Hardcover, 376 pages
English language
Published September 1984 by Del Rey.
Whoever — or whatever — obviously never intended to let Alex get back home to Kansas.
It all began with that firewalking gig in Polynesia. After negotiating the bed of hot coals with only a small blister, he suddenly found the world changed around him. Instead of being Alexander Hergensheimer, minister of a fundamentalist church, he was now supposed to be Alec Graham, carrying underworld money and in the middle of an affair with the charming stewardess, Margrethe — the only good thing about the whole business.
Then there was the impossible iceberg that struck the ship and dumped Alex and Margrethe naked into the sea, to be rescued by a Royal Mexican Coast Guard plane. The next change took a double earthquake. And after that, as change followed impossible change, things went from bad to worse. Alex found it impossible even to buy Margrethe the hot fudge sundae that …
Whoever — or whatever — obviously never intended to let Alex get back home to Kansas.
It all began with that firewalking gig in Polynesia. After negotiating the bed of hot coals with only a small blister, he suddenly found the world changed around him. Instead of being Alexander Hergensheimer, minister of a fundamentalist church, he was now supposed to be Alec Graham, carrying underworld money and in the middle of an affair with the charming stewardess, Margrethe — the only good thing about the whole business.
Then there was the impossible iceberg that struck the ship and dumped Alex and Margrethe naked into the sea, to be rescued by a Royal Mexican Coast Guard plane. The next change took a double earthquake. And after that, as change followed impossible change, things went from bad to worse. Alex found it impossible even to buy Margrethe the hot fudge sundae that he had promised her.
Whatever the change, however, Alex found one constant — all the signs pointed to Armageddon and the Day of Judgment. And Margrethe wasn't even a Christian — perversely, she believed in Odin and Ragnarok. Somehow, he had to bring her to a state of grace. Without her, Heaven would be no paradise to him.
Somewhere, he felt, there had to be an answer to his problem and to the question of why he was being persecuted. And, of course, there was.
But it was truly a Hell of an answer.
Religion is not my theem, and perhaps it's unfair of me to go into a book like this expecting it to be fun. I think the only thing I really appreciated was the tenacity - whether that of heinlein himself or of Alex, I don't myself quite know.
This was my first real venture back into reading fiction in a long while. Heinlein really kept my attention. This book was great for running (listening to it as an audiobook). I was drawn into the story enough that I wouldn't think about fatigue. Putting religion aside, this book was rather entertaining.
