Glory Road is a science fantasy novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (July – September 1963) and published in hardcover the same year. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1964.

In the novel, an unemployed war veteran with a facial scar responds to a newspaper ad and is hired to join a quest to retrieve the Egg of the Phoenix. After fighting the Egg's guardian Cyrano de Bergerac, the character and his employers retrieve the Egg and escape. The character marries his employer Star and moves with her to an alternate universe. Star is an Empress whose life has been extended indefinitely by medical treatments, and the Egg contains the knowledge and experiences of her predecessors. Bored with the life of the idle rich which he experiences, the main character returns to planet Earth and seeks another adventure.

==Plot summary== <!-- cite entries from the Heinlein Concordance at Heinlein Society -->

Evelyn Cyril "E.C." Gordon (also known as "Easy" and "Flash" The novel's second half has been praised as intriguing, as it goes into what happens after a typical hero's journey is finished. Oscar is married to a ruler in a situation that should be "happily ever after" and the end of many works, yet the novel continues rather than stops: having nothing to do and nothing new to conquer is itself a struggle for Oscar.

Glory Road was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1964, losing to Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.

References

  • Glory Road at Worlds Without End
  • Glory Road parts one, two, and three on the Internet Archive