The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag

"He could not afford to believe anything that he was told, or that he read, or that was implicitly assumed to be true about the world around him." Robert Heinlein's The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag has a detective noir feel about it that actually grabbed me. The husband-and-wife detective t......more

This book could reasonably have been called Collected Paranoid Tales of Robert Heinlein. Most of them are satisfyingly creepy, and it's hard to get them out of your head. Anyone who's got even the tiniest trace of paranoia ought to read They. (You haven't come across it? Interesting. Do you think th......more

A collection of Twilight Zone - esque stories with surprisingly compelling characters for the most part. The first story, or rather a novella which over half of the book is comprised of, is an engaging detective story with an SF spin on it, which I really enjoyed. My favourite tales were the ones tha......more

I can't say much about the other stories, but the title story has remained with me since I finally tracked the book down years ago. I reread it every so often and I am always amazed and puzzled. I had read about the story in Zizek's LOOKING AWRY. The excerpt and the Zizek described it gave me chills......more

Fantastic collection! Includes the novella "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," and the five short stories "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants," "All You Zombies," "They," "Our Fair City," and "And He Built a Crooked House." This book is a great introduction for anyone looking to get a taste......more