A crewman gets crushed when his arm is caught as he tries to dive through the Dilating Door as it closes. Ordinary hatches slide upward or sideways. This makes sense assuming that their intended purpose is to regulate air flow through the ship and not to be pressure-tight in case of a hull breech.

Alien: The sections of the air duct system on the starship Nostromo are separated by dilating hatches.

'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title. Heinlein loyalists will ignore the pallid 'star child' jacket art as they head for the cash register.Ĭopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Despite some definite signs of age, as well as a tendency to the pedantic, the book remains highly readable. With his traditional hard-boiled detective voice, Hamilton makes an engaging hero. When he's not avoiding reproduction, Hamilton plays at being a millionaire entrepreneur (his genetic mix gives him great intelligence and he's a whiz with money) and a spy/counterspy for the government (foiling a plot to overthrow the government keeps him hopping). Nor does he intend to continue with the experiment that his progenitors were so keen on, since he doesn't want children. Hamilton has a body filled with some of the best characteristics that man can have, and the only problem is that he doesn't give a darn. The plot centers on Hamilton Felix, whose genetic makeup has been recorded, tracked and tweaked for over five generations to make his genetic pool one of several 'Star line' groups. On the plus side, it does contain good, sound genetics that later scientific advances haven't significantly outmoded. Heinlein equals kitsch? First published in 1942, this reprint title by one of the masters of modern science fiction is not one of his best efforts, with its dated '40s jargon, a ham-fisted attempt at romance and a plot that really doesn't go anywhere. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. “Not only America’s premier writer of speculative fiction, but the greatest writer of such fiction in the world.” – Stephen King “There is no other writer whose work has exhilarated me as often and to such an extent as Heinlein.” – Dean Koontz Big mistake! The revolutionaries are about to find out that recruiting a superman was definitely not a good idea. Knowing of Hamilton’s disenchantment with the modern world, they want him to join their Glorious Revolution.

A secret cabal of revolutionaries plan to revolt and seize control.

However, his life is about to become less boring. He is, as far as genetics can produce one, the ultimate man, yet sees no meaning in life. And he is the culmination of a star line each of his last thirty ancestors chosen for superior genes. Disease, hunger, poverty and war are found only in the history tapes, and applied genetics has brought a lifespan of over a century.

Heinlein beyond this horizon