Real Old School Sc-Fi

One of Heinlein's best stories but now so out of it's time it quite difficult to listen to without flinching at some of the attitudes expressed.
I always found this story difficult to put down because the universe described is so alluring it was almost a culture shock to come back to reality.
Sadly, (or fortunately) this narrator cured me of that problem - the most irritating French accent I've ever had to suffer. Strange and poor choice for this performance.
Try reading the book yourself first perhaps.

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A good book

A well read version of a well written novel. Not my favourite book by R.A.H. but a good one

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Enjoyable story

I was not sure what to expect for this one as the review score average is a bit low. I was pleased to find it perfectly enjoyable. As well as being a nice story, I found the interactions and relationships between the three main characters to be interesting. I also found that the circumstances they faced to be thought provoking to some extent. As usual, there was quite a lot of comparing different cultures, including alien ones, which I find interesting thinking food.

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Classic Playboy Era Sci-fi

I read this for the first time back in the seventies and it seemed the height of sophistication to the spotty adolescent I was then. Now it seems a bit chauvinistic and the end unnecessarily drawn - out. Despite this it remains a sexy adventurous romp, far superior to most of the modern day sword and sorcery stuff and is undoubtedly one of Heinlein's best.

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2 people found this helpful

an old friend revisited

story as remembered but characters sounded different to my imagination. just a problem of media.

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Enjoyable reading of perhaps Heinlein’s best book

I first read “Glory Road” in 1963 when it was serialized in “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction”. I subsequently bought the book in paperback and, carrying it with me around the world, reread it several times. I think “Glory Road” is one of the few Heinlein books that doesn’t suffer quite so much from the author’s penchant for taking a story so far and then not knowing what to do with it while his sometimes obstreperous libertarianism is not quite so grating here. “Glory Road” consists of two distinct parts: the first is a thoroughly fabulous, swashbuckling “Quest”; the second is a rather insightful examination of the mundane, “real-world” consequences of having undertaken and completed The Quest. It spoke directly to me both before and after becoming an expat.

I know the book very well in other words (I have parts of it memorized) and it was with some trepidation that I bought the audiobook version. I was not disappointed. Bronson Pinchot is an accomplished voice actor. (How many people know/remember that he played “Balki Bartokomous” in the mid-80s/early-90s US sitcom “Perfect Strangers”?). His characterizations (especially of the supporting roles) are a joy to listen to. Admittedly his “Star” is not what I imagined her (he makes her sound like a sultry Doris Day) and his Rufo wanders sometimes disconcertingly between Peter Lorre and Pepe Le Pew. Nevertheless his voice acting makes a huge contribution to the enjoyment of this production, which is much more satisfying that any straightforward reading could have been.

Highly recommended as an enjoyable reading of what may be Heinlein’s best book.

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4 people found this helpful

Classic Fantasy from The Man

Read this book a few times over the years and looked forward to hearing it as I drive to work. The Story has held up well, although probably a bit none PC for modern tastes.
Whilst the reader made a decent fist of the narrator, he made STAR a simpering cry baby, RUFO a faux Frenchman and CYRANO DE BERGERAC Irish!!
Not exactly music to my ears!

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Yep, it's not "woke".

This is perhaps my favourite Heinlein novel, and this reading has only increased my respect for it. The pacing. the characterisation, the use of language, the intricate changes in the narrator's viewpoint, these all come through with renewed clarity when it's read out loud.

The voice acting was excellent, with Oscar Gordon sounding just right (with more than a touch of John Wayne!), although Rufo was a bit of a shock. I'd always heard him in my head as sounding quite a bit like Edward G Robinson. And the Eater of Souls, Irish? Wasn't he supposed to be....? The Rumormonger was a treat though.

What I can't understand is all the people who have come on here to complain that Heinlein, or even the Hero Gordon, didn't have the same worldview and sense of ethics as, say, your average TikTok subscriber. I could say thank God. I will say this; I was surprised, on hearing them read out loud, at some of the things Gordon came out with. IT DID NOT SPOIL MY ENJOYMENT. Any more than similar pronouncements spoiled my enjoyment of Dumas, or Kipling, or Tennyson.

Why on Earth (or Nevia, or Center) would anyone whose judgment of literature depends purely on the political complection of the author choose a book by Heinlein, of all people?

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Old fantasy

I don’t feel like this has aged as well as some other fantasies, there were some interesting plot points like the phoenix but a lot of it came across as churlish wish fulfilment

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Good start, bad middle, could not face the end

Definitely a story of its time which would not be so sexist if the voice of the heroine was not so quiet and simpering. She is meant to be an multi-universe empress, but sounds like a mid-western housewife who wouldn't say boo to a goose. The way the story is rendered loses all the humour that the words imply. Eventually I found I could listen no longer, my mind just switched off and had no interest in the outcome of a story which had a good and original start. Shame, I used to like Heinlein's work a lot.

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