Is it cool to mention that the book’s also available through Zooba.com?
It’s called Variable Star. Based on a recently discoverd outline Heinlein prepared in 1955. See http://www.spiderrobinson.com/
Kay Tarrant.
And, BTW, Robinson is donating half the proceeds from Variable Star to help the Heinlein Trust continue to fund the annual $500,000 Heinlein Prize for commercial manned spaceflight. See http://www.spiderrobinson.com/books.htm; also http://www.heinleinprize.com/.
– Spider Robinson
I got to love not only the way Spider is a bigger fan of Heinlein than anyone but how he works in a comparison to my favorite musician in the same quote. I definitely Grok his meaning. He also invented my favorite bar, other than the Prancing Pony.
Jim
Sorry, while I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I have a philosophical and practical objection to “negative option” plans. I think it’s a poor way to sell things. I also go through periods when I’m unable to really do anything but lie in bed and be sick. I can’t even really look at my mail. I’d join the SFBC IF I didn’t have to sign up for the negative option plan. I buy plenty of books on a regular basis. There is also the issue of quality. Frankly, I’ve always had problems with book club editions being of lower quality than regular editions. The SFBC editions that I bought back in the 70s and 80s have not held up as well as the regular trade editions. Since just about all book editions nowadays, barring the archival quality books that are put out now and then, have had a noticeable decline in quality, I’m reluctant to buy SFBC editions now, whether by joining the SFBC or secondhand, when the quality was low already. Perhaps this has changed, I hope so. Finally, when I read the selections in the flyers I receive, most of them are really not at all what I want. A gazillion Robert Jordan and Anne Rice books do not entice me. I want something with some meat on it. Off The Main Sequence is precisely the sort of item I’m interested in, because I’d love to read those last few stories. However, I’m not interested in joining a book club to get them.
G.B.H. Hornswoggler, you’re a fine person to bring this edition to light, and you’ve done something great for fandom. I admire you for working on this project. However, I just can’t get past my issues to join the SFBC, or any book club, for that matter. I’m very sorry.
Demographics: Female, married, 48, been reading SF/F since I was 8 (my grandfather loved SF, and allowed me to read almost all of his library), and I spend about $50 a month on SF/F books and magazines. I have a separate budget for other reading materials, the $50 a month goes ONLY to SF and fantasy. I’d dearly love to buy the book as a oneshot from SFBC, but I don’t want to join the club.
Had to stop by to say thanks also, Fenris.
Thanks for the ISBN.
I would have done this too, but I’m laz…efficient. Yeah, that’s it.
Now just to find time this semester to read it when it arrives.
That’s good to know. Heh–how ‘bout a reprint ominbus of Heinlein’s non-fiction: Take Back Your Government (maybe with “A Room Of Her Own” as an addendum), Tramp Royale, and some of his articles? Hell, why not put a (metaphorical! 
) gun to Pournelles’ head and pry that 70-some page letter that Heinlein wrote telling them how to ‘fix’ Mote? (Yeah, I’m attributing you with super-powers. Your point being? :p)
Kidding aside, Heinlein wrote a ton of articles that have never been reprinted, and Take Back… etc goes (last I checked) for like $90.00 on eBay. If you can find a copy. Ha! THAT’S how you get the letter from Pournelle–promise him that when you republish Take Back… you’ll excise all the gushing “PEROT WILL SAVE US ALL!” footnotes! 
As an aside, how hard was it to get the rights to reprint the three stinkeroos? I’d understood that Heinlein made sure that they’d never be reprinted (well, except for “Beyond Doubt” which has slipped out twice that I know of). Obviously not the case since, well, you did. I guess I’m curious if those stories were always available for reprint but no-one wanted to, or if you had to work to get the rights and how hard was it (I’m not asking for details like how much you paid or whatever).
PS, Lynn: If by “negative option” you mean that you have to send in a card to NOT get the books, IIRC (and granted, it’s been a few years) all you have to do is let them know that you don’t want the negative option. Last time I was a mameber (a few years back) it took like one phone call and poof–no more “If you don’t send in your card, we’ll send you the book” notes. Also, while the quality of this isn’t archival, the cover art is great (very reminiscent of Power’s work from the '60s) it’s a solid looking and feeling book, the pages are all cut the same size, etc. Heh–I know what you mean about earlier SFBC books though: I just reread the Dragonriders of Pern ominibus from the '70s and it was…um…let’s just say that it doesn’t seem that quality control was as strict then as now.
Well, I went to the estate’s agent with my amateurish PowerPoint presentation, and made the case to do an “everything else” collection. The question of the “stinkeroos” didn’t actually come up, specifically, so I guess Heinlein didn’t leave any explicit instructions that they weren’t to be reprinted.
What they were more concerned about, at first, was that this book does have some “Future History” stories – not just “Let There Be Light,” but also “Universe” and “Common Sense.” But, when we talked it through, they liked the idea of “all the rest of his SF stories” as well, so they decided it was a good idea. (It’s not as if anyone can go back and stick those stories into all the old copies of The Past Through Tomorrow at this point, after all.)
Piggy-backing here to reply to Lynn 's post as well: book-club editions of the '60s and '70s (from Doubleday, SFBC’s parent company; Book-of-the-Month Club was then separate and very different) were horrible. But they were not actually any more horrible than Doubleday’s trade editions; in fact, they were usually identical to Doubleday’s trade editions. (Doubleday was not what you would call a high-end publisher in this era.) Once Bertlesmann bought Doubleday, and broke the clubs off as a separate company, things improved dramatically. Club editions are not the same as trade editions (the bindings are not as strong, and there’s no foil, embossing, or other cover accoutrements), but the paper quality is generally comparable, and the differences are not as major as they were in the '70s.
I’ll also point out that, in the Internet era, it’s much easier to reply to a club (either to refuse Selections or buy something) than it used to be; all you need to do is go to the website and click a couple of times.
The secret words for “no automatic shipments” are “positive option” (that’s the internal term). I don’t believe we enroll new members under that plan, and I also think we don’t automatically give it to anyone who asks, but it does exist. (Both of those things are because “positive option” members are always substantially less profitable than “negative option” members – and often the latter are only slightly profitable to begin with.) It is worth a try, though, for those who are already in the club and always refuse the Selections.
Someone else already mentioned Zooba.com, which is a sister club of ours (and thus should have all of our titles available; I don’t think they’re quite all there yet). That one is on the Netflix model; you agree to buy one book a month, at a set price, for as long as you’re a member, and you maintain a queue of books. With that club, you’d never get a book you didn’t want, and the prices to the members are lower (since there isn’t a practically-free up front offer).
I’ve been a member for about ten years, and though I buy a book every two or four months, I think I’ve only once bought the selection. I’ll have to try that. I’d still get the mailings, right? I just wouldn’t have to respond unless I wanted something?
That’s how it’s worked for me Frank. I still get the mailings and they even have the selection slip in there, but there’s a check box if you WANT the selection, not to refuse it. I’ve been set up for positive option for years, but I think I remember the girl on the phone telling me that they could only do that for members who’d fulfilled their purchasing committment after the free books. Made sense, and it’s nice to not worry about it. Otherwise I would have quit the club long ago, and they wouldn’t have had my several books a year’s worth of purchases.
Heh, and I’d love to someday have a fixed version of Past, with “We Also Walk Dogs” excised (it doesn’t fit at all: we’re in contact with aliens before Methusulah’s Children? We have a big interplanetary program and interplanetary travel is common? There’s a magic gravity-shield device before the Libby engine?) but with “Light” and “Colombus Was A Dope” added back in.
I know why “Light” was removed, but I don’t know why “Dogs” was inserted. Anyone know Heinlein (or whoever the editor was)'s reasoning?
Didn’t you know? Fenris is Heinlein. He faked his death so we’d stop bugging him.
Tell me more about the book club. I can be had but dislike fantasy. And I don’t want to have bad SF thrown at me. Sometimes it’s too depressing to go to a bookstore and see all the derivative and unimaginative stuff on the shelf.
So talk to me. Make me see the light. I’ve got the SDBC page open in another window right now.
I have to check my version of Past, which I got when I first joined SFBC about 40 years ago. I know I got the two volume Boucher anthology also, and the single volume Foundation Trilogy.
My old SFBC books have held up pretty well.
May I make a suggestion? How about sending email to people who are about to buy the featured selections a bit before the deadline? I bet you’d save money on returns. (They’re very good about taking stuff back sent when someone forgot to decline the selections.) It will only cost when people take selections they didn’t want to avoid the hassle, and those people are likely to quit.
I think the featured selections mail sometimes gets lost in the special deals mail, which comes about once every fifty milliseconds by my estimation. 
That said, I’m going to order the book the next time a good deal comes around. BTW, the Things to Come are a lot better now than they were 30 years ago. I think I have a lot of my old ones, but I’m a collector. And I haven’t been a member continuously all this time.
Dammit, if a mod happens to read this (it ain’t a big enough deal to e-mail over) could you delete everything in my last post below the line that ends with “Anyone know Heinlein (or whoever the editor was)'s reasoning?” please? Thanks!
I joined the SFBC at age 15 in 1975, still a member with two hiatus periods. As I recall, my introductory books included *The Science Fiction Hall of Fame 2A & 2B, A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, The Hugo Winners 1&2, *and Again, Dangerous Visions. Such a deal.
G.B.H. Hornswoggler
You’re Andrew Wheeler, my my my. And you’ve been here even longer than me! Of course now that you’re out of the closet you’re getting some feedback already, heheh.
Here’s mine:
Me too, and I’ve been meaning to bring this up to Ms Asher. The selections have always consisted of one Science Fiction book and one Fantasy.
There’s many a time I’d wanted the SF book but not the Fantasy one.
I think if it were two Science Fiction books alternated every other month with two Fantasy books, we’d all take the selection more often. I believe the fantasy fan/SF fan is far less overlapped than you might think. Take a poll, maybe?