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1995 Fools: Robert A. Heinlein: The Sound Of His Wings
Path: bigblue.oit.unc.edu!concert!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!xanth.cs.odu.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!DIALix!melbourne.DIALix.oz.au!not-for-mail From: joe@melbourne.DIALix.oz.au (Joe Slater) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Robert A. Heinlein: The Sound Of His Wings Date: 1 Apr 1995 23:22:43 +1000 Organization: DIALix Services, Melbourne, Australia. Lines: 51 Sender: joe@melbourne.DIALix.oz.au Message-ID: <3ljk33$ru2$1@melbourne.DIALix.oz.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: melbourne.dialix.oz.au NNTP-Posting-User: joe X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #59 (NOV) Forgive me if this book has been reviewed here before. It's not an easy title to find, and I haven't seen people discussing it. The Future History of Robert Heinlein's works was commissioned by John Campbell after he noticed that many of Heinlein's stories seemed to fit a pattern. The specific events are dated - his famous story _The Roads Mus t Roll_ which depicts a US covered in mechanised highways was set in 1975 - but none the less it helped create a consistent vision which he used to great effect. The concept was adopted by later writers, and is now a standard tool of SF writers. The History has many gaps, stories that Heinlein may have intended to write, but never completed. One such gap has now been filled. _The Sound Of His Wings_ documents the death and rise of Nehemiah Scudder, the prophetic tyrant who appears in several stories. The title is peculiarly appropriate, as so many of his were. It is taken from one of the war poets, and refers to the sound of a falling plane, comparing it to the sound of Lucifer being thrown from heaven. No better title for the story could have been conceived. Heinlein feared that the US - and the world - was heading toward a time of insanity. Some might argue that he was right. In this novella the world is entering a period of mad balkanisation. Some international order is kept by the Unified Space Command, which alone controls the satellites containing nuclear missiles. Nehemiah Scudder is just a demagogue, but one wielding more power by the day. His message is strangely plausible, and seems to many to be the one force capable of uniting the weakened and divided United States. He not only gathers the support of the masses, but seems to be able to convert the leaders which oppose him. Convert them easily, in fact. Dayle Spencer is an lieutenant aboard one of the nuclear satellites. He thinks little of it when the Scudderite movement starts to gain ground there, but then notices that officers unfiendly to Scudder are rotated back to Earth - and when they return they are suspiciously enthusiastic about the New Crusade. Scudder's plan must be left to purchasers of the book, but it's a thriller that still grips today. As the tale reaches its climax the readers are reminded that not only Satan had wings ... This is a remarkable read. Most of us thought that there would be no new stories from Heinlein's back list. I have no idea why this novelette has finally been released, but I'm sure that it will be incredibly popular. It's oddly hard to acquire. I suggest that readers of this newsgroup lobby their book suppliers to bring it in. It's published by Underbridge Press, at a RRP of $4.95 US. jds
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