Book review: "Glory Road"
by SouthernFriedInfidel | Published on October 12th, 2007, 7:46 am | Arts
[amazon]I'll[/amazon] say right up front that I have been a fan of Robert Heinlein for most of my life. When I was a kid, I loved reading his "juvenile" novels like "Space Cadet," "Tunnel in the Sky" and "Citizen of the Galaxy." Later, I discovered his more adult-level works of science fiction were far better. "Stranger in a Strange Land," "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Starship Troopers" are among the finest novels ever made for the genre.So I was intrigued when I discovered that he had, shortly after publishing "Stranger," gone in for a sword-and-sorcery fantasy novel called "Glory Road." Considering the quality of his science fiction, I thought he had the talent to make a great entry in the "other side" of the speculative fiction field. Sadly, this is not the case. This book was his only entry in the field, and there are good reasons why he never tried it again.
The story starts out in the jungles of the early Vietnam War. The hero is a volunteer who went to the war early on in order to avoid being drafted. After doing his stint and making his way to Europe to recover from injuries sustained in the fighting, he is approached by a beautiful woman who needs the help of an expert fighter for a quest in other worlds. He signs on and gets sucked into a bizarre set of adventures across several universes.
The problem with the story is that Heinlein wants to make it a fantasy story, but he can't really bring himself to leave his science-fiction habits behind. Magic has to be explained in some sort of science-sounding terms. The biology of dragons has to be described in detail. It really looks like the man was uncomfortable in the writing of this adventure.
All of that might have been forgivable if the reason for adventure had been explained, for one thing. All through the story, we are dragged through several worlds, facing strange dangers that turn out to have been more dangerous than they appear only after being overcome. The reader has no idea what the possible consequence of failure is at any given time, so there's far less sense of suspense than any of the scenes could have had. Still, all that could have been gotten past, considering that the writing was decent and scenes varied. Character development in the first 2/3 of the book went along nicely for the most part.
But what is unforgivable in this book is that the adventures ended after the 2/3 mark. The quest was achieved, and the heroes all settled down to a cushy life of enjoying the fruits of their labors. For pretty much the last third of the book nothing happens except for the hero struggling with the boredom of living in paradise and not having to lift a finger for anything he wants. Hardly stuff to keep one interested, particularly when the reader is holding a book with 70 or so pages in his right hand.
All I can really say about this book is that it's not one of Heinlein's better known works, and it's best that it stay that way. Oy vey!
