It is implied (explicitly stated?) that Dr. Ward Smith murders Captain Brant and Mary Jane Lyle Smith after their affair. Are we to assume that this was the fate of the rest of the crew? Did the Lyle drive reduce time sufficiently so that Champion’s crew didn’t ’descend into madness’?
It is implied (explicitly stated?) that Digby poisons Foster, potentially at Foster’s command. Hence the miracle of his willed ‘discorporation’. Does Digby follow suit? Betrayal seems out of the question given the summit of Earth’s Old Ones in the final two pages.
How doesn’t Mike understand immediately that he’s on Earth to (help) pass judgment?
Why do you think Heinlein covers major plot events in a sentence (or even half of one)? The thrust of this novel - a dialectic - doesn’t really require much plot, and it’s fun to speculate about the above (assuming I grok correctly).
Overall, I liked it. A little preachy, and I felt that I’ve read many of these ideas more succinctly in Borges’ ‘theological’ short stories, but Heinlein had a style uniquely his own. Very limited space given to setting or description of any kind, which allows you to freely paint the picture. Some would argue this is laziness but I think Heinlein simply disregarded literary conventions in a way that didn’t seem pretentious. The entire time I felt as if I were sitting in my late grandfather’s hideous midcentury rancher with garish carpeting, listening to him wax philosophical about the utter lack of accountability he witnessed everywhere.
I’m going to read Moon and then Orphans of the Sky next, as the latter came highly recommended from my favorite ‘literary critic’
