One of the major problems with completist collections (i.e., complete collections of an author) is that you get everything. You get the classics. But you also get the naïve beginnings and tentative steps to greatness and the valleys between the classics. And, in an attempt to discover an author, it is probably the absolutely wrong way to approach said author.

I have read Heinlein, but I didn’t grow up reading him. (My immersions were with Asimov and Clarke.) More recently I read some old Heinlein short story collections which didn’t move me as much as I thought they might. (And if you want to work that hard, you can see my reviews of those works.) So I attacked this collection (a complete collection of his short stories that does not include the Future History stories) to learn more of the author. I have come away feeling less than overwhelmed. In fact, many of the complaints I had on the older, shorter collections hold true for this one. In particular, stories that feel hurried and female characters that were stereotypes of the time. It contains great stories, but they are too far and few between.

There are unforgettable moments. “—And he Built a Crooked House—“ was one of the few I remembered reading in my youth; one that had an impact on me and one that haunts any of my thoughts of fourth dimension cubes. (Although, the thing I didn’t remember is one of the complaints I’ve already listed – a female character that is no more than a negative stereotype.) The most amazing (on a couple of different levels) was “Solution Unsatisfactory”. I had to keep looking back at the publication date (1941) to remind myself it was written at the start of the Second World War, since it so accurately predicted its end. Amazingly close. Also included are “By His Bootstraps” and “—All You Zombies”, classics most of us have approached elsewhere.

But these are far from enough to make the collection worth the effort. The other story I remember from my youth (“They”), I did not remember fondly. Even in high school, I remember trying to read it a couple of times, trying to see what I was missing. Reading it now, it was still a chore, and not worth the work. And the selections from Boy’s Life magazine read like the most banal of young adult literature.

Surprisingly, I don’t remember having this same problem with the Future World story collection The Past Through Tomorrow; the feeling that I needed to slog through the book to get to the end. And Heinlein’s classic novels show the greatness of his artistry. But this collection was a chore.

I am sure that Heinlein’s fans are now lighting the torches and storming the castle, but I wonder if much of the attraction to most of these stories is the fond memory of youth rather than the fond memory of good stories well told. And I fully understand this. I read Asimov’s early work, and some of the middle work, and realize that every word an author writes does not stand the test of time. However, a few years ago I read the complete collection of Arthur Clarke, and an amazing thing happened. I was not bored. I did not find myself cringing. And I realized how many of the stories I remembered, but did not remember they were written by Clarke – ones that were emblazoned in my memory without his name as author. And so, for me, that became the standard. This collection falls woefully below that standard. ( )