Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein is an 11-page story (in text) that was first published in the March 1959 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction, available for free at luminist.org. It's also available as an individual story for Kindle for $1.25, and in other collections with more Heinlein stories for a reasonable price.

Any review of this story is going to contain spoilers. My advice: eschew reviews. Just read it. How wrong can you go in 11 text pages? I will say the story has some neat time travel concepts. Heinlein's explorations of the topic are always fun. Heinlein further develops themes explored in a previous work: "By His Bootstraps", published some 18 years earlier. Some of the same elements also appear later in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985), including the Circle of Ouroboros and the Temporal Corps. We may want to consider "By His Bootstraps" for a future nomination if we like this story.

For anyone interested, this story was also the basis for the 2014 movie Predestination.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2397535/

I agree that there is not much one can write about this story without spoiling it for those who haven't read it yet. I would say that one needs to enjoy mind-bending time travel paradoxes or they probably won't like the story.

Dan wrote: "We may want to consider "By His Bootstraps" for a future nomination if we like this story."


By His Bootstraps is an excellent story. Not on the level of "All You Zombies", IMO, but definitely worth reading by time travel fans.

Really enjoyed this story, the ending was great which I understand is exploring the idea of (view spoiler)[solipsism (hide spoiler)].

I've put some thought into the "By-laws of time" and the ending, and wrote up some notes here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

David, thanks for the suggestion of By His Bootstraps, I'll look forward to reading it.

Okay, I read "All You Zombies" just now and it leaves me with mixed feelings. I am not a big Heinlein fan. The man's just a bit extreme for me, in a lot of ways. He uses those extremes to help plot and then sell his stories, which he is entitled to do if he wants. For those who feel similarly about those fringe issues, I guess they're fired up. But how about just writing good stories instead?

Anyhow, I'm glad to have read the story: it's time travel in a sophisticated presentation. What's not to enjoy? I'm happy it was nominated and won. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm not sure what I just read, except that it was about time travel. For me, it's a miss!

Rosemarie, it's Heinlein jazzing around with the ultimate of time travel paradoxes. Before this story, many authors wondered what would happen if someone went back in time and killed their parent before they were born. Would the time traveler still exist? Their various answers were the argument premise for their story.

Heinlein here kicks the question up a notch. (view spoiler)[Can a person go back in time and procreate himself into existence? I agree that the way Heinlein wrote the situation does not make everything completely obvious as to the fact he is asking that question. He had censors to get around, but that's clearly what's going on. (hide spoiler)]