| Plot Summary of For Us, The Living |
|---|
"This is Robert Heinlein's first novel. He didn't do well with it, so he put it in a drawer. It was unearthed long after his death. The book has a forward by Spider Robinson that describes how the book was unearthed. It also, although a novel in theory, explores Heinlein's political, relationship, and monetary theories rather deeply. The book begins with the protagonist waking up to discover he has left early 20th century earth, and traveled through time to late 21st century earth. As this is mainly a thinly veiled attempt at Heinlein fleshing out his socio-economic theories, it does not spend a lot of time explaining the hows and whys of time travel. It also does no apologizing for some obvious flaws. What this book DOES do is give you an understanding to where Heinlein began developing the plots he would use, in his writing, for the rest of his life. It also has an afterword that goes into more detail on his monetary theories."
Annette Spence, Resident Scholar
|
|
| Review Analysis of For Us, The Living |
|---|
|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
|
|
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 80%
Tone of book
- very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Time Travel:
- largely forwards/future
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story?
Yes
Cultural problems, alien culture
Yes
Culture clash-
- one human from different culture of other humans
Intense exploration of society's culture?
Yes
Story largely takes place in
- Distant future
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- engineer
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- almost none
Setting
Terrain
- Mountains
- Domed/Underground City
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- a moderate amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- significantly more descript than dialog
|
|
