The Worlds Of Robert Heinlein (book review)
Although I’ve read most of Robert Heinlein’s novels, it looks like I missed this anthology, ‘The Worlds Of Robert Heinlein’. This one only has four short stories and a rather interesting introduction, ‘Pandora’s Box’, where he explains that Science Fiction only speculates not predicts the future, which he gives thoughts on as to what could happen up to the year 2000. Would women really carry a mobile telephone that could fit into their purse? Heinlein nearly got that one right, although the fact that it actually replaced the purse and its accessories showed how close he nearly was. I do think his piece is worth picking this book up because it gives insight into him at the time. The principle part being his prime reason for writing was to make money while he was convalescing than any other reason.
‘Free Men’ (1966) is set in some undisclosed future and the turnover in people who want to be president. It’s a bit convoluted and probably not one of his best.
Now, ‘Blowups Happen’ gives details of the use of Uranium-235. Although described as a controlled nuclear bomb, he’s actually describing a nuclear reactor. Psychiatrists watch over the men involved in the close-ups of their operations and anyone is pulled, including themselves, if they do things outside of their expected behaviour. All well and good and then looking up when this story was written and it was 1940, 5 years before the first nuclear bomb! A little research shows Heinlein revised the story after 1946 in line with what actually happened but there’s no way of spotting which version of the story this is. Interestingly, another psychiatrist is brought in. Dr. Lentz was taught by Alfred Korzybski in Chicago so is essentially also a specialist in General Semantics or Null-A in all but name. Considering Heinlein’s knowledge was based on unclassified research into nuclear power he got most of it right. Governing a nuclear reactor is a little off in terms of psychiatrists watching over activities because it is never done that close up but from control rooms than the reactor.
‘Solution Unsatisfactory’ (1941) is the second of Heinlein’s nuclear stories and even more important. Rather than a nuclear bomb, what Heinlein is describing is a dirty bomb, releasing radioactive particles on cities that effectively kills everything in them. About the only thing he got wrong was the time it took to take effect. Its not instantaneous but still fatal. We see the development through the eyes of John deFries, a former campaign manager for congressman Colonel Clyde C. Manning. He is brought back to the military for World War 2 to supervise the American nuclear programme and saw the possibilities and dangers from radioactive particles being used in medical research. As this story was written before Pearl Harbor, Japan doesn’t really enter the war but these dirty bombs effectively stop Germany. You have to read the entire story for yourself but I can see why America’s war department was worried about a security breech rather than freely available information that Heinlein used. It probably was the starting point for Heinlein being considered right wing but he was only exploring the consequences of keeping the dirty bomb out of the hands of a new American president. If this story has had any effect over the years, its because we haven’t had any dirty bombs and should be required reading for everyone. If anything, Heinlein didn’t go far enough. He only thought the radioactive particles would just stay where they landed. With wind and other weather conditions, it would spread back to ever sent it. A nuclear bomb blast would be moderate in comparison.
Both stories had me sitting back and thinking. ‘Solution Unsatisfactory’ most of all. Heinlein might debate whether he was being predictive or speculative here. It doesn’t matter, the consequences are the same: Deadly! Both stories need to be on any school’s agenda as required reading. Please ensure you get your own copy and read them in this book. I suspect Heinlein just saw them both as stories to make money and do the best he can with the subject at the time rather than the accuracy he was providing and spread his research into two stories.
Considering Heinlein’s introduction about Science Fiction being speculative rather than predictive, these two stories were pretty close to the truth. They also have some significance today. If you’re apply science or technology in your SF story then do your research to ensure you know what you are writing about before straying into speculation. If you can throw some insight into this then you are serving your readers.
GF Willmetts
May 2026
(pub: NEL, 1972. 127 page paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 45000269-7)
