For Us, the Living

I’m indebted to Zed of MemeMachineGo! for passing on this report from the Worldcon panel on the Robert Heinlein’s recently rediscovered first novel, For Us, the Living.

[…]

The book itself is, by some people’s descriptions, not really a “novel” per se. Spider Robinson described it as a thinly fictionalized series of lectures. It shows a basic ignorance of the conventions of fiction writing, which is probably why it was never published in its original form. But parts of it were apparently recycled over Heinlein’s writing career, as some of the concepts and plot elements appeared in works such as the Future History cycle and Beyond This Horizon.

[…]

I’m pleased for the Heinlein fans that they’re going to get a chance to read his first novel. I know that if this had been released twenty-five years ago I’d have been fascinated. Trouble is, far too much of Heinlein’s later work was “a thinly fictionalized series of lectures” instead of an attempt to tell a story. In the absence of some really positive reviews, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to Amazon to place an order.