Rereading: THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS by Robert A. Heinlein

Cover art by Michael Whelan

Heinlein is one of my two favorite authors, along with J.R.R. Tolkien, but I don’t love all of his works equally. In the last years of his life, after serious health issues, Heinlein wrote five novels, this book from 1985 is the next-to-last one. All of these novels are long, interconnected with each other and previous Heinlein books and stories, and are way too talky. Despite all that, I can still enjoy reading them, though I like his earlier work better.

The viewpoint character is Colonel Colin Campbell, though he goes by the name Richard Ames, and many of the other characters also have aliases, adding to the confusion. As the story opens, he’s having dinner with his date, Gwen Novak, but when she goes to the restroom, an uninvited stranger sits in her place and announces he wants to hire the Ames to kill someone. Moments later, this stranger is himself fatally shot. Richard and Gwen flee to his apartment where, after a night together in bed, she declares she wants to marry him, and they have their own private wedding ceremony.

That begins 24 hours of persecution and evasion for the pair, as it seems everyone is out to arrest or kill them. Eventually they manage to escape the space colony where they live in a junker rocket car, and head for the moon. Their luck is no better, as that car dies under them, forcing a crash landing. By the time they reach Luna City, more harrowing adventures have happened, and more people have died. But it’s only the beginning of the strange adventures Richard finds himself swept up in, taking him to distant times and places.

When action is happening, this is gripping reading, when lots of talk is going on instead, it’s less interesting. The talk consists of bragging, lecturing, sexual banter, bargaining, arguing, and so on. The main character is stubborn, and sometimes intentionally stupid, leading to more talking. He’s wanted for a dangerous mission. Gwen is really someone else from the past sent to recruit him, but convincing him is very difficult, even when he sees the attacks his new friends are fending off. Will he come around in the end? And speaking of the end, I found it unsatisfying in this book. Still, it’s Heinlein. And there is a cat who seems to be able to get anywhere it wants. Mildly recommended.

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