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Glory Road

Glory Road

List Price: $15.30
Your Price: $15.30
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good But
Review: I found this book to be a fairly good read, but the major flaw in my opinion was the unreality that the female was depicted. Way to much devotion to husband.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4 and 1/2 Stars
Review: This book came at a time in Heinlien's career where he was probably frustrated and at least fed up with haggling with editors and censors over his previous two books (Stranger In A Strange Land and Podkayne of Mars) and he probably wrote this entertaining romp just for fun. Although this book IS fantasy, it's not of the usual Tolkien or sword-and-sorcery variety, it is definately done in RAH's style, with his usual witty first-person commentary and hobby horses. However, this book is obviously different in various ways. It is very fast-paced (except for some slowdown towards the end) and is enjoyable to read. Unlike previous books such as, say, Starship Troopers and Stranger, or future books like The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Heinlein wasn't really writing this book with a message, it does what books are supposed to do: entertain. Thus, it doesn't leave as profound an impression on you or have you start questioning your ways like some of his more complex works, but Glory Road is nevertheless a very good and enjoyable read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spielberg Should Read This!
Review: I wish someone like Steven Spielberg would make this into a movie, because with today's cinematography magic, I would finally be able to see that box!

I first read this book 25+ years ago... I reread it periodically even now, as I think "The Master" just had fun with this one. This is one you read for the joy of fantasy... not for Henlein's usual socio-commentary or black science. After all, who wouldn't want to have Scar Gordon's adventures with the Empress of the Universes?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Alright, but not up to Heinlein's standards
Review: This is not a bad novel. It's also not a very good novel. Entertaining, yes, but lacking in some deeper feeling and without an emotionally fulfilling ending. If you want to read Heinlein at his best, try STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND or SPACESHIP TROUPERS, which is nothing like the movie, I promise! These two books are fantastic, GLORY ROAD is merely okay.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Dean Has the Range
Review: The Dean of Science Fiction is best known for his hard science base for his works. Not necessarily possible, but not impossible under the existing science of his day.

Glory Road is a swashbuckling adventure through the "Hobbit" universe with no science underpinning that I could see. Even though I have no appreciation for this type fiction, which seems to have overwhelmed the scifi book clubs in the last few decades, Heinlein's writing and characters keep me turning the pages of Glory Road with anticipation.

If you're a fantasy fan, I would think you would love this book, if you, like me, are a hard scifi fan, try this one for a charge!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Heinlein does Fantasy !
Review: This was basically Heinlein's take on a Sword (literally) and Sorcery novel, and it's surprisingly good considering Fantasy stories (although see his story "And He Built and Crooked House" --which is wonderfully witty) are not necessarily his forte.

In this story, an unemployed, returning Vietnam vet meets a beautiful Amazon-like woman, Star, after answering an ad for a job. She thinks he's the perfect candidate, and before you can say "shazzam!" he is embarked on a picaresque, swashbuckling romp through the multiple dimensions of the "Seven Universes."

I especially enjoyed the sword-play, and all the erudition about fencing, in the book. I didn't know Heinlein knew much about this, but he probably studied it at Anapolis when he was at the Naval Academy.

As long as we're on the subject of fencing, there was one scene in this book that reminded me of the "The Princess Bride" where the other swordsman switches sword hands and keeps on fighting Scar Gordon, our hero. Apparently his opponent wasn't even fighting with his "good" hand until then! But despite this amazing display of virtuosity Gordon still defeats his opponent.

Whether this is your kind of Heinlein fare or not (fans are divided on their opinions of this book), it's still quite an entertaining story, with more adult themes than his earlier "juvenile" novels.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Different
Review: Reactions to this book seem to vary, often even between the sections of the story itself. As a fan of Heinlein's early works and not so much of his later ones, this one met a similar mixed reaction with me. I give it four stars because most of the story is very good, but it's more like a short novel and a half in the way it reads. Probably worth it for a Heinlein fan, but very different.

In some ways this reminds me of "Have Space Suit--Will Travel". One can draw comparisons in the plot: The first chapter introduces the main character, the second begins the real story, and about two thirds of the way through, the main quest ends and the resolution begins. But it's a different story: More grown-up, with a somewhat drier tone to the end.

The fantasy portions of the book--pretty much the first two thirds--are a good story and will resonate well with a lot of readers. There are of course some obstacles along the way, and the thing that guards the object of the quest is truly unusual. (Like Oscar, we're never entirely clear what he fights or how, yet it still works.)

Toward the end we see one of Heinlein's experiments in alternative government; I like these about his other books, though in this one there's not much story left to use as a foreground. At that point Oscar has to make tough choices and figure out if this post-quest world is the life he wants. Heinlein understood well that stories don't really end; they just reach a point where the writer has told the best parts. The wrap-up of this one, though, dragged on a little bit. I didn't find the pace too uncomfortable for my own tastes, but there's no denying that a few chapters could have been compressed to no harm.

Glory Road is a more grown-up Heinlein with a grown-up ending. It's not so bad as some say, but it's not his best, either. Still worth reading if you're a fan and have gone through a lot of his other books first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SF, fantasy, action -- good Heinlein
Review: Another sword-and-sorcery transference novel. Our hero, fresh out of a non-war in Southeast Asia, gets co-opted into an otherworld quest for the most fabulous object in the universe -- which has been stolen by the nogoodniks, of course. When he wrote this, Heinlein merged some of the aspects of his juvenile books (in which the goals are clear-cut and there are few grey areas), with those of some of his later works, which feature more moral dilemmas and a lot of attention paid to the Barnyard Dance.

Warning: I think Heinlein was just beginning to head down his 'free-love' path when he wrote this book, so I'd give this a 'PG' rating.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Heavy-handed Heinlein
Review: The first two thirds of this book is a rollicking adventure story. It is well written and a lot of fun.

However, Heinlein is extremely heavy-handed with the sex. I first read this book in my teens, and the sex scenes resonated very well with my adolescent sexual fantasies.

Worse, I found the last third of Glory Road to be essentially unreadable. After the quest is completed, Heinlein gets up on his soap box, and starts preaching a Libertarian political/philosphical gospel. If -- as I am -- you are unsympathetic to this view, you will find this section of the book to be extremely annoying.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Unreadable - Avoid!
Review: This book is something I never thought I could say existed: A Heinlein novel I can't stand! I love Heinlein, I revere him. He's one of my three favourite authors and it was always my intention to read every word he ever wrote. I will never accomplish that goal because this book stinks - I got perhaps a third of the way through it and could not force myself to turn another page.

If you want a good read, almost any other Heinlein work will be sure to please - even the three or four troubled, overlong, repetitive books he wrote when he had a brain tumour are masterpieces compared to this.

Spend your money wisely - spend it on something besides this book.


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