- Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
- Audio Release Date: 2008
- Print Publication: 1988
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Language: English
- Listening Length: 13 hours and 30 minutes
- Author: Robert A. Heinlein
- Read by: Tom Weiner
- ASIN: B0012Y1AI4
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein is the second to last novel published by Heinlein during his lifetime. Richard Ames is an ex-military man who now writes, seemingly to make money more than because he enjoys the process. While out to dinner with a date, a mysterious stranger sits down and is killed. This begins an adventure through the space city he’s called home, to a Luna colony a century or so after the time of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and on into his world as myth multiverse.
Early on in the book, when talking about Ames’ writing, he admits he does not know how to write women, but he does it anyway since it sells. I think this is an admission from Heinlein. It seems all his women are nymphomaniacs but are also ready and willing to sign up for lifetime monogamy, except for when they’re not. Heinlein really does not know how to write women, but he still writes fun stories. He also forces you to work through a significant amount of ‘cringe’ with 14-year-old girls being ready for coupling and marriage. I also found some of his libertarian rants on why government and bureaucracy are always bad a bit cringe worthy as well.
Once you get beyond the proselytizing and the other cringe, it becomes a fun Heinlein story. The solitary independent man with the woman who immediately falls in love with him and wants to marry him. The bad guys on his tail chasing him from space station to moon and into the multiverse. The narrow escapes and the interplay of a host of characters from his future history and from just literary history. It is a reasonable extension to the world as myth multiverse, even if it has a not quite satisfying conclusion.
If you read many of my reviews, you know Heinlein is still one of my favorite authors. His writings have expanded my universe and my thoughts since I was a teenager, maybe before. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is not his best work, but I enjoyed it. I always liked his ‘world as myth’ multiverse and this is a worthy addition to that set of timelines.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his website( MattTruxaw.com), his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
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