Glory Road (Robert A Heinlein)

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ray gower

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Glory Road

It started with a personal add in the Tribune: Permanent employment, high pay, adventure, danger... apply in person.
Gordon got the job and is catapulted into a new universe of intergalactic chivalry and knight errantry. His task to recover the Egg of the Phoenix, the key to the Empire of the Twenty Universes. With the beautiful Star (The Empress) and a valet, Rufo (Her grandson) he sets out on the road to glory.
Then finds that the old world he knew is no longer a place to live.

A sort of Heinlein 'goes into' book. In this it is an attempt at pure fantasy, but still manages a good deal of moral procrastination (which gets a little chewy at points) and a good look at the variety possible in political and social alternatives.
 
this is a lot like "stranger in a strange land" but it is more fantasy.

this is the first of all the heinlein books that i read
 
I didn't read it at first because the cover was terrible, while Heinlein novels are not known for good covers this one is just unbelievable. When I did read it I liked it a lot but not as much as some of my favorites. Worth reading though.
 
This one will be my third RAH book. Simply cause i want to see Heinlein trying Fantasy when he is known and is great at social Hard SF.


I dont have a problem with his so called preaching. He moved me with his ideas social and political ones in Starship Troopers and Moon is a Harsh Mistress
 
You got be better to manage you TBR ;)

My RAH books are always at the top of TBR pile !
 
An interesting part of the novel is that Heinlein follows up with the anti-climax of what happens to the Hero after the Quest is fulfilled. He's just as misfit and shiftless as when he was "on the beach" at the beginning. And then his wife gives him immortality, while he has no idea what to do with his life!

It's not exactly a voyage from the Grey Havens!
 
Connavar of Rigante said:
This one will be my third RAH book. Simply cause i want to see Heinlein trying Fantasy when he is known and is great at social Hard SF.
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although it is classed as fantasy, it can almost pass as SF and RAH gives social and moral values some serious questioning, as he does in so many of his books.

entertaing on so many different levels as well
 
And, of course, with the ending Heinlein was giving a nod to E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, as well....
 
This is a terrific book . I would also love to see as a film. :)
 
He wrote some good fantasy.
'Our Fair City' and 'Magic, Inc." come to mind.
 
Cerium said:
I didn't read it at first because the cover was terrible, while Heinlein novels are not known for good covers this one is just unbelievable. When I did read it I liked it a lot but not as much as some of my favorites. Worth reading though.
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Weird how true that is. Even a lot of Heinlein audiobook versions have bad book covers.
 
Depends what you mean by bad. I read it far too many years ago to remember anything about the story but I do remember the NEL paperback cover (by Bruce Pennington?) of some girl with stupendous torpedo tits.
 
I have a copy of Starship Troopers whose cover depicts an amoeba creeping towards a space probe. It looks like two bits of clip art stuck together.
 
JunkMonkey said:
Depends what you mean by bad. I read it far too many years ago to remember anything about the story but I do remember the NEL paperback cover (by Bruce Pennington?) of some girl with stupendous torpedo tits.
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Yes, it was Penningon - rather uncharacteristic of him, but I think it may have been his first book cover and he may have been working to a specific request. It lacks the fine detail and distance perspective of most of his work, and the gnome-like fellow behind the unclothed lass looks more like something Darryl Sweet would inflict on us.
 
Toby Frost said:
I have a copy of Starship Troopers whose cover depicts an amoeba creeping towards a space probe. It looks like two bits of clip art stuck together.
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I'd be interested to see a pic Toby - It didn't ring a bell, so I tried to find it on ISFDB, which claims to show every edition of Starship Troopers but doesn't show a cover that sounds like this - is it rare or small press?
 
Bick said:
the gnome-like fellow behind the unclothed lass looks more like something Darryl Sweet would inflict on us.
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I always thought he looked like an Oompa-Loompa...
 
Toby Frost said:
It's published by Hodder. Goodness knows what it's supposed to depict. Really, the cover ought to show a power-armoured boot stamping on the long-haired face of a freedom-hating pinko commie liberal - forever.

View attachment 114440
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Dears Gods! that's an awful cover! And not just for Starship Troopers but for any book - unless there is a book called I Lost an Ugly Thing Somewhere.
 
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