Methuselah's Children

English language

Published Jan. 3, 1986

ISBN:
9780671655976

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3 stars (2 reviews)

Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in the July, August, and September 1941 issues, it was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958. The novel is part of Heinlein's Future History series of stories. It introduces the Howard families, a fictional group of people who achieved long lifespans through selective breeding. According to John W. Campbell, the novel was originally to be called While the Evil Days Come Not, a quotation from Ecclesiastes used as a password on the second page of the story. The novel was the origin of the term "masquerade", now used to refer to a fictional trope of a hidden society within the real world.

4 editions

No place like home

4 stars

Rating this 4 stars partly due to fond feeling for something I initially read 50ish years ago.
Originally published in 1958 its a story of a group of people that were different. And you can guess what happens at least in general. It's a fairly short story that's part of The Future Histories stories and introduces Lazarus Long. Certainly this writing and dialog is 1950's and there is a fair amount of hand waving to move the story along. But I liked it.

Review of "Methuselah's Children" on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Oh Heinlein... how complicated my life with you has been.

I wasn't even sure how to rate this one, much like the trouble I have rating any Heinlein book that I have read in the past decade. His stuff just... hasn't aged well. Would I recommend this to anyone? The way I see it, if you haven't read this you fall into one of two camps: 1) You are either Heinlein fan or a fan of this period of science fiction and it's on your list to read, OR 2) You wouldn't be interested in this.

This is not a good book. Even by Heinlein standards this isn't a great book. It's short and I sloughed through it at an extremely rapid pace so I guess that's a merit? There is enough pseudo-psychology/sociology in this thing to drown a grad student. Heinlein loves his pseudo-sociology and he definitely had some …