Been
re-reading an old Robert Heinlein. I had
forgotten what I loved…and hated about those stories. His hard science explanations were brutal,
probably correct but Lord only of intense interest to particle physicist and
geneticist. I re-read “Time Enough For Love”.
Lazarus Long, oldest member of the Howard families and man of many
names, has been retrieved by his loving
descendants. He was near death and
determined to complete the act of dying.
There is a very long couple of chapters where they have to explain why
they saved him. He told them he had
lived long enough and there was nothing interesting left to do. If they could convince him that there were
more mysteries and things to learn he would go ahead with the
rejuvenation. Story telling time. He reminisced about one planet where he
raised a foundling, Dora until she got big enough to tell him that she wanted
him for her husband. He had
surprisingly, fallen totally in love with Dora.
Dora knew he was a long-lived Howard and he decided he wanted nine
children with her. This story was all
about leaving the outskirts in a two wagon mule train. The mules were
intelligent and Buck talked quite well.
They fought off wild life, nearly died of thirst but made it up and over
a rocky pass into a lovely valley.
There they settled. Only had
trouble from people once. A wagon showed
up with three men who turned out to be evil, wicked, bad and dead. Dora had her many babies, other settlers
showed up and it looked like the community was going to thrive. Dora died at an advanced age and it was time
for Lazarus to move on. I blubbered all
over that scene. There was also the
story of the man who became admiral through laziness. A young lad aged 13
raised in farm country loved to read because that meant he wasn’t doing
chores. School ended for him at age 13
and after following the south end of a mule pulling a plow he went into town,
lied about his age and enlisted. The
entire story involves his efforts at trying to find more time to read involved
disguising laziness as hard work. Most
amusing. Lazarus had more generational
adventures and it got boring, so he settled into a nice ending. His kids got him partially rejuvenated when
they asked him what he thought he might like to do. He said it would be time travel. Oh not to the deadly times just to observe
some of his favorite places, things and times.
So, they got that going. He
programed his space ship for early 20th century, Kansas City and
wound up there August 1916. He had
intended to visit his family, He was
only four years old at that time. So
Lazarus went as Ted Bronson and eventually met his then family and the most
important love of his live and got his arse shot off during WWI. Now I’m
trying to download “The Number Of The Beast” (Deetie and her crew meet Dora)
not on Amazon and “Beyond The Sunset” (Mama Maureen’s adventures) not on
Amazon. Also there were a number of
transcription errors in the digital copy that RAH would have not
tolerated. So I am off to grumble at
Amazon.
