The Cat Who Walks Through Walls – Robert Heinlein

Summary: Colonel (Senator?) Richard Ames Campbell is being recruited to save the world. A stranger is assassinated at his dinner table, he and his girlfriend get booted out of their apartments, and they’re chased off the habitat in the company of a man who was supposed to kill them both. Now he’s being recruited for a mission (across multiple timelines and dimensions) to save all existence.

Setting: Distant future, across multiple dimensions and timelines (Heinlein’s “World as Myth”).

Plot: Richard Campbell is an ex military commander who currently writes salacious novels. He’s out to dinner with his girlfriend when a man approaches their table and tries to enlist Campbell in a plot to murder a prominent citizen of their habitat. Before the unwanted visitor can get the particulars across, he’s mysteriously shot from afar. In the course of investigating the murder (and the requested “hit”) Campbell and his girlfriend are evicted from their apartments, and kicked out of the habitat.

His girlfriend turns out to be an operative with an organization whose grasp surpasses the boundaries of time and space; they jump around in different time lines to try and steer the present into more beneficial outcomes. Richard’s hesitant to join the organization, but his participation is vital (according to the group’s research) in saving a certain computer system.

Criticisms: I don’t have any major criticisms of this book.  

Wrap-up: As far as Sci-Fi is concerned, if you were to ask anyone (who’s familiar with Sci-Fi) who the masters of the genre are,  Heinlein would be in the top 3 of every respondent, along with Clark and Asimov.

If you’re already a Heinlein fan, this is a little gem which ties together with most of the other “World as Myth” books. If you know who Lazarus Long is, you’ll have a small step up on other readers. If you’re not a Heinlein fan but have been eager to try a new author (or genre), this would be a good choice, as it’s not dependent on the other novels but can be read as a good stand-alone book.

Heinlein exhibited his famous sense of humor (and solid grasp of the absurdities of the current political situation when he wrote the book) perfectly with this book, and it would be a good primer for a burgeoning Sci-Fi (or Heinlein) fan.

Grade: By my arbitrary scale, I would give this book an A-.