This connected series of stories does not pretend to be prophetic. It is a history, not of the future, but of a future -- an alternate-probability world which is logically self-consistent, dramatic, and recognizably an offshoot of our own past. The stories really do not form a linear series at all -- they are more like a pyramid, in which ealier stories provide a solid base for later ones to rest on. Partly because of this pyramiding of background and partly because of the author's broad knowledge, Heinlein's readers find themselves in a world which is clearly our own, only projected a few years or decades into the future. As for the still-unfolding future, there are guideposts and warnings here. Heinlein continually reminds us that history is a process, not something dead and embalmed in textbooks. - Introduction.
Description:
This connected series of stories does not pretend to be prophetic. It is a history, not of the future, but of a future -- an alternate-probability world which is logically self-consistent, dramatic, and recognizably an offshoot of our own past. The stories really do not form a linear series at all -- they are more like a pyramid, in which ealier stories provide a solid base for later ones to rest on. Partly because of this pyramiding of background and partly because of the author's broad knowledge, Heinlein's readers find themselves in a world which is clearly our own, only projected a few years or decades into the future. As for the still-unfolding future, there are guideposts and warnings here. Heinlein continually reminds us that history is a process, not something dead and embalmed in textbooks. - Introduction.