Some stories in Robert Heinlein's Future
History are pivotal whereas others are not. Thus, three works, "Blow-ups
Happen," "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and "Delilah and the Space Rigger," are
collectively pivotal between Earth-bound stories and Luna City-based stories.
The stories cover the development of an escape velocity rocket fuel, the landing
of a man on the Moon and the construction of a space station necessary for
regular Earth-Moon flight. "The Green Hills of Earth" is pivotal between Luna
City and the wider Solar System. "Logic of Empire" pivotally shows that
interplanetary exploitation does not benefit everyone while an extreme political
alternative gains ground on Earth. "If This Goes On -" is pivotal not only
between the first interplanetary period and the Prophetic Interregnum but also
between the latter and the post-revolutionary Covenant which is pivotally broken
in Methuselah's Children. Pivots become more frequent as political change
moves to the foreground of the series.
Gravity control, discovered in "' - We
Also Walk Dogs,'" must be lost in the Interregnum because it is absent from
Methuselah's Children and "Universe" where interstellar spacecraft are spun
to generate centrifugal force. Martians, Venerians, Jovians, Titans, Callistans
and two other unnamed Solar races are mentioned although only the first two make
brief appearances elsewhere in the History. (Since the first successful
interstellar explorers meet two extra-Solar races in a single round trip, the
galaxy of the Future History seems to be well populated.)
Unlike "Logic of Empire," "' - We Also
walk Dogs'" gives no hint that "Things are bound to get a whole lot worse before
they can get any better" but that is because it reflects a different segment of
a complicated future society where one highly paid General Services operator has
a pocket phone. The background information and optimistic tone of the story make
positive contributions to the Future History.
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