Glory Road

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

E. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential, willing to travel, no family or emotional ties, indomitably courageous and handsome of face and figure. Permanent employment, very high pay, glorious adventure, great danger. You must apply in person, 17 rue Dante, Nice, 2me étage, apt. D."

How could you not answer an ad like that, especially when it seemed to describe you perfectly? Well, except maybe for the “handsome” part, but that was in the eye of the beholder anyway. So he went to that apartment and was greeted by the most beautiful woman he’d ever met. She seemed to have many names but agreed he could call her Star. A pretty appropriate name, as it turned out, for the empress of twenty universes. And she sends him on the adventure of a lifetime.

Robert A. Heinlein’s one true fantasy novel, Glory Road is as much fun today as when he wrote it after Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein proves himself as adept with sword and sorcery as with rockets and slide rules, and the result is exciting, satirical, fast-paced, funny, and tremendously readable - a favorite of all who have read it. Glory Road is a masterpiece of escapist entertainment with a typically Heinleinian sting in its tail.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) was the dominant science fiction writer of the modern era, a writer whose influence on the field was immense. He won science fiction’s Hugo Award for best novel four times.

©1963 Robert A. Heinlein; renewed 1991 by Virginia Heinlein; 2003 by the Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust; Afterword 1979, 1984 by Samuel R. Delany (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A triumph.”( Chicago Tribune)

“ Glory Road maintains a delicacy, a bravura, and a joy that not only are notable, but clearly consign it to his heptology of major SF novels.” (Samuel R. Delany, American author and literary critic)

Great story and performance!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Every time the hero stumbled over a custom or situation which was strange to him, I enjoyed "watching" him decide how to respond and what questions to ask to get enough information to really understand what was happening.

Any additional comments?

Although I've been reading Heinlein for years, I didn't actually remember this story. I truly enjoyed the experience.

brilliant reader

this book is extremely well read and is a very fun story. I recommend it

Good old school read

it took me back to when I first started to read would love to reread

Glory Revisited

What made the experience of listening to Glory Road the most enjoyable?

I cut my teeth on Heinlein and am revisiting his works. This time I was old enough to catch a number of aspects that I missed the first time around.

If you’ve listened to books by Robert A. Heinlein before, how does this one compare?

Although this book is a bit more toward the fantasy genre than most of his works, he is able to bring a logical, scientific slant to what would otherwise be pure "magic."

What about Bronson Pinchot’s performance did you like?

He had a great ability to shift personae. Loved his accents. He sounds a bit like Matthew McConaughey.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

They all are..

Any additional comments?

Warning not a feminist read.

Just Okay

The narrator was the best. The story was okay. At times, it was too preachy for me. Half way through the book I started to enjoy the story but it lost momentum and the ending fell flat. It was published in 1963 but does not seem outdated. If you like satirical fantasy, you might like this book.

Good reading of a Great Story.

I'm a lifelong Heinlein fan. I first read Glory Road in the early '70's and loved it. Heinlein set out to write a story about what happens to the epic fantasy hero AFTER the adventure is over. The first half is the adventure, and the second half is the afterward.

Bronson Pinchot is a good, experienced reader and mostly does a good job. However, one of the major characters, Rufo, just doesn't sound right to me. Rufo should have a rough baritone voice, not an annoying french accent. But other than that, Pinchot's reading is good.

Not what I expected

A story about a Korean War sort-of vet who gets whisked away across the universes for an adventure by the woman of his dreams. I think if I would have read this book I wouldn't have liked it but the narrator does such a perfect job of portraying this laid-back aimless young man who is trying to figure out how to live a life that doesn't really appeal to him. It really does embody that mid- to late-70s flippantness of trying to find yourself in a society in transition.

The story's pacing was strange at times. If you zone out for a sentence or two you'll find yourself hip-deep in some wacky battle. And the culmination of the adventure happens with a couple hours still left. It confused me at first but I really enjoyed seeing the reality of what happens after an adventure concludes.

I really loved the narration of this story. Like I said, it made the story for me. The narrator's choice of accents and pacing brought the best out of the story.

starts good then slows down

It starts off very good with an interesting concept and interesting characters. Around about the middle the characters start to become more one dimensional and the narrative starts to get quite preachy. Also after while the performers Ah shucks accent starts to wear on your nerves.

Classic Heinlein

This is simply one of his older classics. A lot of commentary on a lot of subjects, you may not agree with all of them but cant fault his reasoning fir bringing them up.

Not one of my favorite Heinleins, genius narration

I love Heinlein books, even though this is not one of my favorites.
However, I wanted to leave this review because the narration is just *brilliant*. So versatile, espressive, funny, really among the best I've ever heard.