Matt's Reviews: Infinite Possibilities by Robert A. Heinlein

book cover: Infinite Possibilities by Robert A. Heinlein

Publisher ‏ : ‎ SFBC
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 2002
Edition ‏ : ‎ Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 568 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0739433857
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0739433850
Author : Robert A. Heinlein

Infinite Possibilities by Robert A. Heinlein is a re-packaging of 3 of Heinlein’s early “juvenile” novels

Tunnel In the Sky (from 1955)
Time For The Stars (from 1956)
Citizen of the Galaxy (from 1957)

Heinlein spins some great tales of silly adventure and individuals going above and beyond what they thought they could do to become ‘heroes’. A lot of fun and a lot more when you think about it further.

“Tunnel In the Sky” is a straight adventure story where the high school kid has to find his courage and figure how to make things work on another world with a bunch of other young adults….Lord of the Flies in space, with a more civilized take on the wild, but where the most dangerous creatures are the other humans. Even in 1955 when he still spun the tale with the ‘men’ in charge and they ‘took care of their females’, Heinlein also had very strong women characters who often were as good or better at most things than the hero and the other men.

In “Time for The Stars”, the ‘weaker’ twin ends up going on the adventure and it is a fun exciting science fiction adventure to other worlds. But again, in 1956, Heinlein did still have the masculine bullshit voice for his story, but there were strong women. More importantly, in the main group of ‘communicators’, he had an old black man and Asian women and several hispanic names. The doctor onboard was named Krishnamurti, etc. AND HE NEVER MADE IT PART OF THE STORY! It was just assumed these folks were part of the crew. After an initial introduction if at all, their race or nationality was never brought up again. They were just people in the crew doing what they needed to do. The natural leader of the ‘communicators’ was this old black man and it was natural. Everyone makes a big deal of Star Trek in the late 1960’s with their multi-cultural crew. Heinlein was writing it decades earlier

“Citizen of the Galaxy” is another fun adventure where the slave sold to the ‘beggar’ goes on to lead at least a few different lives and helps to fight the very slave trade he was sold into. Another hero’s journey story. I previously reviewed this story separately here.

From what I can tell, Heinlein was a bit of curmudgeon and overly military and overly libertarian from my current POV. But he also believed in the individual and individual responsibility. His stories inspired me to not feel like I ever have all the answers. He taught me to question beliefs and to look at the data, the facts. And ultimately to come to my own conclusions. Some of those conclusions were to disregard some of the ‘lessons’ from his books, and some were to accept other lessons. Sometimes both at different times.

People are people. A lot of them are stupid and ignorant. A few of them are exceptional. We are usually both at different times. A person’s choices are their choices and none of your business if they are not hurting you…and disagreeing with your feeling is NOT hurting you. You trying to change someone’s choices that only affect them DOES injury. Don’t do it.

Matt Truxaw

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 most of his books out of the library 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).

Please take a moment to support Amazing Stories with a one-time or recurring donation via Patreon. We rely on donations to keep the site going, and we need your financial support to continue quality coverage of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres as well as supply free stories weekly for your reading pleasure. https://www.patreon.com/amazingstoriesmag

Matt’s Reviews: Infinite Possibilities by Robert A. Heinlein

You might be interested in …

1 Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

About Author

Archives

Recent Comments

Latest Posts

Whatever Happened to KING KONG 1933?

New Release “Monster” from Amazing Stories Author, Matt Truxaw

Little Balls of Chaos by Sarah Arnette – FREE STORY

Time Machine: January 11, 2026

AMAZING NEWS FROM FANDOM: January 11, 2026

Share this: