First off, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to download and read Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale, whether or not you entered the Challenge.
If you have not already done so, I’d appreciate it if you add a review on Amazon for the book and let me know what you thought.
The goal of the Robert A Heinlein Anthrophobia Challenge was to find as many references to Robert Heinlein and/or his works in the text of Anthrophobia.
No one found all of the references, and no one wanted their personal information shared in the results, so I will just give an overview of the Heinlein references.
- The dedication – For Robert Anson Heinlein, Who was one of the first authors who made me want to read everything they ever wrote, and then helped me want to read everything everyone wrote, and eventually helped inspire me to write my own stories.
- A character named “Jack Harshaw” after Jubal Harshaw from Stranger in a Strange Land
- The Aladdin Corp named for ‘Aladdin Auto-engineering’ in The Door Into Summer
- Pixel, the cat, named for Pixel, the cat in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
- Psychologist, Dr. Cynthia Selene for Adam Selene in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
- One of the main characters, George, speaks of two of his childhood tutors, Lyle Monroe and Elma Wentz:
- Lyle Monroe was a pseudonym Heinlein used as the author for several of his lesser known magazine stories.
- Elma Wentz was his co-author for at least one of those stories.
- When talking with Dr. Selene, George quotes (and slightly misquotes) two different times from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
- ‘I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.’
- ‘One person is responsible. Always. In terms of morals there is no such thing as state. Just people. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.’
- A character refers to some of his previous romantic partners as “stinkeroos”. This was a term that Heinlein reportedly used for some of stories that he thought were less than stellar.
Thanks again to everyone who has read any of my books. If you liked them, tell your friends.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster, which released on 1/12/2026. 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 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
