The Green Hills of Earth ~Robert A. Heinlein

–published 1951 (Signet paperback 1952)
–Signet Books
–176 pages
–4/5 stars

Having finished Desolation Road, which felt like a series of short stories tied into a larger tale, I was still in the short story mood. I have also been itching to get back to reading more Heinlein, so when I found a copy of The Green Hills of Earth in my basement, it seemed liked the next logical place to go. It was a very good choice.

The Green Hills of Earth is a collection of ten of Robert A. Heinlein’s stories, all written in the 1940’s and published in various magazines. The stories are part of his Future History, an imagined history of the progress of mankind from the middle of the twentieth century on through the 23rd century. Having this ‘shared universe’ makes each story feel as if it is part of a greater whole and thus place names, events, characters, songs, etc. pop up in various stories that have been referenced in other stories. I am partial to this kind of writing, it is like having the best of both worlds in that there is the world-building of a series and yet the pleasure of reading self-contained tales. From Wiki:

The Future History was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, along with the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Lensman series by E. E. Smith, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien, but lost to Asimov’s Foundation series.

I certainly haven’t read all of these, but that is really good company! (On a side note, it would be interesting to see what would win today and what other series might be included).

The more I read of Heinlein’s early work the more impressed I become with his storytelling abilities, and The Green Hills of Earth just adds to his stature in my eyes.

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