Robert A. Heinlein fans, get ready to “grok” a brand new short story from the dean of science fiction. ‘Galaxy’s Edge’ magazine is set to publish a new Robert A. Heinlein story in their upcoming May issue.
The piece is titled ‘Field Defects: Memo from a Cyborg’, and it’s actually a letter written by Heinlein to two editors.
In 1975, Thomas N. Scortia and George Zebrowski edited, ‘Human Machines- An Anthology of Stories about Cyborgs’. The anthology was dedicated to Heinlein “who taught us both”.
Heinlein wrote a thank you letter, but the letter itself was a short story narrated by a cyborg discussing its shortcomings. (The actual thank you was in the postscript.)
‘Field Defects: Memo from a Cyborg’ was only ever published in ‘The Virginia Edition’, the complete volumes of Heinlein’s works. However, there are only 2,000 sets of the ‘The Virginia Edition’ available with a total cost of $1,500. So, for many Heinlein fans, this will be a brand new story.
If you have yet to read a Heinlein short story or novel, chances are you’ve probably at least heard of some of his works, including ‘Starship Troopers’ and ‘The Puppet Masters.’ ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ is probably considered his most renowned novel, especially by the Church of All Worlds, a religious organization based on the one of the same name that’s featured in the book.
In his works, Heinlein propagated many ideas and terms that exist in our cultural lexicon including the concept of a fair witness, paying it forward and the genre of speculative fiction. He also predicted the use of mobile phones and, more importantly, waterbeds.
Source: SF Signal
