Robert A. Heinlein's Books: A Critical Review

I recently saw the trailer for the upcoming Starship Troopers movie based on Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel, and it inspired me to search the Web for info about the film. The official site is amusing, but not very informative, so I eventually ended up at a private site that had loads of info. The movie is coming out on November 7, and it's hard to tell how faithful it is to the book, but it appears to be at least sorta faithful. The soldier/citizen stuff is still there, the bugs are there, the philosophy is there (though it's hard to tell from the trailer whether it has the same flavor as the book), but the powered body armor is gone, apparently a victim of budgets (there are 800 suits in the movie and each one requires a $10,000 air conditioner, which adds up to $8 million for the suits alone). I guess there are compromises everywhere....

This got me to thinking that I haven't done anything very interesting in the diary lately, and this particular bit of Web surfing inspired me to publish a ranking of Heinlein's books from best to worst. Here's the official DrumNet ranking:

Rank   Title   Comments
1   Time Enough For Love   This would not be most people's choice for #1, but I've always enjoyed it more than any of his other books. It's talky and preachy, sure, but Lazarus Long is the perfect vehicle for Heinlein's particular brand of crankiness and is certainly one of his finest fictional creations. I could do without the lengthy Boondock scene about halfway through the book, but the reminiscences are all wonderful, from first to last, and the cutesy talk is kept just enough under control that it doesn't intrude the way it does in his 80s works. Nominated for a Hugo (1974) and a Nebula (1973).
         
2   The Moon is a Harsh Mistress   This is a book with few faults and would be in nearly anyone's top five (it's Rick Tyler's #1). Unlike most Heinlein novels, it has a strong, well defined plot, and also has his usual collection of strong, opinionated characters. Mike, the computer hero of the story, is one of Heinlein's greatest protagonists, and the social commentary is actually done with a deft touch. It was nominated for a Nebula in 1966 and won a Hugo in 1967, the last of Heinlein's four Hugos for novels, still a record (although Lois McMaster Bujold, of all people, is closing in with three).
         
3   Stranger in a Strange Land   Heinlein's most famous work, and the one that truly launched the "adult" phase of his career. Stranger is a good book, despite the mystical aspects that made it so popular with the 60s hippie crowd, and it was tremendously liberating for science fiction in at least two ways: it was the first long sf novel to be commercially successful, and it was the first sf novel by a mainstream author to use sex as a central topic. After Heinlein's death, Virginia Heinlein republished the uncut version of Stranger, and it turns out that it's hard to tell the difference. It's a close call, but I'd say the original is probably better. Won a Hugo in 1962.
         
4   Starman Jones   This doesn't show up on many Heinlein top ten lists, but I think it's vastly underappreciated. It's a nearly perfect juvenile, with a story as briskly told and a world as richly drawn as that of Star Wars. I've read it many times, and unlike his other juveniles, even good ones like Citizen of the Galaxy, it just never gets old. Plus, if anyone's listening, it would make a fabulous movie.
         
5   The Past Through Tomorrow   Heinlein's "Future History," a collection of pre-war short stories that takes place in a fairly coherent future. This is one of the great achievements of science fiction, and Heinlein (I think) is one of the few sf writers who was equally a master of the short story and the novel. It includes Heinlein's first published work, "Life-Line," as well as several outstanding novellas: "The Man Who Sold the Moon," "Logic of Empire," "If This Goes On--," "Misfit," and "Methuselah's Children."
         
6   Citizen of the Galaxy   The next-to-last of Heinlein's juveniles, and considered by many to be his best. I'd agree, I think, if it weren't for the storytelling technique. Citizen of the Galaxy is broken up into four distinct parts and reads more like a series of novelettes than a true novel, and this hurts it a bit. However, it is also a tour de force of invention, with Heinlein painting the book's four different cultures (Sargon, the People, the Hegemonic Guard, and Earth) in vivid colors and with an effortlessness that's truly astonishing.
         
7   Starship Troopers   One of Heinlein's most controversial books. It started out life as his annual juvenile but was rejected by his editor at Scribner's, thus spelling the end of his career as a writer of juveniles. Heinlein published it anyway as an adult novel, and talky, philosophizing books became his staple from then on. Starship Troopers hangs together pretty well as a novel, with only occasional spots of boredom during the battle scenes, and lots of vivid recreations of what it's really like to be grunt in an infantry unit. It's always been hugely controversial thanks to its alleged "fascist" principles, but I can't say that I've ever found it fascist in any sense of the word that I can think of. However, it does glorify war, or seems to anyway. Heinlein's comment about this was that Starship Troopers didn't glorify war, but it did glorify the military, and this actually seems like a fair comment to me. Won a Hugo in 1960.
         
8   Time for the Stars   I'm not sure why I like this one so much. The story concept is beautifully simple, and I like the character of Tom a lot, the put-upon twin who finally figures things out. Second only to Starman Jones, this is probably the juvenile that would most appeal to kids.
         
9   Double Star   A nicely done story, mature and readable. The story is not all that interesting, but Heinlein draws the characters well and even makes the whole premise believable, quite a feat considering how ridiculous it really is. Won a Hugo in 1956, his first.
         
10   The Star Beast   A very enjoyable juvenile. The story is good, the teenage characters are wonderfully charming, and the ending is a surprise, which is very rare in Heinlein novels. It also contains what might be Heinlein's only positive characterization of a government bureaucrat, the efficient and likable Mr. Kiku. And the Star Beast itself, the lovable Lummox, is one of Heinlein's best aliens.
         
11   JOB: A Comedy of Justice   This is one of Heinlein's few enjoyable books written after 1980. The cutesy talk is there, as well as the usual clumsy handling of sex, but it doesn't overwhelm a story that's both interesting and well presented. I suspect Heinlein got the idea for JOB from a 1982 book by Jeremy Leven called Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S. (a pretty good book on its own, by the way). Heinlein commented favorably on Leven's book and then published JOB two years later. It's a fun book if the religious stuff doesn't offend you. Nominated for a Hugo (1985) and a Nebula (1984).
         
12   Orphans of the Sky   This is actually a collection of two novelettes, "Universe" and "Common Sense," and the whole thing is barely more than a hundred pages long. This must have been one of the very first stories about an interstellar "generation" ship that got lost and had its crew descend back into savagery (the two stories were originally published in 1941) and I think it's still one of his best.
         
13   Tunnel in the Sky   Another pretty good juvenile. Not really science fiction per se, since the bulk of the book (about 90% of it) could just as easily be about a band of kids lost in the wilds of Africa. This might have been Heinlein's answer to Lord of the Flies, which was published a year earlier and would have been bound to raise his hackles.
         
14   The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag   An interesting collection of short stories, notable mainly for the title story. However, it also contains "They," a wonderful story of paranoid solipsism, and the classic story "And He Built a Crooked House."
         
15   Assignment in Eternity   This is an unusual book, a collection of four short stories that all deal with the paranormal. The best of them is "Gulf," which forms the background for Friday, published 40 years later. "Lost Legacy" is also a winner, a bizarre story about some people who rediscover man's innate psi abilities and then team up with a hidden group of fellow supermen hidden on Mt. Shasta, among them the long lost Ambrose Bierce. It's all pretty bizarre, but somehow so strange and unexpected (especially from Heinlein) that it's fun. Apparently Heinlein had an ambivalent attitude about psi abilities, and these stories show off his less skeptical side.
         
16   Glory Road   Heinlein's only true fantasy, though it's cloaked in an sf motif. Glory Road is a lot of fun and a very fast read, but it suffers from a shallowness that it never overcomes. The main story only occupies about half the book, but Heinlein keeps writing sort of aimlessly after that until he finally gets bored and calls it quits. A good book for the beach, but it feels a little like cotton candy after you're done. Glory Road is Dave Thiessen's #1.
         
17   Friday   A decent book, but it suffers too much from the cutesy sex talk that runs through all of Heinlein's books in the 80s. Heinlein always had a habit of painting his characters as black or white, and that's nowhere so evident as it is here. Friday's adopted family turn out to be thoroughly bad hats, and the Canadian family she accidentally meets up with halfway through the book are simply too good to be true. Still, despite everything, it moves along decently. Nominated for a Hugo (1983) and a Nebula (1982).
         
18   Waldo & Magic, Inc.   This is a pair of unrelated novellas, both of them pretty good. "Waldo" is straightforward science fiction, the story of a surly inventor who learns that life can be good, while "Magic, Inc." is a pure fantasy about a guy who defeats the devil. They're both good stories. "Waldo" is notable because it introduces the idea of mechanical hands that amplify the strength of a human operator, and these devices are called waldoes to this day.
         
19   The Door Into Summer   Who could resist a story about a guy who's so devoted to his cat? The Door Into Summer is a great little time travel story, and it's the kind of book that might have been outstanding if Heinlein had written it ten years later when sf authors were allowed to write novels longer than 200 pages. As it is, it's pleasant but a little too short to really be great.
         
20   Podkayne of Mars   A cross between a juvenile and an adult story, it's hard to figure out where to place it. Podkayne is a rambling story, with even less plot than usual in Heinlein's books, and it never really seems to have a point to make. It's almost impossible for a Heinlein story to be dull, and Podkayne isn't, but it doesn't have much going for it either.
         
21   Beyond This Horizon   Beond This Horizon probably doesn't belong even this high, but I have a personal fondness for the gun-toting, brassard-wearing society that Heinlein created here. It's also an interesting look at the early, liberal-minded Heinlein. Those who are only familiar with his later books will be shocked to see him write so approvingly of a centrally managed economy in which money is merely blips in a computer. Quite a change from the conservative gold bug Heinlein of the 70s and 80s.
         
22   The Puppet Masters   An ordinary book, neither dull nor interesting. The plot is man vs. the parasites, and Heinlein doesn't really bring anything new to the table. It was made into a pretty poor film in 1995.
         
23   Sixth Column (aka The Day After Tomorrow)   Not much to recommend here. Six men defeat the PanAsian hordes thanks to a weapon that only kills Asians. There are some good sequences in this book, especially the one in which the good guys set up their first temple, but otherwise it doesn't have much to say and the eventual American victory is pretty predicatable.
         
24   The Menace From Earth   A mediocre collection of short stories, saved only by the fact that it contains "By His Bootstraps," perhaps the most perfect little time travel paradox story in all of science fiction. It's worth buying just to read this story, but the rest can be skipped without missing much.
         
25   Have Space Suit--Will Travel   The last of Heinlein's juveniles, it's admired by many and would probably be a great favorite among young readers. However, I've always found it a little too formulaic and way too unbelievable to ever really get into. After all, it starts out with a guy standing in a field in a space suit and suddenly being scooped up by evil aliens for no reason, and it goes downhill from there. Heinlein frequently takes staple ideas of science fiction and builds classic versions of them (Time for the Stars and "By His Bootstraps" are good examples), but he falters here. The final scene in which the teenage hero makes a last ditch plea for the survival of the human race in front of a galactic tribunal is poorly done and merely trite. Nominated for a Hugo in 1959.
         
26   Between Planets   An early juvenile that shows some of the promise to come but doesn't quite deliver the goods. The presentation of Venusian culture is good, but the story just isn't all that interesting.
         
27   The Rolling Stones   The Rolling Stones is little more than a pastiche of scenes glued together into an unfinished novel. It's inoffensive but not very absorbing, and notable mainly because Grandmother Stone shows up again as a young girl in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and then yet again in Heinlein's last few novels. Plus, I've always wondered if the flatcats were the original inspiration for Star Trek's tribbles....
         
28   The Number of the Beast   This was Heinlein's first novel after he recovered from a long illness that lasted from 1975-80. It's got a lot of his worst qualities, including too much talkiness, cute bantering about sex, superheroes for characters, and pretty much no plot to speak of. The last chapter, in which he gathers up characters from all his previous novels, is a lot of fun for Heinlein fans, however, and the basic premise of being able to visit fictional universes is interesting too. If you're interested in identifying all the characters in the book (especially those in the last chapter), check out Simon Slavin's exhaustive list.
         
29   Red Planet   An early juvenile, and it shows. Interestingly, Heinlein's worst books are his very first juveniles and his very last adult novels. Red Planet is notable mainly because it provides the backdrop that Heinlein used for the Mars of Stranger in a Strange Land. The story itself is only mildly interesting, even for youngsters.
         
30   Farnham's Freehold   This is an odd book, unlike any of Heinlein's other novels, and is disliked by many people for many different reasons. The cannibalism turns a lot of people off, and the implied racism turns even more people off. I have to believe that Heinlein had some point to make when he introduced the reverse racism in the book, for he never in any other book gives the slightest indication of being genuinely racist, and in fact I don't think anyone believes he was. However, whatever the point was, it got lost in the clutter and the book quickly turns into a long and dreary mishmash. It's hard to believe that this book was produced by the same author in nearly the same year as Glory Road and Podkayne of Mars.
         
31   Farmer in the Sky   Another early juvenile. Not horrible, but not very good either.
         
32   Space Cadet   Heinlein's second juvenile. It just doesn't measure up to his later work, and it's interesting mainly in comparison to Starship Troopers as a study of what a space navy might look like in the future. Space Cadet is light and optimistic, Starship Troopers is dark and brutal. It makes you wonder what happened to him during the 50s to change his world view so dramatically.
         
33   Rocket Ship Galileo   Heinlein's first juvenile, it's a crude and unsatisfying attempt to make a credible story out of an attempt by a mad professor and three teenagers to fly to the moon. To make it worse, they find Nazis there. Perhaps this seemed like a reasonable plot in 1947, but it doesn't hold up well.
         
34   The Cat Who Walks Through Walls   Heinlein's second-to-last book. It's long, talky, cutesy, plotless, and pointless. The kitten, Pixel, is cute, but otherwise this book has few redeeming qualities.
         
35   To Sail Beyond the Sunset   Heinlein's last book. It's just a horrible mushpot of unlikely dialog, embarrassingly bad sex scenes, and complex references to other books and events. You should stay very far away from this book.
         
36   I Will Fear No Evil   It's a tough call, but I reread I Will Fear No Evil about a year ago thinking that it couldn't really be as bad as I remembered it, and I was wrong. It's every bit that bad and is perhaps the only book he ever wrote that is genuinely boring, a remarkable thing for a man that one critic said could make even a shopping list seem interesting. There is one extenuating circumstance, however, and it should be noted. Heinlein became quite ill after he wrote the first draft of I Will Fear No Evil, and Virginia Heinlein made the decision to publish the book as it stood since it didn't look like Heinlein would recover and be able to edit the work. Perhaps if she had held off and Heinlein had done a rewrite, it would have been better. Maybe.

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