Review by Booklist Review
Heinlein didn't write fantasies; he wrote hard sf. Or, to be more precise, he wrote adventure stories grounded in credible scientific speculation. Even the wonderful stories collected here feature his trademark cool reasoning, though each also depends on the inexplicable. The oldest of them is his small masterpiece, "Magic, Inc.," about a Mafia-like group hitting up honest businesspersons for protection against black magic and one honest man's sojourn to hell to put the universe right. The novella hasn't dated at all; the passage of time has only enriched it. Besides "Magic," two more novellas appear, "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" and "Waldo." The latter introduced the concept of remote sensing, now a staple of hard sf, and its exploration of life under weightless conditions is as fresh as ever. Then there are four short stories, one of which, "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants," features Heinlein in a rare sentimental mood. Superb stories--old friends, really--that are well worth the book's price. --John Mort
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
