Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New English Library Ltd (1974), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 144 pages
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: It's six against six million in a brilliantly waged near-future war for nothing less than liberty and justice for all. The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion, and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on total domination. That power is consolidating its grip through concentration camps, police state tactics, and a total monopoly upon the very thoughts of the conquered populace. A tiny enclave of scientists and soldiers survives, unbeknownst to America's new rulers. It's six against six million�but those six happen to include a scientific genius, a master of subterfuge and disguise who learned his trade as a lawyer-turned-hobo, and a tough-minded commander who knows how to get the best out of his ragtag assortment of American discontents, wily operators, and geniuses. It's going to take technological savvy and a propaganda campaign that would leave Madison Avenue aghast, but the US will rise again. The counterinsurgency for freedom is on, and defeat is not an option..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member betty
Heinlein has his faults, I'll admit. Who can forget the ending of Podkayne of Mars where the heroine decides that captaincy of a space ship sounds like too much work, and instead she'll set her sights on marrying a captain?
But until The Day After Tomorrow I have never actually been disgusted by a
His premise is that America has been invaded an conquered by "panasia," a vast and sprawling empire bent on conquest. Only six men, scientists, who have just made an amazing scientific discovery, stand in his way. They use their amazing, not to say magical, scientific discovery to organize a resistance under the guise of a religion. This plan mostly works.
Specific problems:
* Frank Mitsui in the book is a man whose grandmother was "half-Chinese and half wahini," and his mother is "part Chinese but mostly Caucasian." Somehow he acquired the name Mitsui from this ancestry, and finds himself adrift in a country that reviles him, as do the invaders. He appears early on, is consulted as an expert in "Asian thinking" (it's genetic?) and has few speaking parts.
* American=white is otherwise unchallenged.
* There are no (perhaps one? I don't want to reread to check it out.) speaking parts for women in this book. Only two women are named, and one is dead before the book begins.
* He appears to be an advocate of the "flying monkeys and magic" school of military thought. Sufficiently advanced science will assure that we win! And obviously, our science is more advanced.
* The American spirit and culture raises America above other nations. Granted, in 1941 this must have seemed like an attractive message, but the book often focuses on the ways in which the "Asiatic" culture is deficient.
* The, "OMG my plan is brilliant, really brilliant, would you like to hear about it? Too bad! But it's really brilliant. Okay, I'll tell this guy over here and he'll react in awe and amazement! See how brilliant my plan is?" gambit has never endeared me to anyone.
* The magical weapon has whatever abilities the plot requires. Kill a man? Check. Stun a man? Check. Forcefield? Check. Cure the common cold? Check. Cure Cancer? Check. None of these examples are made up.
But until The Day After Tomorrow I have never actually been disgusted by a
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book of his. An amazon review charitably says it "reflects the fears and concerns of the time period he wrote the book in." Granted, in 1941, paranoia about Japan was probably sane, but he wrote this before Pearl Harbour.His premise is that America has been invaded an conquered by "panasia," a vast and sprawling empire bent on conquest. Only six men, scientists, who have just made an amazing scientific discovery, stand in his way. They use their amazing, not to say magical, scientific discovery to organize a resistance under the guise of a religion. This plan mostly works.
Specific problems:
* Frank Mitsui in the book is a man whose grandmother was "half-Chinese and half wahini," and his mother is "part Chinese but mostly Caucasian." Somehow he acquired the name Mitsui from this ancestry, and finds himself adrift in a country that reviles him, as do the invaders. He appears early on, is consulted as an expert in "Asian thinking" (it's genetic?) and has few speaking parts.
* American=white is otherwise unchallenged.
* There are no (perhaps one? I don't want to reread to check it out.) speaking parts for women in this book. Only two women are named, and one is dead before the book begins.
* He appears to be an advocate of the "flying monkeys and magic" school of military thought. Sufficiently advanced science will assure that we win! And obviously, our science is more advanced.
* The American spirit and culture raises America above other nations. Granted, in 1941 this must have seemed like an attractive message, but the book often focuses on the ways in which the "Asiatic" culture is deficient.
* The, "OMG my plan is brilliant, really brilliant, would you like to hear about it? Too bad! But it's really brilliant. Okay, I'll tell this guy over here and he'll react in awe and amazement! See how brilliant my plan is?" gambit has never endeared me to anyone.
* The magical weapon has whatever abilities the plot requires. Kill a man? Check. Stun a man? Check. Forcefield? Check. Cure the common cold? Check. Cure Cancer? Check. None of these examples are made up.
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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Fun. It's pretty much pure fluff, and racist with it, but it's fun to read. There's one big coincidence at the start - that the 'Ledbetter Effect' was discovered at the exact same time as the PanAsian attack. After that, everything is juggling and improvisation - unlikely, but given the
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circumstances relatively reasonable. A lot of the results depend on the PanAsians being exactly as stereotype paints them - relatively stupid and rule-bound, concerned primarily with saving face rather than with achieving their collective aims, and with, as Heinlein explicitly has a character say, a racial inferiority complex that dictates each one's attitude towards 'white men' as a whole. And while there is at least one racial Asian who's a good guy, there don't seem to be any other races besides white and PanAsian - where are the black people? The attitude towards women is odd - women are considered for every available job and mostly rejected except for safe, non-contact positions. At the end there's an assumption that every man will be armed, and if there's any weapons left over see if there are any smart, tough women you can give them to (no suggestion that a smart, tough woman would make better use of a weapon than a weak or weak-minded man). I can pick holes in it all night, but it's still a fun read. About at the level of Independence Day, and for similar reasons - if you think about the science or the psychology of it, it all falls apart, but the story catches you up and sweeps you along. I've read it several times before, but I always forget some of the neat scenes and lines. I read it for the Readathon - got through 9 of 12 chapters in one hour, and finished it in a bit less than another hour. Show Less
LibraryThing member RRHowell
This one is awfully dated, and never was one of Heinlein's best.
LibraryThing member EmScape
How can a few scientists defeat an invading horde? By starting a magic religion, of course! Interesting commentary on both religion and race.
LibraryThing member RobertDay
Thois is the book upon which Heinlein's reputatioin for racism mainly hangs. In fact, it is no more racist than the times it was written in. And misogynist. And elitist. Which just goes to show how much things have changed, I'm pleased to say.
Now we've disposed of these issues, what do we find? A
Now we've disposed of these issues, what do we find? A
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wish-fulfilment fantasy of super-science winning the day against impossible odds. The six remaining men of the US military decide to use that super-science through the agency of a fake religion, thus giving rise to one image that redeems this book in my mind (though not very much, and I wouldn't advise anyone to seek out a copy for this reason alone): the characters are discussing how they will pay for setting up their fake religion nationwide, and one of them says that they will use their powers to transmute base metal into gold and pay with solid gold coins. "After all" he says, "you wouldn't expect a priest with a long beard and flowing white robes to whip out a chequebook and pen, would you?" I found that image amusing. (Incidentally, I once saw an illustration in a World SF Convention programme book from the 1970s where the image of the god Mota deployed against the godless heathen looked suspiciously like a Muslim cleric...) Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
In this novel America has been conquered by the Pan-Asians. The story deals with the rebellion. I've seen this book attacked as racist. I probably should reread this--and it is a very slender book that could probably be read in one sitting, but for what it's worth, if it was racist, I was oblivious
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to it. The invaders could have been from Mars--what I took from it wasn't some warning about some kind of "yellow peril" but more a book about fighting for your freedom. I'd note that one of the Americans--one of the good guys--is himself of Asian ancestry. An odd choice, if Heinlein truly was a racist. A word too easily flung about that I think should be narrowly used to mean someone who believes groups of people are inherently inferior or corrupt--something Heinlein obviously does not believe. Ironically the book--notably published in 1941--was based on a proposal by John W. Campbell and Heinlein noted he "had to reslant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line." And one should remember, there's a difference between portraying racism--which is shown on both sides in this book, and being racist. Not one of Heinlein's stronger works, no, he himself found it problematic, but neither does it wholly deserve the drumming it gets. And I have to admit, I was rather tickled by the subplot involving an invented religion. Shades of L Ron Hubbard! Show Less
LibraryThing member TheOtherJunkMonkey
In a future America invaded by the masses hordes of 'slant-eyed', 'flat-faced', 'yellow', 'Mongoloid' Pan Asia only six men remain of the United States Army. Together they repel the invaders. The fact that they have just invented a brand new field of physics that enables them to slice the tops off
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mountains at the touch of a button, cure all known diseases and selectively set their 1920s style super-sciencey raygun weapons to select between those with 'Asian blood' and 'Caucasians' (people of African decent are totally absent from the book) is a bit of a help. Early datedly racist crap which I doubt (hope) is not in print any more. Show Less
LibraryThing member buffalogr
This book is about a "yellow race" conquering the USA and the fight that ensues. It was written in 1949 and reflects the attitudes and perspectives of the time--just four years ago, the war against Japan had been won. The North Koreans are about to invade South Korea. One cannot judge a work of
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that era by today's morals. The author is considered one of the best sci-fi writers and in this book, he predicted several events and other things that have come true or are not yet solved, like curing cancer. The plot involves a group of dedicated Americans who turn back the hoard using cultural blind spots as cover. Why not? Without context, I would have rejected this book, but because of it, maybe I'll read more Heinlein. Show Less
LibraryThing member Garrison0550
This is not one of the better Heinlein books.
LibraryThing member fuzzi
Struggled twice to read this, but now I'm giving up. I won't even blame my inability to get involved in the story to how dated it is. None of the characters are likable, and the plot isn't believable.
LibraryThing member tjl
First, this book comes across as kind of racist at times, but I partially attribute that to when it was originally written (1941 in magazines, 1949 in hardcover). The US is overrun by "Pan-Asians" and the stereotypes are really in evidence in this book. That said, the basic plot is interesting.
If it wasn't for the racism, I'd probably rate it 4 stars, but the racism can be really bad. I highly recommend that younger children not read this book (at least not without adult supervision to discuss the issues). That said, I do like the overall plot. Also, this book doesn't suffer from Heinlein's usual problem of poor endings, it's actually fairly decent.
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After the military has been wiped out, a small group of the military working on scientific projects is basically all that's left. They've developed truly fantastic new technology that's better than anything the enemy has, but there isn't the military to make use of it. Americans aren't allowed to congregate except in religious ceremonies, so they make use of the tech to found a new religion as a "Sixth Column" against the enemy.If it wasn't for the racism, I'd probably rate it 4 stars, but the racism can be really bad. I highly recommend that younger children not read this book (at least not without adult supervision to discuss the issues). That said, I do like the overall plot. Also, this book doesn't suffer from Heinlein's usual problem of poor endings, it's actually fairly decent.
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LibraryThing member GlenRH
I love underdog type books, don't you? Six men must save the American way of life from the Asian hordes that invade. Only Heinlein could make this a situation you will believe has an outside chance of success. A very fun to read book!
LibraryThing member nordie
A secret research facility in the Colorado mountains is the US Army's last outpost after defeat by the PanAsians. The conquerors had absorbed the USSR after being attacked by them & had then absorbed India. They're ruthless, having crushed a rebellion by killing 150,000 civilians as punishment.
The
They devise more uses for the forces discovered, but how do a handful overthrow an occupation that controls all communications & makes it criminal to print English? Noting the invaders have allowed religious practice to pacify their slaves, they start a church & act as Priests of Mota (atom backwards) to build a resistance movement which Major Ardmore, the protagonist, refers to as the 6th Column--as opposed to a traitorous 5th.
Originally published in 1941 as "Sixth Column" this came to me from my bookgroup under it's alternate title of "The Day After Tomorrow". I hadn't read Heinlein, or any other books from this era, in years, so picked it up.
The story starts with Major Ardmore arriving at The Citadel, to find that all but 6 members of the section are dead, via unknown methods. To all intents and purposes it's an Military (Army) base, but the remaining staff are science types or low grade army recruits. Ardmore finds himself having to take over command and not only deal with the temperamental staff but how to react to the enslavement of the American people by a combined Far East contingent.
"But the PanAsians arent Japanese" "No and they're not Chinese. They are a mixed race, strong, proud and prolific".
50 years of non interaction with the far east had resulted in America being invaded by an group of people they had no understanding of.
The Nonintercourse Act had kept the American people from knowing anything important about their enemy. [...] The proponents of the measure had maintained that China was a big bite even for Soviet Russia to digest and that the United States had no fear of war [...] we had our backs turned when China digested Russia
They then go on to absorb India as well and it is many of the veterans of the India campaign who are brought over to control the Americans.
The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel—for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment.
Under Ardmore's instruction the scientists soon find what killed their colleagues, and the rest of the book is a way of overcoming the obstacles of being a small group overcoming a whole continent of enemies. They make the best use of their new weapon despite the limits on communications and travel. Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion (the better to pacify their slaves), the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement—the Sixth Column (as opposed to a traitorous fifth column).
This is a short book (145 pages) and so the writing is sparse and there is little exposition of the things that are different. The Scout cars - high speed flying cars, manoeuvrable like helicopters, but faster and virtually undetectable - are used where travel over long distances is required. There is some description of the new weapon, but that is kept to a minimum but having Ardmore as a non-scientist quickly bored with things he doesn't understand.
It's difficult to decide whether it's the author or the characters themselves who are inherently racist against the invaders. Several characters refer to them as "monkeys" or "Flat faced Bastards" but outside of speech they are most commonly referred to as "PanAsians" or "Asiatics". A few of the characters are slightly more charitable, saying things like the following:
"Don't make the mistake of thinking of the PanAsians as bad - they're not - but they are different. Behind their arrogance is a racial inferiority complex, a mass paranoia that makes it necessary for them to prove to themselves by proving to us that a yellow man is as good as a white man, an a damned sight better. Remember that, son, they want the outside signs of respect more than anything else in the world."
Ardmore is the most complete character, but even he isn't an in depth person. The secondary characters are a little on dimensional, but that's a side effect of such a short book. The characters who appear early in the book are dropped early, only for some of them to appear later in the book - Dr Calhoun disappears as soon as the weapons are developed, and only appears again having a breakdown and running amok in the Citadel. The intelligence gathering trip by Thomas was interesting, and provided the most rounded description of the changed world state.
The
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lab is in turmoil. All but six of the personnel have died due to unknown forces released by an experiment operating within the newly-discovered magneto-gravitic or electro-gravitic spectra. Survivors learn they can selectively kill by releasing the internal pressure of cell membranes. This weapon can kill one race while leaving others unharmed.They devise more uses for the forces discovered, but how do a handful overthrow an occupation that controls all communications & makes it criminal to print English? Noting the invaders have allowed religious practice to pacify their slaves, they start a church & act as Priests of Mota (atom backwards) to build a resistance movement which Major Ardmore, the protagonist, refers to as the 6th Column--as opposed to a traitorous 5th.
Originally published in 1941 as "Sixth Column" this came to me from my bookgroup under it's alternate title of "The Day After Tomorrow". I hadn't read Heinlein, or any other books from this era, in years, so picked it up.
The story starts with Major Ardmore arriving at The Citadel, to find that all but 6 members of the section are dead, via unknown methods. To all intents and purposes it's an Military (Army) base, but the remaining staff are science types or low grade army recruits. Ardmore finds himself having to take over command and not only deal with the temperamental staff but how to react to the enslavement of the American people by a combined Far East contingent.
"But the PanAsians arent Japanese" "No and they're not Chinese. They are a mixed race, strong, proud and prolific".
50 years of non interaction with the far east had resulted in America being invaded by an group of people they had no understanding of.
The Nonintercourse Act had kept the American people from knowing anything important about their enemy. [...] The proponents of the measure had maintained that China was a big bite even for Soviet Russia to digest and that the United States had no fear of war [...] we had our backs turned when China digested Russia
They then go on to absorb India as well and it is many of the veterans of the India campaign who are brought over to control the Americans.
The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel—for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment.
Under Ardmore's instruction the scientists soon find what killed their colleagues, and the rest of the book is a way of overcoming the obstacles of being a small group overcoming a whole continent of enemies. They make the best use of their new weapon despite the limits on communications and travel. Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion (the better to pacify their slaves), the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement—the Sixth Column (as opposed to a traitorous fifth column).
This is a short book (145 pages) and so the writing is sparse and there is little exposition of the things that are different. The Scout cars - high speed flying cars, manoeuvrable like helicopters, but faster and virtually undetectable - are used where travel over long distances is required. There is some description of the new weapon, but that is kept to a minimum but having Ardmore as a non-scientist quickly bored with things he doesn't understand.
It's difficult to decide whether it's the author or the characters themselves who are inherently racist against the invaders. Several characters refer to them as "monkeys" or "Flat faced Bastards" but outside of speech they are most commonly referred to as "PanAsians" or "Asiatics". A few of the characters are slightly more charitable, saying things like the following:
"Don't make the mistake of thinking of the PanAsians as bad - they're not - but they are different. Behind their arrogance is a racial inferiority complex, a mass paranoia that makes it necessary for them to prove to themselves by proving to us that a yellow man is as good as a white man, an a damned sight better. Remember that, son, they want the outside signs of respect more than anything else in the world."
Ardmore is the most complete character, but even he isn't an in depth person. The secondary characters are a little on dimensional, but that's a side effect of such a short book. The characters who appear early in the book are dropped early, only for some of them to appear later in the book - Dr Calhoun disappears as soon as the weapons are developed, and only appears again having a breakdown and running amok in the Citadel. The intelligence gathering trip by Thomas was interesting, and provided the most rounded description of the changed world state.
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Language
Original publication date
1941 (Astounding SF Jan, Feb, Mar)
Physical description
144 p.
ISBN
0450010856 / 9780450010859