The Cat Who Walks through Walls

Are you kidding me? Who are these people who don't believe this is a good book? The last third may seem to let down the first two thirds, but if you knew anything about Heinlein, you'd know that the beginning is just a warmup. In order to understand "Cat" you have to have read "Time Enough for Love" and "The Number of the Beast" in that order. "Sail into the Sunset" is set at about the same time as "Cat" (not that time has much meaning to these people) and would also be helpful. If you haven't read at least one of these other novels, you don't have a hope of understanding any of the others. They all stand alone, but were written in a certain order, and so form a loose trilogy of sorts. And you don't read the last book in a series first! (unless you're George Lucas) Personally, I don't think "Cat" is one of his best, or even one of his middling, mainly because the first two thirds are a rehash of some other future history novels, like "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Space Cadet" and obviously anything else with Hazel Stone in it. But it's cute, and I have a kitten who looks like Pixel so I'm biased. So please, before you go trashing a perfectly good novel - KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!

After reading this, I am still not impressed by Heinlein's work. Perhaps his earlier works were better and I will read those to give him a fair shake. The first two sections of the book was very well written - interesting characters and good plot movement. The last section was too much of a family reunion - lots of hugging and talking but nothing else. Since I haven't read his earlier works, I wasn't impressed with the reappearance of his older characters. Also I think my copy of the is missing a few pages at the end.

Im now a new fan of RBH,The cat who walked through walls was one of the first book of his iv'e read. It was great all the way through except for the ending.I think he should have Re written the ending which had many loose ends and leave you wondering what happened to richard and gwen

If you like science fiction, then this probably isn't the book for you. Basically the entire length of this book consists of the witty dialogue that the characters partake in. There are a FEW good sci-fi ideas, but nothing actually happens in the book.

Now, I will admit, I may not be the "target audience" for this particular book, as I really can't stand most of Heinlein's late work. On the other hand, I really enjoyed his earlier stuff, say Tunnel in the Sky, Starship Troopers, etc. So, when it came out, a friend gushed about it to me, so I decided what the heck, I'll read the thing. First half to 2/3 of the book were really good. I was actually rather enjoying it, and was thinking, "Hey, Heinlein is finally writing something the equal of his early work." It's a mystery story, reasonably well constructed, had me engaged, and I was interested to see where he went with it.

Then Lazarus Long showed up. I cannot begin to describe the sinking feeling I got as soon as I saw his name appear. And I was right to worry. Immediately after he shows up, the book goes off at a complete radical tangent into things that had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with anything that happened in the first part of the book. Completely irrelevant nonsense other than Heinlein feeling clever about running Lazarus Long out there again. To say the quality dropped off a cliff would be to insult most cliffs. So, he rambles on with stuff that seemed to be coming from some completely different book altogether (as it certainly wasn't related to THIS one.) Then, finally, he gets back to the story he spent the first nearly 2/3 of the book telling. And he winds it up in 5 pages, tops. As an aside. 400-something pages of setup, 5 pages of an aside worth of payoff. THEN he went on for easily 50 MORE pages back with the Lazarus Long stuff again.

I literally flung the book across the room into a wall when I finished it, I was that annoyed. He gets my hopes up in the first part of the book, only to completely trample all over them with the rest of it. Last Heinlein book I read. It was so bad, it actually ruined books of his for me that I used to like. I cannot more strongly recommend COMPLETELY avoiding ever reading this book. Read a phone book, you'll get better plot and more enjoyment out of it.

I love this book! WHY IS IT NOT A AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK? Also the classic, The Moon's a Harsh Mistress, NO E-BOOK! Nobody mentions this, there is no discussion about it! Are publishers fighting for rights? Please publish these books digitally before they are forgotten. I love Robert Anton Heinlein.

Loved this so much that I even had a kitten named Pixel lol. :)
I also love how some characters just *are*. No explanations, really...they just explode in, & keep you wondering what the heck they're about. :)

I agree with the other reviewers who note that this should not be your first Heinlen book. With that said, this and many of his books are about the possibilities we all forget about as we grow older. The title of the book comes from a particular scene in the book when the main character learns a little more about the cat, Pixel. It seems Pixel can walk through walls because he doesn't know you can't! If only we all approached life without those preconceived notions about what we can or can't do! This reminder makes this one of my favorite Heinlen books.

An odd book, in that it is a bit of a discussion, and so tends to be dull.

It also has an odd cat, and that is usually not too good, unless you are named Seuss, or the cat is really, really big, Beastmaster.

However, a bunch of his characters from other books appear here, which does make it a bit more interesting.

The early to middle portions of Heinlein's novel were extremely entertaining with unbelieveably comical dialog. I even managed to be charmed by the more than somewhat confusing plot and blatant sloshing about of intentionally incomprehensible technology. The self-terminating mistake? A horrific cut and paste ending that was more closely resembling of the eratic "art" of an easily bored two year-old suffering from ADHD than a fitting end to a fantastic literary journey.

I picked this book up somewhat half-heartedly. But after reading the first three pages, I was hooked. The plot is fast-paced, intriguing, and thuroughly fun. Even the characters,(who many people don't like), are well-done and enjoyable. Gwen Novak(the female lead)is quite believable, despite being a little flat. (I happen to know a women very similar to her) In the end, a great read, makes one glad to have shelled out the 7 dollars.

Before you read this book you need the following things: a weekend off work, a comfy chair, more Heinlein books ( read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress at the bare minimum ), and a love of sci-fi. Also, if you like your authors to point out every single conclusion without leaving you to come to some on your own...go watch TV, reading isn't for you.

If you are a Heinlein fan, this book is for you. It's an important piece in is Future History and World as Myth books. If you have no background in Heinlein, put this one on the shelf for now and read his earlier works first.

My only complain with the book: It was about 1000 pages too short ;-)

This book is terrible. RaH takes a perfectly good murder mystery and turns in into...well, I don't quite know what. Halfway through the book, it seems as though he had set it down for several years, came back to it to finish it off, but had nothing but nonsense on the brain. I've seen authors pull an ending out of their hat before, but this book absolutely takes the cake. It's not even my book and I threw it in the trash so it won't waste another person's time ever again.

This book builds up the reader's expectations over many players and events and leaves them all unanswered.
Maybe one of Heinlein's children or fellow writers could write the final sequel to this story and wrap it up.

Robert Heinlein has written lots of very good books. I have read all of them. This is simply not one of them. It's value is to provide data on his decline as an author. His last few books are simply not good value (except to his bank account.

First two-thirds a 9, last third a 3, average out to a six...this book is similar to the series "Twin Peaks" (first season), with a beautiful, stylistic set-up, and then a completely unfulfilling ending. It is fun, especially the beginning, but leaves you feeling cheated. Not a good beginning book for RAH novices...at least read The Moon is Harsh Mistress, first.

No spoilers! Our protagonist happens to be a writer. And he expounds on what ít's like to be a writer. In 2 of these passages, Heinlein is quite funny about the craft of writing. However, the rest of the book is pretty dreadful. Instead, read The Puppet Masters or Starship Troopers - both are quite good.

This is a wonderful tale. For those of you who are fans of Joseph Campbell, the last portion of this book provides an entertaining explanation of myth. I read this when it came out and I appreciate it even more today. If you like a read that will make you think, give this book a try.

I'm a big fan of RAH, but this book just sucks. I would rather cut off my own head with a spoon than read this book again. It's a great book though if you want to read about an old man's fantasies of having sex with teenage girls.

I've been a big Heinlein fan for over 30 years so what a huge disappointment. The writing was so smug and self-serving, at times I almost choked. Not everyone can be Nelson DeMille. This train wreck makes me appreciate his writing style all the more.

You know, I enjoy reading. I do NOT enjoy being read to, because I am not two years old any more. I'm sure this audio book is probably great for people who enjoy that sort of thing, and Heinlein is a fantastic author (although if you are new to him I certainly wouldn't start with this book). What I want is the printed word in a readable electronic format. Are you listening, Kindle people? I don't enjoy being read to and I will not buy this audio book to play on my Kindle device. If you are producing audio books instead of electronic print books to get me to spend more money, I'm here to tell you it isn't going to work! Print the damn book in a Kindle format and I will buy it.

I could not finish this book. In fact this is the only fiction novel I have ever not finished. I've read hundreds. It does start off interesting as other have said, but everything from the prose to the plot falls apart during the middle.
The banter with the main characters wife gets very old... Il just stop here and say I agree with every criticism writen before my "review" and would not recomend this book to my enemies.

The first two-thirds of this book are great. A great Heinlein thriller, with action and mystery. Then it just gets weird. Almost as if Douglas Adams got hold of the manuscript and decided to finish it off.

The only reason I give it 2 stars instead of 1 is because it held my interest, which is the first thing a book has to do. The writing is extremely poor. I have read a few of the other reviews on this site, and I see that this is not meant to be a stand-alone book. You aren't supposed to read it until you have read a few others. It should say that somewhere. I found this book somewhere and started reading it, and that turns out to be a mistake. The book is crap, basically.

Something happened. I'm not sure what. Rather than get an explanation of who did what to whom, we get glib stupid wisecracks. That is one of the main reasons I say the writing is crap. The author may have been amusing himself but he wasn't amusing me as reader.

Anything is possible. The laws of nature can be tossed in the trash. Presto changeo, guess what, someone is dead, or maybe not, maybe it was all nothing, and a kitten is around, and I don't know why. The book really kind of sucks. But it has one, count em, one good character, named Hazel (sometimes) or Gwen or something else. The rest of the characters are nothing.

It's really pretty awful because the writer chooses not to explain his story at all. He just plays stupid tricks and then makes wisecracks, leaving you not knowing what just happened, who did it, why they did it, or how anything turns out. A real piece of garbage. Perhaps it amused the author, but he should have been punished for writing this crap.