Book Review: The Green Hills of Earth

This is the second in a series of Heinlein short story compilations.  This assemblage is unified in the sense that Heinlein sets traditional heroic themes in his future world.

In Delilah and the Space Rigger, Heinlein addresses the issue of women in space.  The story is eerily prescient to the real life integration of women into the military.  Heinlein’s characters make the same arguments made against putting women on naval ships (outnumbered hundreds to one by men for months at a time).

Space Jockey is a story about the relationship between a worried wife and a Space Rigger (pilot with a dangerous job).  Throughout the course of the story the hero is placed in harm’s way several times and drafts and re-drafts different letters to his wife, at times promising to quit his dangerous job (she’d been nagging him to do so).  What is interesting is that this plot/theme could just as easily apply to a policeman’s life, a test-pilot’s life, etc.  Instead it is transposed into a future where the same human problems still exist.

There are several stories of heroism and the psychological effects on characters.  The Black Pits of Luna deals with a spoiled lost kid, and a brother coming of age and deciding his future is in space.  The Green Hills of Earth is the story of a blind bard (ex-pilot) who ends up saving the day in spite of his situation, and unlikely and unwanted presence on a ship bound for earth.

The Logic of Empire is a story of being shanghai’d in the “future” year 2000.  Heinlein explores exploitation (virtual slavery), its causes and the inevitable eventual struggle against it.  In this case the story takes place on Venus.

This was an interesting collection.