History Literature / TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls

* EatTheDog: When passing through Lunar customs, Gwen claims to keep a baby alligator in her purse and declares it to the agent as a pet and possibly food. She is lying, of course; what she really wants is to avoid having the purse searched.

** ''Literature/TheRollingStones'' and a meta-fictional example (Gwen is Hazel from this story and ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'') in a character from Gwen's television serial.

Set initially in the same universe as ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' and ''Literature/TheRollingStones'', ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'' is one of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's later works. It features yet another soldier-of-fortune in the character of Richard Ames, a retired colonel who begins the story living on a cushy space station. His easy life is quickly upended when he marries Gwen Novak, who is secretly a Time Agent, and on a mission to save the universe. Richard and Gwen are chased across the galaxy by unknown enemies, and eventually take refuge in a multiverse paradise, populated by many familiar characters from other Heinlein books, including [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand Jubal Harshaw]] and the ubiquitous [[AuthorAvatar Lazarus Long]], the latter of whom tries to recruit Richard into his TimePolice. Lazarus' ultimate goal is to rescue Mycroft Holmes, a dormant supercomputer with the power to perfectly predict the consequences of time manipulations.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: A rather involved discussion takes place regarding the cultural ramifications of the spelling and pronunciation of the name Tolliver/Talliafero. It turns out to be a RedHerring anyway.

* RageAgainstTheAuthor: At the end, Richard rails against the kind of Author who would violate InfantImmortality by [[spoiler:killing a kitten]].

* GenreBlind / GenreSavvy: Richard is both, simultaneously. He names the real killer -- and outlines exactly how it was accomplished -- early on in the book, while dismissing that as the kind of [[TakeThatMe lazy plot he would use in one of his his own novels]].

** ''The Rolling Stones'' and a meta-fictional example (Gwen is Hazel from this story and ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'') in a character from Gwen's television serial.

* GenreBlind / GenreSavvy: Richard is both, simultaneously. He names the real killer--and outlines exactly how it was accomplished--early on in the book, while dismissing that as the kind of [[TakeThatMe lazy plot he would use in one of his his own novels]].

* {{It Is Pronounced Tro-PAY}}: A rather involved discussion takes place regarding the cultural ramifications of the spelling and pronunciation of the name Tolliver/Talliafero. It turns out to be a RedHerring anyway.

* LeftHanging: Some of the characters at the end. This is in part to expand on the concept of characters being written by an eternal and possibly ambivalent Author.
** Subverted in that [[spoiler:Gretchen is pregnant with Richard's child and he hasn't had sex with her... ''yet.'' So we know he survives.]]

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{Deconstructed|Trope}} -- Lazarus' team attempted to assassinate Hitler a few times, but every attempt made things worse in ForWantOfANail fashion. One such timeline [[Literature/FarnhamsFreehold ended in nuclear Armageddon]] and another resulted in [[Literature/RevoltIn2100 the U.S. becoming a fundamentalist theocracy]].

* OneNationUnderCopyright: The Golden Rule space station is run by the Golden Rule Corporation. The Manager is the one and only law, and if you don't pay your air tax, you get ThrownOutTheAirlock... [[SoylentGreen or worse]].

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Set initially in the same universe as ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'' is one of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's later works. It features yet another soldier-of-fortune in the character of Richard Ames, a retired colonel who begins the story living on a cushy space station. His easy life is quickly upended when he marries Gwen Novak, who is secretly a Time Agent, and on a mission to save the universe. Richard and Gwen are chased across the galaxy by unknown enemies, and eventually take refuge in a multiverse paradise, populated by many familiar characters from other Heinlein books, including [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand Jubal Harshaw]] and the ubiquitous [[AuthorAvatar Lazarus Long]], the latter of whom tries to recruit Richard into his TimePolice. Lazarus' ultimate goal is to rescue Mycroft Holmes, a dormant supercomputer with the power to perfectly predict the consequences of time manipulations.

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{Deconstructed|Trope}} -- Lazarus' team attempted to assassinate Hitler a few times, but every attempt made things worse in ForWantOfANail fashion. One such timeline [[FarnhamsFreehold ended in nuclear Armageddon]] and another resulted in [[RevoltIn2100 the U.S. becoming a fundamentalist theocracy]].

* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{Deconstructed|Trope}} -- Lazarus' team attempted to assassinate Hitler a few times, but every attempt made things worse in ForWantOfANail fashion. One such timeline ended in nuclear Armageddon and another resulted in the U.S. becoming a fundamentalist theocracy.

* RetGone: One of the members of Lazarus' TimePolice force is a Lensman. After he [[spoiler:shoots Richard]] in a fit of anger, they arrange to have him removed from existence. The effect is described as like seeing him rubbed out by an invisible eraser, followed immediately by the mortal wound that he inflicted vanishing.

* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Lazarus and his enemies at times seem to be playing this sort of game, in a Sherlock and Moriarty fashion, over who can be more successful at making their manipulations stick. At one point, an entire planet is [[EarthShatteringKaboom nova bombed]] by their adversaries, after which his team of genius mathematicians figures out a scheme to rescue all its people just prior to the event, so that the attack appeared to be successful but nobody was actually lost.

* ActionGirl: Despite Richard's attempts at machismo, Gwen is a far superior combatant.