On the upside, "The Prometheus Meltdown" is a fun romp through the many multiverses of Heinlein's stories, with excursions into the lands of Joyce's Ulysses, Koman's Jehovah Contract, Linaweaver's Moon of Ice, E.E. Smith's Lensman, Wilson's and Shea's Illuminatus and many of our culture's never-never lands, too numerous to mention. Each of the individual sections is a fun and well-written short story. Unfortunately, the whole is not the equal to the sum of its parts. The "Prometheus Meltdown" lacks a certain amount of cohesion, which prevents it from being a fitting tribute to the great Robert Anson Heinlein.

Although J. Neil Schulman was one of the main instigators of the Meltdown project, he seems to have a minor role in the finished product. I wish that he and the other Neil, Smith, had been able to contribute a full chapter each. I especially miss not seeing the characters from Schulman's Rainbow Cadenza. I especially liked seeing Dell Ammo and Isadora Volante again. There is something very odd about a pre-pubescent whore who turns tricks by broadcasting telepathically sex scenes into her companions' minds. There is a great scene where Robert Heinlein is confronted in his house by Anson MacDonald! There is just a tantalizing peek at Alice Göbbels, daughter of Hilda and granddaughter of Joseph. Shea gives us a wonderful chapter involving sex and magick, and Wilson delivers a confusing James Joyce pastiche. All and all it is excellent work from all concerned but, like most round-robins, it just doesn't come together.

Round-robin novels are notoriously difficult to pull off. To do them well, the people writing them should all get together, work through the plot in great detail and walk away with a detailed outline and a clear understanding of where their sections are to fit in. Then the authors must write slavishly to their outlines. This is not very creative, but it does give you a highly structured novel. OR the novel can be picaresque, and each writer gets to do the sections however he likes. This is much more creative but tends to be pointless, overall. "The Prometheus Meltdown" has concentrated on a maximum of creativity, and it needs a touch more structure. Before I seem to be too critical, let me restate that I did enjoy the "Meltdown" quite a bit, despite my complaints.

There are two short stories in New Libertarian that are not part of "The Prometheus Meltdown". "Embarrassment Box" is a very funny Bernie Gruenblum story by L. Neil Smith. I first discovered Neil through the Bernie Gruenblum stories that appeared in Judy-Lynn Del Rey's series of book-magazines, Stellar. So good was the story that I really had no idea where it was headed until the pay-off!

"Bull Running's War" is a much more serious and emotional story by Øyvind Myhre, whom Konkin calls the "Robert Heinlein of Norway". Well, the story is pretty good, but a little predictable. I fear that Heinlein pulled off this sort of thing better and billing Mr. Myhre as the "Robert Heinlein of Norway" invites a comparison that is quite unfair to Myhre's fair talent.

This is a fine issue that any libertarian SF fan would be proud to own. For Heinlein completists there is even a short article from the man himself concerning his preference for the name "Robert" instead of "Bob".