By His Bootstraps Review

Welcome back to another Heinlein review, as well as another time paradox review! In the spirit of reading and reviewing the classics of science fiction, both short stories and books alike, I thought I would review the novella “By His Bootstraps.”

Robert Heinlein originally wrote this story under the name Anson MacDonald for Astounding Science Fiction in 1941. He later included it in his collection, The Menace From Earth, in 1959. The story begins with Bob Wilson, who works on his graduate thesis alone in his room (which I completely understand). Suddenly, a portal of some kind opens in his room, and a man who Bob calls Joe appears. Over a series of events, Joe tries to convince Bob to pass through the portal, known as a “Time Gate.”

Here’s where things start to get weird. Another guy shows up, who also happens to look like Joe. Bob ends up getting punched in the face and sent through the portal, which sends him to a place about 30,000 years in the future. There, he meets a man named Diktor, who convinces him to go back through the Time Gate. To his surprise, Bob returns to find himself typing his thesis like before.

I won’t spoil the rest of the novella, but it gets wilder from there. This remains one of the more iconic of both time paradox stories and Heinlein stories. However, this one comes earlier than his other paradox story, “All You Zombies—,” and I can see how Heinlein’s strengths work there more than in this story. “Zombies” feels more realized as a paradox than this story does.

I say this because there were moments when it was difficult to orient myself as to what was going on, and it felt as if everything came together much later than in “Zombies.” However, this story is also a novella, so it had the chance to develop other aspects of the story, such as the backstory of the alien race. I should mention that here. In the future, Diktor mentions that humans used to be slaves to an alien race that had come to Earth, only that race is no longer present.

The novella gave us time to learn much of the cool backstory that drives the plot and influences the characters’ actions. To be honest, the introduction of the alien city and how Earth has changed might be one of my favorite parts of the story. I also enjoyed the descriptions of going through the Time Gate, which I included below.

“There was no particular sensation connected with the transition. It was like stepping through a curtained doorway into a darker room. He paused for a moment on the other side and let his eyes adjust to the dimmer light. He was, he saw, indeed in his own room.

There was a man in it, seated at his own desk. Diktor had been right about that. This, then, was the chap he was to send back through the Gate. Diktor had said he would recognize him. Well, let’s see who it is.”

This review and my previous “Zombies” review make me more excited to read time paradox stories. However, I can’t forget all the novels I recently read and need to review! Stay tuned later this week for another writing post and more book reviews.

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