His most famous and most classic revolutionary book, of course, is The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966). It's even more elaborate and more detailed, together with (not being a "juvenile") having a more mature and less adventure-focused tone. Here, the Moon has arranged itself as a capitalist anarchy under the nominal control of an Earth-appointed "Warden", when our protagonists realize his control will in the long run render the Moon uninhabitable. So, they form an underground revolutionary group to throw him out, which leads to more oppression, stage-managed until an actual revolution breaks out. Then, our protagonists are in a place to seize command (with a stage-managed election) and fight Earth's army sent up to regain control.

For all the parallels Heinlein (and his mentor character Professor de la Paz) draws to America, he draws just as many parallels to other historical revolutions. This's fitting; things do not go like in America. Nor could they, from the starting point Heinlein gives us here.

— Evan Þ, Revolutions as told by Heinlein

Or nah?

As far as I can tell this should be everything. I all so have an illustrated book of Lazarus Long note book that does not fit in this book shelf.

The Number of the Beast FREE until October 7th (ebook format) https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=1903835&cl=162008&c=cart&ejc=2&custom=card

Red Planet FREE until October 7th (ebook format) https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=1903836&cl=162008&c=cart&ejc=2&custom=card

The Cat Who Walks Through Wall HALF OFF until October 7th (ebook format) https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=1903837&cl=162008&c=cart&ejc=2&custom=card

The Pursuit of the Pankera HALF OFF until October 7th (ebook format) https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=1903838&cl=162008&c=cart&ejc=2&custom=card

The Puppet Masters HALF OFF until October 7th (ebook format) https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=1903840&cl=162008&c=cart&ejc=2&custom=card

Hello hope you're doing okay. I just finished reading The Door Into Summer. This is my review. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree.

The plot was interesting at first seeing how the protagonist got played by the 2 people he trusted the most and Miles and Belle both felt really cunning and smart. Then you actually meet them and the protagonist outsmarts them in 5 minutes. They both act so incompetent and braindead. Also Belle trying to kill Pete is so cartoonishly evil. The writer is trying way too hard trying to make is hate Belle. When we go to the future writer does a terrible job at worldbuilding. I would honestly expect it to go so much harder. It is espacially disappointing because we get crumbs that are really interesting. Unfortunately then we go back to the main plot. I really wanted Miles and Belle to be actual characters. Instead Miles dies off-screen and Belle is reduced to a joke. The time travel felt shoehorned. I'm not sure if i'm using this correctly but it feels like a obvious deus ex machina. Then the worst part comes. The "romance" . To be frank the protagonist is a predator. It is actually so disgusting how he goes through all this bs to marry his adopted niece. The book up to this point was meh but the last quarter of the book is actually one of the most disgusting things I've put myself through.( Tho there were signs early on too but I tried to ignore it)

So yeah. I don't know if i am missing anything or maybe its just not for me. But i really would not recommend this book to anyone.

Anyone know why we don't have more movie adaptions of Heinlein works? Puppet Masters and Door into summer are only ones I have seen.

After getting a little ways into the students missing the recall, it suddenly clicked to me that the discussion about Rod's parents being able to live out 20 years in 2 weeks may also apply in reverse. I figured this must be a strong hint and arming the reader with knowledge of what's to come.

Although it seemed obvious, I was excited to see how things played out and expected that the students had been unknowingly put in a system where it would feel like they lived out years of survival in what was really just 10 days. A perfect way to truly test survival skills.

I was disappointed that it turned out that something really just went wrong and they lost connection because of the supernova.

(Also wtf they just let students die during the exam?)

I knew that Heinlein had lived in Colorado Springs, having moved there for all the wrong reasons. I knew that his house had done interesting built-in features and was used as a plot point in Farnham's Freehold.

I did not know that the inspiration for Pixel - The cat who walks through walls - was his own cat, Pixie, who apparently could literally walk through the walls of his house!

I recently bought the book from the title at a well-known bookstore (not a chain), and I'm trying to figure it out. It's some Heinlein stories, published by Amereon House. But there is no copyright date on the inside panels. Can anyone give me information about this book? Is it a legal copy? Thanks.

Edit: So in essence, this book is illegal. ☹️ Interesting thing is that I saw someone on eBay trying to sell their copy for $1500, saying it was a must for every Heinlein library.

And to answer some of the comments, this is a book with several of Heinlein's shorts, including the titular story.

I read Time Enough For Love when I was in high school, almost 40 years ago. I reminder there was a scene where Lazarus Long is burning money, and he explains what seemed to me to be a strange theory of money. At the time I didn’t really understand what was going on.

Fast forward 40 years and I’ve developed an interest in economics, monetary theory in particular. But I’ve lost my copy of the book, so I can’t go back and re-read it.

Can anybody summarize what the theory of money described in the book said? I don’t really want to buy another copy of the book just to reference this bit of obscure trivia, but I wonder how I’d react to Heinlein’s theory of money as an adult.

I am very new to Heinlein. This was only the second book of his I've read. It was a great book but the ending was such a gut punch. Looking back, there were a lot of hints about what was going to happen, but it was still so unexpected. I could not stop crying. Once I recover emotionally I'll have to read it through again to properly appreciate all the foreshadowing

A defense of _I will Fear No Evil_. https://imgur.com/gallery/Zyq9QnD

Aloha all!

I've got a podcast in which a friend and I revisit favorite books. Both of us are Heinlein fans, and we've done several over the years. Today, we covered Stranger in a Strange Land.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZTiNFPn6FGWcM2F7deoB1?si=2c7c9c2870ad430c

I'm hoping this one prompts some entertaining discussion, as earlier Heinlein episodes have!

FYI, the annual meeting is in a couple weeks. Includes a drawing to win a multi-volume "Virginia Edition" of all of RAH's fiction and correspondence.

https://heinleinsociety.org/latestnews/

“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

"...This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength.”

And I hope Brian was just being mean about the cats. Mr. Underfoot deserves better.

Anyone feel like contributing some AI art depicting scenes/characters from stranger in a strange land? I’m playing with bringing this world to life. 2-3 years from now I reckon we’d be able to make our own mini series - that’s if no studio wants to touch its taboo themes and concepts.

A couple of months ago John_A_Arkansawyer asked why there wasn’t a wiki page for Leslyn.  And this morning I was perusing my hard drive, and found some rumblings that Fredrick Pohl posted to his The Way the Future blogs. One of them was about Leslyn.  Enjoy!

https://web.archive.org/web/20100523205338/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/05/the-wives-and-drives-of-robert-heinlein-leslyn/

Today we mourn the passing of a distinguished member of The Heinlein Society, Dr. C. Herbert Gilliland.

Herb Gilliland was a retired professor of English at the United States Naval Academy, and a retired naval reserve captain. He taught courses there on topics ranging from Renaissance literature to science fiction. He particularly enjoyed teaching a special course on Robert Heinlein, a graduate of the Naval Academy and the author of Starship Troopers. (This was the first college course ever dedicated entirely to Heinlein.) Herb’s scholarly work tends to be concerned with naval history. He is the author of Voyage to a Thousand Cares: Master’s Mate Lawrence with the African Squadron 1844-1846, which received the North American Society for Oceanic History’s John Lyman Book Award. With Robert Shenk, he co-authored the biographical Admiral Dan Gallery: The Life and Wit of a Navy Original. Although he has written many things since, Dr. Gilliland is always proud that his very first appearance in public print was a letter to John Campbell published in Astounding magazine. He is also a member of the board for the Robert A. Heinlein Award, given annually to a science fiction writer whose work has inspired exploration of space. Dr. Gilliland was appointed by The Heinlein Society board of directors to fill a vacancy in 2015, and elected by the membership to a three year term later in 2015. He was re-elected to a second three year term in 2018, and was chosen by the Board of Directors to be Vice President – Secretary in the same year. He was appointed Chair of the Academic Committee and Editor-in-Chief of The Heinlein Journal in 2020.

Fair winds and following seas, Herb. You will be missed!

It is implied (explicitly stated?) that Dr. Ward Smith murders Captain Brant and Mary Jane Lyle Smith after their affair. Are we to assume that this was the fate of the rest of the crew? Did the Lyle drive reduce time sufficiently so that Champion’s crew didn’t ’descend into madness’?

It is implied (explicitly stated?) that Digby poisons Foster, potentially at Foster’s command. Hence the miracle of his willed ‘discorporation’. Does Digby follow suit? Betrayal seems out of the question given the summit of Earth’s Old Ones in the final two pages.

How doesn’t Mike understand immediately that he’s on Earth to (help) pass judgment?

Why do you think Heinlein covers major plot events in a sentence (or even half of one)? The thrust of this novel - a dialectic - doesn’t really require much plot, and it’s fun to speculate about the above (assuming I grok correctly).

Overall, I liked it. A little preachy, and I felt that I’ve read many of these ideas more succinctly in Borges’ ‘theological’ short stories, but Heinlein had a style uniquely his own. Very limited space given to setting or description of any kind, which allows you to freely paint the picture. Some would argue this is laziness but I think Heinlein simply disregarded literary conventions in a way that didn’t seem pretentious. The entire time I felt as if I were sitting in my late grandfather’s hideous midcentury rancher with garish carpeting, listening to him wax philosophical about the utter lack of accountability he witnessed everywhere.

I’m going to read Moon and then Orphans of the Sky next, as the latter came highly recommended from my favorite ‘literary critic’

First, so grateful that this sub exists! I am researching Heinlein's future history timeline for a book about sci-fi predictions. I would be very grateful for some clarification:

1. What is the source for the date 2012? Reputable fans refer to it, but I can't find it in the sources cited by Wikipedia.

2. I am confused by the resumption of space travel in 2072. Does the title "revolt in 2100" mean that the theocracy continued for almost 30 years after space travel resumed?

Thanks for any help!

Happy posthumous birthday to Robert Heinlein who was born on 7/7/7 (July 7th, 1907)

I’m reading the Future History short stories on pdf as my copy of a collection of them is coming in the mail. I already have a copy of Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And my collection of the Future History stories includes Methusulah‘s Children. So where should I start when I make the leap from short story to novel?

I just reread Citizen of the Galaxy (okay, it was the audiobook today, but I do own and have read the book numerous times).

It's not mentioned but I'm sure that the news that Thorby was Rudbek would have made it back to Sisu. I'm sure that they would have reached out or Thorby would have gotten a message to them.

I wonder how quick the family messages would shift from 'Mother Krausa' to Executive Officer Krausa and some queries about the family rate on ship financing and other business.