玛士撒拉之子

Future History - The Past Through Tomorrow #19-21, 23

by Robert A. Heinlein, 罗伯特·A. 海因莱因, Denovo (Translator)

21世纪末，人类的事业首次遭遇重大挫折，太空探索陷入停滞，美国在宗教极端势力的统治下奄奄一息。为了重建自由正义的国度，打开通向人类新纪元的大门，被奴役的人们以鲜血和生命为代价发动起义，书写了人类历史的新篇章。

但是，在新时代担任开路先锋的却是一些愤世嫉俗者、科学天才和寿命超长的“另类”，这些“不合群的人”将触角伸向了一片神秘领域--太空深处……

本书为海因莱因“未来史”系列之一，收入的四篇小说描绘了21世纪末至22世纪人类社会的壮丽场景，为我们展开了一幅波澜壮阔、风起云涌的时代画卷。

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Adventure, Dystopia, Novels

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His plots often posed provocative situations which challenged conventional social mores. His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally.
Heinlein became one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke are often considered the "Big Three" of English-language science fiction authors. Notable Heinlein works include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers (which helped mold the space marine and mecha archetypes) and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His work sometimes had controversial aspects, such as plural marriage in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, militarism in Starship Troopers and technologically competent women characters who were formidable, yet often stereotypically feminine—such as Friday.
Heinlein used his science fiction as a way to explore provocative social and political ideas and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex. Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.
Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. Four of his novels won Hugo Awards. In addition, fifty years after publication, seven of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos"—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. In his fiction, Heinlein coined terms that have become part of the English language, including grok, waldo and speculative fiction, as well as popularizing existing terms like "TANSTAAFL", "pay it forward", and "space marine". He also anticipated mechanical computer-aided design with "Drafting Dan" and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel Beyond This Horizon.
Also wrote under Pen names: Anson McDonald, Lyle Monroe, Caleb Saunders, John Riverside and Simon York.

Reviews

[Heather's Mum · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Howard Families, (Methuselah's Children), by carefully choosing individuals for reproducing, now expect to live as long as 150 years old.

Society wants their secret. They don't have one to offer ...other than selective breeding. The Howards flee persecution to another world.

Eventually, Lazarus, and a majority of the Families, decide it's time to go back to Earth. Surprise conditions await them.

I'd enjoy reading this again, as details have faded from my memory.

[Stephanie Toland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been holding off reviewing this for a bit. Needed some time to digest it, I think. I have loved books and reading for as long as I can remember. I have always loved a good mystery, although horror and thrillers were mainly my “thing”. But I get bored easily. To try and keep myself ever learning and engaged, lately my reading “strategy” is to mix it up. All different genres of books.

To be honest, classic sci-fi is relatively new to me. When I envision a category of classic sci-fi, in my head I picture it in black and white with men wearing fishbowl helmets and speaking like robots. Sort of like a bad 50’s Martian movie. Robert Heinlein was suggested by a friend, so I thought I would give it a go. I knew this book was separated into two different stories. What I didn’t know was the first “book” Revolt in 2100 was actually a combination of 3 distinct stories that had only a little bit of interrelation. I wish I had known this going in because I spent the majority of the second “story” trying to figure out how it fit.

For pretty much a beginning shot at this genre, it wasn’t bad. I gave it 4 stars, but I’d have to say it was more like 3 1/2. I really enjoyed MOST of the story. I highly liked the premise of a completely different US run as a theological state and the undoing of it. But by the end, it was just too much military strategy for me.

The second “story” about Coventry I really liked. Coventry is kinda like a jail country, where you are sent if you break with The Covenant (the new world Constitution). The last story of the first part was all about space travel and bored me to tears. Not because of the travel, but it has so many tiny details of space suits and physics of gravity and mathematical equations of moving through space that I could have completely skipped it and been happy. The only real reason I could see for it being included was the main character played a big role in the last book, Methuselah’s Children.

This story really kept my interest. It’s about the Howard Family, a group of about 100,000 members who had conquered the secret of immortality through good old-fashioned inbreeding! When they reveal the secret that they have members edging up to 200+ years old, the rest of the world turns on them. Unless they reveal their secret “fountain of youth” they are going to be tortured or killed. So, led by their oldest member Lazarus, they escape for a new planet to call their own.

I’m going to have to read more Heinlein to see if I really enjoy him or not. There were aspects I loved, like his descriptions of new planets and species. But he also wrote in painfully boring details a lot of extra fluff that just sort of made my mind wander and that I didn’t really find relevant to the story.

So....the moral of this review? I am extremely happy with myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something completely new to me. I plan on reading all different genres for awhile just to abate any type of reading burnout. Thanks to my good friend and Science Fiction/Fantasy mentor Paul for all his wisdom and many lists that I have stored away for probably years to come!!

[Andy2302 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two books with 4 stories all related to life on Earth after Stranger in a Strange Land. Personal freedom has become burdensome in Revolt in 2100 with Methuselah's Children running away to outer space. Published in 1952 with dated technology. Fun reads setting up further sequels. 3.5 stars
A memorable quote from Revolt in 2100 "You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic."

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Revolt in 2100 is important to read now as it foreshadows a lot of what is taking place in our society today and what the eventual outcome of those trends will be if we don't wake up. Unfortunately given the way things are going, I don't see the majority waking up.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both novels are classic Heinlein. Thoughtful science fiction written many years ago and addressing issues that can be applied to the issues of today.

[Ted Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book impressed me more with Heinlein's genius than anything of his I have read before. I did not know when I started this book (which contains the 2 separate books in one) that it is actually the third volume in his “Future History” series, but it stood well on its own. He has written many stories that take place in different times and places with different characters, but which all share the same future historical time line of major historical figures and events. I thought this book did a great job of combining the insightful social commentary of (the sometimes slow) “Stranger in Strange Land” with the basic plot driven storyline of (the sometimes simple) “Have Spacesuit Will Travel”. He examines a future America which has turned into a dictatorship theocracy, and the growing revolution to overthrow it. Two favorite quotes:

I believe very strongly in freedom of religion – but I think that freedom is best expressed as freedom to keep quiet. From my point of view a great deal of openly expressed piety is insufferable conceit.

“I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force but secrecy… Censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter undertakes to say to its subjects, “this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know”, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything – you can’t conquer a free man, the most you can do is kill him.”

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book, Revolt in 2100, mostly serve to build a setting for the second book. The theocracy that rule before the revolution is interesting and so is the nation that replace it but the revolution itself is quite dull. The story feature typical Heinlein characters, able and hardworking average Joes that do what they're supposed to do which somehow put them in essential roles within the the plot resulting in everything working out for the best. The two stories following the revolution, featuring characters in different ways exiled by the post-revolt government are the most interesting parts of Revolt in 2100. Quite a generic Heinlein story that's in my eyes only readworthy if you intend to read the connecting stories, elsewise 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress' is a way better story on a similar theme. A weak 3.

The second book, Methuselah's Children, start out great with thought provoking imagery of a minimal government gone authoritarian following some peculiar circumstances. While most of the characters follow the Heinlein templates some, including Lazarus Long, are exceptions that bring much needed flavor to the story. Following the exodus of Methusela's children come some quite absurd scientific mumbo jumbo but it does not really damage the story, especially if you keep in mind that it was first released in 1958. Several plot points feel rushed and would have benefited from more in depth exploration, all in all I'd give the second book 3 out of 5 stars.

[Mike Stone, · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are a bunch of vintage Heinleins - the stuff that made him great.

Revolt in 2100 contains three stories, the main one being "If This Goes On". For half a century, America has been ruled by a religious dictatorship, founded by Nehemiah Scudder, a TV evangelist elected President in 2012. "The next election was never held". The Church seems to be an amalgamation of the wilder Protestant sects, very down on Catholics, Mormons, Freemasons and (surprise, surprise) Jews, who are renamed "Pariahs". It follows a naive young officer who gets on the wrong side of the regime, has to join the revolutionary "Cabal" (actually a Masonic Lodge) to survive, and takes part in the eventual revolution.

There is room for the odd quibble. Thus we are told that even after the revolution the Cabal has barely enough men to guard the tv stations, and that in much of the country it is dangerous for their me to go around in groups of less than six. But if this is so, where did they find the manpower to attack New Jerusalem. And how, whilst in hiding, could they train men to operate the armoured vehicles which they use for the assault? Quibble quibble Mike. Essentially though, a straight (but good) adventure story.

The next two stories, "Coventry" and "Misfit", give short glimpses of the subsequent regime, where liberty has been restored, with a "Covenant" guaranteeing human rights, but are mainly from the viewpoint of those who still don't fit in, respectively a literary critic who refuses psychotherapy after punching someone on the nose, and a juvenile delinquent (nature of delinquency unspecified) who turns out to be a mathematical genius. Mainly these lay some groundwork for "Methuselah's Children", where the Brave New Utopia faces its first serious test.

It flunks big time.

This story centres on the Howard Families, who have, for the last two centuries, used selective breeding to lengthen their lives, and now live two or three times as long as other people. Until the fall of the dictatorship, they have kept themselves discreetly clandestine, but under the Covenant feel safe enough to come out of the closet. This proves a disastrous mistake. They promptly attract the attention of demagogue Bork Vanning, a sort of "Nehemiah Scudder with the religion left out" who sees a path to power in whipping up the jealousy of the short-lived majority against the Howards, who are cast as the new Pariahs.

When the chips are down, the wonderful Covenant proves a distinctly shoddy product. Far from strengthening the old checks and balances, which themselves evidently failed to stop Scudder, it has actually weakened them even further. All civil rights can be suspended by a simple vote of the Council, reminiscent of the Enabling Act by which the Reichstag gave Hitler dictatorial powers. When the Administrator (ie President) is sceptical and presses the witch-hunt with insufficient vigour, he is likewise removed by a simple majority vote (no impeachment needed) and forced to flee for his life. The Howards are rounded up - women, kids and all - to a "Guantanamo"-type camp, in a manner which makes Joe McCarthy and George Dubya look like Mary Poppins, so that the "secret of immortality" can be extracted by torture.

The rest of the book focuses on the Families' escape. They hijack an interstellar spaceship and seek a new abode. After encounters with two alien races - both fascinatingly drawn - they return to earth where they are no longer in immediate danger, but which is, from the sound of things, not much better than the one they left.

As always, there are minor flaws. In particular, I am a mite confused as to the political setup. In "Coventry", the Covenant is apparently a new Constitution for the United States, adopted after the Second Revolution; but in MC, the US now forms part of a Western Federation, presumably the same "Federation" mentioned toward the end of ITGO, which America (previously cut off from the rest of the world by "Iron Curtain" type barriers) has evidently joined.

Yet there is no mention of any Constitution or legal system other than the Covenant. Did America, having drawn up its brave new Covenant, immediately nullify it by joining a supranational body with power to overrule it? Or did the Federation adopt the Constitution of a new member, admittedly an important one, but whose democratic record had been spotty, to say the least, for the past half century or so? This would be rather like the Third Reich continuing to the 1990s, and upon its overthrow the rest of Europe at once adopting for itself Germany's new and untested Constitution, or as if the EU had admitted Gorbachev's or Putin's Russia on a similar basis. Not very likely, yet Administrator Ford apparently resides in the US, and his office is at "Novak Tower", named after an important figure in America's second Revolution. The distinction between America and the Western World in general is thoroughly muddled.

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, Heinlein couldn't resist including an overpossessive mother, like the one in "The Star Beast", as an Aunt Sally. She is savagely mocked, yet her only crime is to have been dropped into a ghastly situation, for which nothing in life has prepared her, and failing to react like an omnicompetent "Heinlein Individual". How many of us would? If she's a tad overprotective of her only child, is this really surprising after what they've gone through?

Still, these remain immortal classics of sf. In particular, MC introduces us to Lazarus Long, who will feature so much in Heinlein's later work. A great character. Read and enjoy.

[Michael Jarrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Heinlein read and a good introduction to Lazarus Long! I enjoyed rereading Methuselah's Children again after many years.

[E Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classics from one of science fiction's Greats.

[Kitap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of previously released material from Heinlein's "future history" timeline. The first story in the collection, "If This Goes On...," describes an American theocracy and the efforts of the Cabal (apparently Freemasonry) to overthrow it and return to the traditions of a democratic republic. "Coventry" (the second story, and my favorite) is about an anarchist citizen of the subsequent society who rejects its Covenant (a document rooted in general semantics) and discovers that is is harder to be an absolute individual than he ever imagined. The last story in the first half, "Misfits," and the second half of the collection, "Methuselah's Children," describe the era of space colonization and galactic exploration that follow the previous tales.

Fast-paced, engaging, and chock full of interesting ideas.

[Micah Siegmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having not read "The Past Through Tomorrow", I still enjoyed this collection of 2 Heinlein stories.


Revolt in 2100 - This story revolves around a group of people who are determined to take the country back from the ruling theocratic government. Not as nuanced as other cautionary sci-fi tales, and the character development is a little weak, but overall a pretty fun read.


Methuselah's Children - The story starts with an attack on the "Howard families", who are people that can live for hundreds of years thanks to deliberate breeding. Philosophical/social topics such as civil liberties and immortality are woven in as the main character Lazarus (the oldest man alive) travels the universe.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolt in 2100 is a series of short novels depicting the rise and fall of an American dystopia. Nehemiah Scudder, who calls himself The Prophet, is a man who warps religious beliefs into power. He becomes a tyrant over the United States, and cuts it off from all outside civilization. The entire country worships him, for fear of death if they don't. A small group of renegades known as the Cabal begin to fight back, and our protagonist, John Lyle, soon joins them, but finds it harder than he expected. Do the Cabal defeat The Prophet and save America? And what happens next? read the book to find out more.

[Doug Luberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of two novellas by Heinlein.

Revolt in 2100 was a blast. I heard about it from another Freemason and had to read it, since it's one of those rare pieces of modern fiction where Masons are the good guys, outside of 'National Treasure.'

Heinlein wasn't a Freemason, but he either read some exposes of Masonic ritual, or had some other very good inside sources on Masonic ritual.

Methuselah's Children is part of a continuing story arc. It's classic, and part of Heinlein at his best.

[Ewok117 (Who has a cooler username than you) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert A. Heinlein does it again! This was the fourth or fifth of his books i have read, and none have disappointed me yet. The action levels were lower in this one, swapped out for a perfect dose of suspense. Another cast of beliveable characters, accurate locations, and future history. I wouldn't recommend it for a girl, unless you happen to be a die-hard Henlein fan. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and check out "Rocket Ship Gailileo" from a library!

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read the first one. After that, I had so little drive to read the second one, I didn't. Unremarkable characters, unremarkable plot/storyline, it was just a run of the mill old-school sci-fi book. Most interesting parts are those where you note the things the author hadn't planned on existing in the future that we have now.

[Samacgillivray]

Say hello to Woodrow Wilson Smith AKA Lazarus Long and the Howard family. This book introduces Lazarus and the family who's secret is worth giving up your freedom and your country or so non family members believe. Start here to follow Lazarus through his adventures in time and space. He is a lovable rogue!

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolt in 2100 was too disjointed for me - it was more like several novellas strung together and not too coherently at that. I did enjoy Methuselah's Children. It had Heinlein's trademark dry humor and general philosophy of life.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

American's have a second revolution to achieve freedom from the ayatollahs in "Revolt in 2100". In "Methuselah's Children", some people have much longer lives and everyone elase wants the secret to immortality.

[Squeaky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heinlein's thoughts, in the postscript to Revolt In 2100, on the rise of religious fanaticism are apropos to our current situation. "The custodians of the True Faith cannot logically admit tolerance of heresy to be a virtue."

[Claire Binkley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently, my former adoration of everything sci-fi has not persisted to current content contemplation of this work of Heinlein expertise. Oops.

Heinlein IS an incredible writer, don't get me wrong! It's just this work has gotten on my last nerve.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revolt in 2100,+1 million. A fine warning on the dangers of theocracy. Methuselah's Children, meh. Not one of Heinlein's best works.

[Katey · Rating 3 out of 5]

These two stories are interesting, but they feel unfinished. Right about the time you're really excited about the story, it just stops.

[Drew]

Methuselah's Children by Heinlein Robert A. (1960)

[Traummachine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolt in 2100: 4 stars
Methuselah's Children: 3.5 stars

[Stephen Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

What he does best - action SF with a little bit of preaching

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very prescient book, Revolt is the companion work to the excellent Stranger in a Strange Land.

[Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

5