The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Robert A. Heinlein
ISBN: 0-441-09499-6
1985
If you like banter, the first 2/3 of the book is pretty good….
After surviving an assassination attempt, author and ex-military man Richard Ames escapes the fallout with a run through outer space with new bride Gwen and bonsai tree in tow. Life becomes more and more complicated as the hit men and conspiracies multiply, eventually culminating in a revolution that began before Richard was even born.
Initially, this book is full of intrigue and fast-paced action, with a dose of comic banter for contrast. As it goes on though, the intrigue is lost and the story becomes more of an old-time radio skit where the plot plays second fiddle to dialogue. As a fan of comic wit, I didn’t mind this shift, but die hard Sci Fi fans might. The problem I had was with the final portion of the book: it tried to make the story do too many things, which was ultimately a turn off. A dozen or so new characters were introduced, all with complicated relationships, and then a completely new plot line came into play that involved much time shifting and quantum physics- I felt like I should have been taking notes to keep it all straight. To top it off, the ending was ambiguous and open-ended, which considering the amount of effort I invested, was a big letdown.
Though the ending was disappointing, I did enjoy the first part of the book enough to give Robert A. Heinlein another try.
