I went through most of the Heinlein’s Future history series and some other writings. It’s very very uneven, even within a single novel. The dialog is often gripping and witty, at other times long and boring. Technical and scientific descriptions tend to ramble on as if it were a textbook or a manual. At his best, Heinlein has several quotable sentences on every page, it his worst, you can skip whole chapters. He generally sucks bad at writing endings, even to otherwise excellent novels.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (not generally considered a part of the series) is one of those I liked most. Stranger in a Strange Land was great at tmes, but spoiled by the occult parts and the meaningless (to me) ending. Time Enough for Love is probably the most uniformly well written, if you excise the genetics babbling, though the ending, again, could have been better. Whoever were his editors, they never did a good job. Still, as sci-fi goes, it aged well, except for computer-related references and plot twists.
His rather anarchist and libertarian political ideas did not grate on me. This was a welcome contrast with Ayn Rand, whose novels I found impossible to get through.
He generally sucks bad at writing endings, even to otherwise excellent novels.
A review that I read of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls said that it was two thirds of a good novel, followed by one third of a good novel, but not the same novel. That seems apt to me, and I’d apply it to at least a few of his others (Friday and The Number of the Beast come to mind).
Less to Friday, though. What you’ve got to get about Friday is that it’s about someone peripheral to events, who will stay peripheral to events even if important things sometimes happen through her. If you accept that, then the book is a lot more satisfying. Waiting for something that’s not going to happen made it worse. I think it still has some issues around her opinions of the guy who pops up again at the end not really being adequately justified.
Time Enough for Love is probably the most uniformly well written, if you excise the genetics babbling, though the ending, again, could have been better.
Time Enough for Love is my favorite Heinlein story, and even I agree the genetics babbling in the second act was ridiculous.
I went through most of the Heinlein’s Future history series and some other writings. It’s very very uneven, even within a single novel. The dialog is often gripping and witty, at other times long and boring. Technical and scientific descriptions tend to ramble on as if it were a textbook or a manual. At his best, Heinlein has several quotable sentences on every page, it his worst, you can skip whole chapters. He generally sucks bad at writing endings, even to otherwise excellent novels.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (not generally considered a part of the series) is one of those I liked most. Stranger in a Strange Land was great at tmes, but spoiled by the occult parts and the meaningless (to me) ending. Time Enough for Love is probably the most uniformly well written, if you excise the genetics babbling, though the ending, again, could have been better. Whoever were his editors, they never did a good job. Still, as sci-fi goes, it aged well, except for computer-related references and plot twists.
His rather anarchist and libertarian political ideas did not grate on me. This was a welcome contrast with Ayn Rand, whose novels I found impossible to get through.
A review that I read of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls said that it was two thirds of a good novel, followed by one third of a good novel, but not the same novel. That seems apt to me, and I’d apply it to at least a few of his others (Friday and The Number of the Beast come to mind).
The same applies to The Door Into Summer.
Less to Friday, though. What you’ve got to get about Friday is that it’s about someone peripheral to events, who will stay peripheral to events even if important things sometimes happen through her. If you accept that, then the book is a lot more satisfying. Waiting for something that’s not going to happen made it worse. I think it still has some issues around her opinions of the guy who pops up again at the end not really being adequately justified.
Time Enough for Love is my favorite Heinlein story, and even I agree the genetics babbling in the second act was ridiculous.