The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein

The stories, originally published in the 1940s and '50s, showcase Heinlein's science-fictional approach to fantasy. Though magic works and the supernatural underlies ordinary life, the reader is always firmly anchored in a lawful reality. The setting is the USA, sometimes in the mid-20th century, sometimes in a near future, always featuring very American characters. It's just that the salesman sells elephants and encounters fictional characters and ghosts ("The Man Who Traveled in Elephants"), the reporter covers a sentient whirlwind that collects old newspaper ("Our Fair City"), and the bartender is a time-traveling recruiter ("All You Zombies"). The ambitious, young California architect builds a house where doors and windows open on many places--but not to the outside he came in from ("And He Built a Crooked House"). And the paranoid patient's reality is saner than you think ("They"). The three novellas: "Magic, Inc.," "Waldo," and "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" are vintage Heinlein; the last is a Lovecraftian tale of an amnesiac who hires PIs to find out what he does all day--what they uncover isn't illegal but is supernaturally evil, and Hoag is neither perpetrator nor victim.

These stories feel a bit old-fashioned, but no one ignited the sense of wonder in readers better than Heinlein. This collection offers a golden opportunity to sample a master at his best. --Nona Vero