The good
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An interesting premise, of a family with genetic mutations that let them live vastly longer. The protagonist is from this family, and he has lived more than 2,000 years, and has all sorts of stories and wisdom to share.
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Some fun and highly quotable aphorisms, especially the one about how “specialization is for insects.”
The not so good
- While it starts out with an interesting premise, the story quickly devolves into a bizarre incestuous sex fantasy. The protagonist ends up sleeping with his biological children, adopted children, his mother, and even a female clone of himself. Every one in the story is just a sex-crazed maniac that wants the protagonist to impregnate her. I guess Heinlein is trying to make a point about polyamory and how incest is OK as long as you don’t produce children with birth defects, but it just comes off as gross and creepy.
Rating: 2 stars
Yevgeniy Brikman
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