Beyond This Horizon - Softcover

Heinlein, Robert A.

3.7

4,995 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476736863 ISBN 13: 9781476736860

Publisher: Baen, 2014

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Classic Heinlein. Short-sighted utopians in a futurist society recruit a disaffected "superior" man, and get far more than they bargain for. With an all new afterword by Tony Daniel.

Utopia has been achieved. For centuries, disease, hunger, poverty and war have been things found only in the histories. And applied genetics has given men and women the bodies of athletes and a lifespan of over a century.

They should all have been very happy....

But Hamilton Felix is bored. And he is the culmination of a star line; each of his last thirty ancestors chosen for superior genes. Hamilton is, as far as genetics can produce one, the ultimate man. And this ultimate man can see no reason why the human race should survive, and has no intention of continuing the pointless comedy.

However, Hamilton's life is about to become less boring. A secret cabal of revolutionaries who find utopia not just boring, but desperately in need of leaders who know just What Needs to be Done, are planning to revolt and put themselves in charge. Knowing of Hamilton's disenchantment with the modern world, they have recruited him to join their Glorious Revolution. Big mistake! The revolutionaries are about to find out that recruiting a superman is definitely not a good idea....

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About the Author:

Robert A. Heinlein, four-time winner of the Hugo Award and recipient of three Retro Hugos, received the first Grand Master Nebula Award for lifetime achievement. His worldwide bestsellers have been translated into 22 languages and include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His long-lost first novel, For Us, the Living, was recently published by Scribner and Pocket Books.

From Publishers Weekly:

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. On the plus side, it does contain good, sound genetics that later scientific advances haven't significantly outmoded. 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. 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. Nor does he intend to continue with the experiment that his progenitors were so keen on, since he doesn't want children. 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). With his traditional hard-boiled detective voice, Hamilton makes an engaging hero. Despite some definite signs of age, as well as a tendency to the pedantic, the book remains highly readable. Heinlein loyalists will ignore the pallid "star child" jacket art as they head for the cash register.

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