Farnham’s Freehold

In the science fiction world, I am pretty partial to Robert Heinlein, as a matter of fact, I use several selected quotes of his on a routine basis.

Therefore, since I am doing reviews of prepper books, to include prepper fiction I had to throw Farnham’s Freehold into the stack of books.

As you see from the book’s cover Heinlein knew this book would be a little controversial. It should be understood, that being fiction, the book can take some liberties with reality.

The book begins with a nuclear war scenario, and Farnham and family take refuge in his bomb shelter – and wake up after being transported into the distant future.

The characters then deal with issues that go unspoken in many prepper households – namely, who is in charge, how to divide responsibilities, are guests “entitled” to an equal share, as well as the pure fun (and extreme work) of solving the problems of rebuilding humanity.

Unfortunately, in Heinlein’s future, after the bombs the world blames the destruction on the white race, and subjugates them into a source of food as well as slaves. The white race is bred to be smaller than current men, and most males are castrated.

Farnham rebels at this idea and devises a way to return to the past to prevent this, while his wife and son decide to stay.

There are several themes in this book worth exploring, and I feel that any reasonably intelligent person can decide what is literary license, and what is worth discussing.