This was one of my earliest favorites and I wanted to see if after some thirty-odd years if it would still appeal to me.  It does and not just from nostalgia.  It is still a well-written and constructed story. This was, I believe, our first introduction to Heinlein’s most famous character: Lazarus Long. 

As many of you probably already know, Lazarus Long, nee Woodrow Smith, was born into a eugenics program.  Now I use that term for a little shock value, admittedly.  It is interesting to me that the idea was so very appealing and seemed so logical back then.  As with many other issues, we have become more sophisticated and aware of subtleties that escaped us in our youth.  Lazarus was the product of a deliberate breeding program with the stated goal of extending a human’s lifetime.  He is, however, a mutant in that he is an outlier in the program. As a product of just the third generation, he outlives everyone for more than one millennium.  But that’s what makes him so iconic.

In any case, this book introduces the character although he isn’t the bigger-than-life character he eventually becomes.  The program has been quietly running for some 300 years or so and members of the Howard Families (as they name themselves) are living well into their second century.  They employ tactics of changing names and birthdates for their members to hide them which proved necessary for many decades of societal decline; the “Crazy Years.” But society seems to have gentled; privacy and courtesy are now on the rise and many members are tired of giving up lives and careers and believe their neighbors will accept them as they are.  After much debate within the Family, a small group, some ten thousand people, make themselves known to the public.  It did not go as well as they would have liked.  As Lazarus put it:  “Eve is in no danger from her neighbors and friends, and I am in no danger from mine.  But she is in danger from my neighbors and friends – and I from hers.”  Generally speaking, the populace was first outraged that people with longer lives than them were living amongst them.  Then the populace demanded the gift be shared.  And when told that no such gift or secret existed, that their long lives were the benefit of planned genetics, the populace was justifiably angry.  Angry people do terrible things.

The Lazarus character is well-established as someone who is ready to do the hard things to survive, ready to react, and already planning the next step.  He and the titular head of the Family realize there is no way for the Family to survive the witch hunt coming for them.  Since they won’t be allowed to co-exist or resettle elsewhere on the planet, Lazarus proposes a daring plan:  steal a huge generational ship in orbit; recently completed and just waiting for its crew.  And then just leave the solar system; which they do, all one-hundred-thousand of them.

They are fortunate enough to have among their members the amazing genius of Andy “Slipstick” Libby; a mathematician who was introduced in an earlier story, “Misfits” in 1939.  With his abilities, the ship is able to traverse a great distance of space to an earth-like planet where the refugees are welcomed with open arms. But although the natives are friendly, welcoming and helpful, they come to understand they will be required to ‘worship’ a local god; which will reduce them to the status of a beloved pet.  Heinlein was famous for venerating individualism; this was his opportunity to emphatically decline and the humans quickly leave. The local ‘god’ was so eager to send the humans away once it realized they couldn’t be domesticated, that it used unknown technology to send them faster and further than they could have done on their own.  They were sent to another earth-like planet where the natives were, once again, friendly, welcoming and helpful.  They do confirm there is no god waiting to absorb them and the planet is amazingly comfortable; the climate is always clement, food grows on trees and there is no need to actually do anything.  For a while, everyone is content and happy.  There is a catch, of course.  The natives enjoy a group consciousness which, effectively, defeats death as no one actually dies even if their corporate body disincorporates.  They offer this boon to the humans. For some of their longer-lived brethren, it may be desired.  For Lazarus, the cantankerous individualist that he is, it is anathema as is the useless pastoral life they have now.  He proposes to the group that they have options.  They could, of course, stay on this idyllic planet, leave and go find another, or…return to Earth.  He was pleasantly surprised that the majority felt as he did.  And with the advances that Libby was able to employ from both alien contacts, they now had the technology to return to Earth quite quickly although the question of how much time had passed on Earth was rather difficult to answer.  They had no idea how long they’d been gone, what kind of society they would encounter and whether they’d be welcomed or incarcerated.  But they had leverage: advanced technology that might be traded.

This was a very well-constructed plot in a spare 183 pages (in my copy) and very well-written.  I enjoyed the ride.

Heinlein had two concepts to explore in this story.  One was the idea of long life and what one could do with it; how it would shape a person who knew they had much longer to live than their neighbors.  He spoke a bit about how these people would have a more patient approach to life and a longer view towards their future.  Relationships would also tend to be more temporary.  The other concept he wanted to explore was ‘what makes a human, human.’ He offers up two radically different alien environments which both offer safety and comfort; at the expense of what he defines as humanity. 

In keeping an open mind towards this latter concept, one could argue that there’s nothing wrong with choosing either of those options.  It wouldn’t be the first time that humans chose subjugation to a god; or allowed their individuality to be subsumed into a group.  But this was a topic on which Heinlein was positively militant.  For a man raised within the ‘traditional’ generation where religion still reigned (and I am, of course, referring to the white Christian ethos in the US) and where respect for authority figures was always assumed, he was definitely a mutant.  He glorified the man who could think for himself, defy societal constructs, and was willing to commit mayhem for the greater good (well, his greater good, of course.)  He was very enamored with action heroes, to use a more contemporary term.  This sort of approach, along with his inability to craft complex female characters, would never fly today.  But they were good stories; well-plotted and exciting.  And I will admit to a certain amount of nostalgia as I was immersed in these stories at a young age.  I doubt very much that they will find much audience in younger people today.  Sigh…I think I’m sorry they won’t have the same experience.   ~~ Catherine Book

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