Synopsis
A future American religious dictorship. A guard of the Prophet’s palace gets involved in an underground resistance.
History
First publication: Astounding, serialized in two parts, February to March 1940
Review
A masterpiece. The ending feels just a bit rushed, but it is just to wrap things up. The primary idea has already been well stated through the events of the story. It is well written with a tight plot, plenty of action and good characterization. Heinlein shows us how the U.S.A. could devolve into a theocratic dictatorship, an idea that is as frighteningly possible now as it seemed to him in 1940. Freedom and Democracy cannot continue under the control of a group that believes it is absolutely right and everyone else is wrong. When such a group gains control of the government and the military, all who disagree will be put down. Dissent can’t be toloerated by belief systems that think in absolutes. So freedom would be squashed by those who think they are doing what is right.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
The Past Through Tomorrow, hardcover, Ace/SFBC, 1987-07-00
All of the stories in the Future History series:
Coventry
Blowups Happen
Logic of Empire
—We Also Walk Dogs
The Green Hills of Earth
Space Jockey
It’s Great to Be Back
The Black Pits of Luna
Gentlemen, Be Seated!
Ordeal in Space
Delilah and the Space-Rigger
The Long Watch
The Menace from Earth
Searchlight
The Roads Must Roll
Life-Line
Misfit
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
If This Goes On—
Orphans of the Sky
Let There Be Light
