Methuselah's Children

Selective breeding and carefully planned marriages with subtle financial encouragement from a secretive group called the Howard Foundation carried out over the last 150 years have resulted in a group of humans that have the extraordinary trait of extreme longevity - Lazarus Long, the patriarch of the Family, born Woodrow Wilson Smith, carries his two hundred plus years quite well! When pressed for his true age, he's either not telling or he won't admit that he truly doesn't know himself! In 2125, a series of events result in the global administration and the remainder of earth's population discovering the Family's existence. A frenzy of enraged jealousy erupts as a maddened, frustrated world seeks to discover the secret fountain of youth they are convinced the Family is guarding for their own use. Hounded by the threat of murder, torture, brainwashing and ultimate extinction by their shorter lived neighbours, the Family flees earth on an untested starship. The discovery of two planets and alien races that pose threats and challenges even more imposing than those from which they fled plus an overwhelming loneliness for the way of life they left so far behind lead them back to earth for a second try. In Methuselah's Children, Heinlein has crafted an exciting novel, a message, a screenplay and the movie script all at once. Descriptive passages, while compelling and very cleverly written are sparse and infrequent and the plot is almost exclusively driven by razor-sharp dialogue. Heinlein's method of conveying the story through his characters' mouths has got wit; it's got dialect; it's got humour and intelligence; it's got sensible science; it's got humanity and it's got credibility. Their expressions and manner of speaking firmly place the origins of the story in the 1940s USA but somehow Heinlein has managed to inject enough charm to leave it timeless. For those like me that frequently read for the thrill, the entertainment and the pure joy of a story without looking for any subliminal message or morality tale, Methuselah's Children succeeds in spades. Hard sci-fi runs rampant through every page and fleshes out a superb story line - "refreshers" (think Star Trek's sonic showers), private space yachts, hydroponics used for mass food production, psychometrics (no doubt, first cousin to Asimov's famous "psycho-history"), extreme enhancement of longevity through selective breeding, elimination of national boundaries and the implementation of a global administration, inter-stellar travel at relativistic speeds, super-luminal warp travel "in the dark" reached with instantaneous acceleration, cryogenics and suspended animation for long-term space faring, lunar and Venerean colonies, orbital construction of spaceships, blasters, aliens, communication in an alien language, telepathy, high speed bio-engineering, and lots more. Although Heinlein didn't use the word "replicator", he may well have been sitting on the script team for a Star Trek episode when he

Methuselah's Children is a critical component of Heinlein's remarkably impressive body of work. Not only does it culminate the Future History series of stories, it also points the way toward a better understanding of Heinlein's later writings. Perhaps most importantly, this novel introduces us to Lazarus Long and other prominent members of the Howard family of long-timers. This story opens well after the fall of the First Prophet theocracy described in Revolt in 2100; democracy, liberty, and freedom once again mean something in America-at least until the populace learns of the existence of a large group of men and women with lifespans more than double the norm. Believing that the Howard families possess the secret of eternal life, the government takes action to seize all long-timers using any means necessary, including the abhorrent torture treatments made famous by the hated former theocracy. The embattled administrator of the country believes the Family trustee and representative Zach Barstow when he tells him that there is no secret to be had, that the lifespans of the family are determined by heredity. To the great fortune of all 100,000 long-lifers, the remarkable Lazarus Long decides to return to the Family fold he once left behind out of sheer boredom. His leadership results in the Family escaping earth and making their way out into space in search of a new home planet. Their travels are extensive, and their contact with other intelligent beings is as fascinating as it is intriguing-both culturally and scientifically. Heinlein puts a lot of science into his description of the ship's interstellar voyage and the means by which the people plan to survive for a journey of many light years. The colonists' interaction with the alien cultures they encounter is also delightfully original and compelling. The ending did not display a final blast of power, but it serves as a more than acceptable conclusion to events.I was most impressed by Heinlein's success at tying this novel in to the series of past Former History stories, going all the way back to Life-line and the genesis of the whole saga. A few characters who seemed unimportant earlier in the stories quickly became important actors in the drama, such as astronavigator Libby from the story "Misfit." I have a much better appreciation of the earlier Future History stories after reading Methuselah's Children; things I saw as unimportant in earlier stories are now revealed in a whole new light and made inherently interesting. Lazarus Long, with his fierce independence, refusal to go around without his kilt (with his blaster concealed underneath), youthful old age, free spirit, and lust for activity or adventure is a singular character one cannot soon forget. His story is only begun in this novel, but it is something to behold from the very start. This novel is intriguing and entertaining on its own merits, but I would encourage you to read the preceding Future History stories first

Considered by many to be the most intruiging book of Heinlein career. Methuselah's Children is the backbone of Heinlein's universe. It sets up the story of the long lived famlies that are part of many of his other stories ie. Time Enough For Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and many others. This is a must for every Heinlein fan, and a good starting point for those who want to get to know the great author better. 5 Stars just isn't enough!

For those of you who already love Heinlein, this is the book that first introduces his engaging character, Lazarus Long. Long is the oldest of a group of long-lived individuals that have interbred amongst themselves in secret. Once revealed, they are completely misunderstood by their short-lived brethren and are forced into an off- world exodus. They are constantly forced into positions of choice and adventure. Even though it was first written in 1941, it is worth reading and re-reading today; the best of SF. __Brenda Palmer

Using a fiction approach, Robert A. Heinlein has provided all of us here on earth with three goals to go beyond landing a man on the moon of the Kennedy era. Imagine if you were able to live a thousand years. Would you have been able to accomplish even half the things you thought of doing? Even if all the existing people lived this long and more children continued to be born, there is a solution. Lets get beyond Einstein and find another earth-type planet in another solar system and travel there with the technology we will develop in the next century. This would be a greater expansion than that experienced in the United States in the 1800's. Now to do all this, we need peace. By this I mean we need to have social stability without wars and a change in the way people look at their lives. Continued belief in religion if fine. For example if you are a Christian wouldn't you rather be around to see the second coming. I find it hard to believe that anyone wants to die if they have their psychological and physical health. How can we get the movers and the shakers, people in power when it comes to money, politics, ideas, etc. to take hold of these goals for the human race? The novel of Heinlein's has its approach; we living today need to take this fictionalized message and make it our goals for humanity in the 21st century.