you should give Heinlein a try. Sure, there are faults in the writing, as well as the old-fashioned (now) way of writing you have to get past, but the stories are worth it, in my opinion. I think everyone should try at least three of the “old masters” of science fiction before they say they don’t like classic sci fi. Try Time Enough for Love if you like a little romance sprinkled in with your space opera.
