Farnhams Freehold (Robert A Heinlein)

[ray gower]

Starting from the backdrop of the great panic that gripped the US around the Cuban Missile Crisis the book follows the activities of the Farnham family, when the unthinkable happens and the nuclear missiles fall in one massive blitz.

Of course as this is Heinlein it is never going to be as simple as a 'How we saved the American Civilisation and beat the Commies' book. Sure enough he gets bored with that theme quite quickly. It turns out that the Farnham's shelter has been picked up and propelled forwards through time by several thousand years. The ruling casts are now Negroes whilst white under classes form the backbone of a Tsarist civil service kept high on 'Happiness' and a promotion system that rewards advances with various forms of 'modification'. Probably worth a good political discussion in its own right.

Of the five members of Farnham's family, the black servant manages to become ingratiated with the Boss, Ponse 'Their Charity', Mother and son become happy playthings, whilst Father and his mistress rebel. Their escape attempt goes wrong and after a deep meaningful discussion with 'Their Charity' they are returned to their own time to reface the dangers of the bomb.

This is not one of Heinlein's best books!

One of the great beauties of Heinlein's writings are the characters he builds to drive his stories. They are generally believable, if a little preachy. In this case Hugh Farnham, the father, is unlike any service Trade Chief I have ever known. His outlook preparing for Nuclear Holocaust felt right, but from there on the deeply philosophical preaching did not, either with the paranoia or his history.
There are a good many other plot holes as well. Particularly with the return to 'real time'. Why bother with returning to the same time line, but slightly different culture? And if 'Their Charity' and his scientists really wanted to find out if he got there, surely they would have given them a little more time to plant the clock that would tell them they had succeeded?

That said, it is an absorbing read.