Searchlight (short story)
Encyclopedia
"Searchlight" is a very short science fiction
story by Robert A. Heinlein
about a little blind girl whose spaceship crashes on the Moon
. The search for her takes advantage of her prodigious musical ability to locate her.
It was originally written in 1962 as part of an advertisement for Hoffman Electronics. Heinlein says that because it was so short it was much harder to write than writing novels. Perhaps because of this, it was the last short story Heinlein wrote; the remaining quarter-century of his career was devoted to writing novels and non-fiction essays.
"Searchlight" is anthologized in The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
, a collection of short stories published in 1966 and his Expanded Universe in 1980.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
story by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
about a little blind girl whose spaceship crashes on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. The search for her takes advantage of her prodigious musical ability to locate her.
It was originally written in 1962 as part of an advertisement for Hoffman Electronics. Heinlein says that because it was so short it was much harder to write than writing novels. Perhaps because of this, it was the last short story Heinlein wrote; the remaining quarter-century of his career was devoted to writing novels and non-fiction essays.
"Searchlight" is anthologized in The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein is a collection of science fiction short stories by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1966.It includes an introduction entitled "Pandora's Box" that describes some of the difficulties in making predictions about the near future...
, a collection of short stories published in 1966 and his Expanded Universe in 1980.