{"id":1719,"date":"2019-11-06T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T22:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1719"},"modified":"2019-10-16T18:39:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:39:47","slug":"book-assignment-in-eternity-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/06\/book-assignment-in-eternity-1953\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Assignment in Eternity (1953)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AssignmentAssignment in Eternity<\/span><\/strong>
\nYear: 1953
\nAuthor: Robert A. Heinlein
\nLength: 520 minutes \/ 8.67 hours<\/p>\n

Back in college, my first introduction to Heinlein was\u00a0Stranger in a Strange Land.<\/em>\u00a0I had to read this book for my \u201cScience in Literature\u201d course, and I found it moderately interesting. Since then, I\u2019ve read other Heinlein books like\u00a0Starship Troopers<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Moon is a Harsh Mistress<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0but I didn\u2019t realize how dedicated Heinlein was to some of his \u201csupernatural\u201d themes until I read\u00a0Assignment in Eternity.<\/em>\u00a0Sure, most authors will have some concept or idea that they like to revisit. Still, the fact that a majority of\u00a0Assignment in Eternity<\/em> \u2019s included short stories deal in some way with \u201csuperhumans\u201d must mean something.<\/p>\n

The whole concept of ESP and \u201cevolved\u201d humans isn\u2019t interesting to me since I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much that can be done with the concept. While\u00a0Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em>\u00a0covered most of the bases,\u00a0Assignment in Eternity<\/em>\u00a0doesn\u2019t really expand the ideas any further. If anything,\u00a0Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em>\u00a0was the culmination of Heinlein\u2019s obsession with this topic. I think, in the end, the whole idea of telepathy and other mind powers isn\u2019t science fiction as much as the ideas explored by Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov.<\/p>\n

Because Heinlein could fill a book with short stories mostly centering on this theme speaks volumes about the overall topics in his writing. If you\u2019re into this kind of story, then\u00a0Assignment in Eternity<\/em>\u00a0is an excellent addition to the classic that is\u00a0Stranger in a Strange Land.<\/em>\u00a0If anything, Heinlein is consistent in his style, even if it makes short stories like this somewhat repetitive to the other stories and books he\u2019s written. Like other short story collections, I would have liked to see some more variety in what was presented here, but I suppose beggars can\u2019t be choosers.<\/p>\n

More of the same Heinlein, just in smaller chunks, I give\u00a0Assignment in Eternity<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assignment in Eternity Year: 1953 Author: Robert A. Heinlein Length: 520 minutes \/ 8.67 hours Back in college, my first introduction to Heinlein was\u00a0Stranger in a Strange Land.\u00a0I had to read this book for my \u201cScience in Literature\u201d course, and I found it moderately interesting. Since then, I\u2019ve read other Heinlein books like\u00a0Starship Troopers\u00a0and\u00a0The Moon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54],"tags":[813,2055,55,751,2057,2056,8,795,1172,797,796],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-book","tag-813","tag-assignment-in-eternity","tag-book","tag-collection","tag-esp","tag-novellas","tag-review","tag-robert-a-heinlein","tag-starship-troopers","tag-stranger-in-a-strange-land","tag-the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}