In fifteen chapters and 133 pages, this novella tells of the ‘Crazy Years’, a time when a theocracy has taken hold of the USA and the country is in the despotic control of the infamous Nehemiah Scudder, who was mentioned in Logic of Empire in The Green Hills of Earth. “If This Goes On-” begins this collection with a bang, and is a great start on the whole. This means that Heinlein was writing it at about the same time most of these other stories were published, and it is clearly mentioned in the Future History chart.

In terms of context, this would make sense, as the novel, like many others of its time, was a ‘fix-up’ from what was published in the magazines – in this case, the three-part serial in Astounding from July-September 1941. To make the book even bigger, some later US editions included the novel Methusulah’s Children (1958) as well, which I may get to read next. As such, they are early Heinlein writing, albeit with some revision, and in some cases, it shows.ĭespite this book having fewer stories, it is the biggest of the collection. The original 1953 hardback also included, for the first time, a copy of Heinlein’s Future History chart and a Foreword by fellow author Henry Kuttner, “The Innocent Eye”.Īlthough Revolt is the third in this series, most of the stories, in their original publication state, date back to those included in The Man Who Sold the Moon. Afterword: “Concerning Stories Never Written”.“Misfit” (1939 his second published story, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, November 1939).“Coventry” (1940 his seventh short story published, originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1940).“If This Goes On-” (Expanded from the version originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, February & March 1940).The first was The Man Who Sold the Moon (reviewed here), the second was The Green Hills of Earth (reviewed here.)īy this third book stories are being deliberately connected together into Heinlein’s loose timeline framework, which developed from a conversation with Astounding editor John W. This is the third collection of Robert A.

Robert a heinlein revolt in 2100