Boy, was it ever!

After reading it, I promptly took out and read the other five Heinlein titles...then, round that time, it dawned on me that I could go to a bookstore and buy books, I went out and bought every Heinlein title I could find in paperback.

This one, however, stayed with me, and I reread it every few years. The plot fascinated me. It's essentially the story of Matt Dodson, a cadet in the Interplanetary Patrol, from getting in to about to graduate to full-fledged patrolman. It's also his passage from adolesence to adulthood.

And the details along the way fascinated me. The story of Ezra Dahlquist...the elaborate test and instructions in Chapter 2...the "pie with a fork" routine...the space suit drill in Chapter 7...the adventures on Venus...these and lots more interested me no end.

All these years later, I know things didn't happen this way...that the science is creaky and old...that the planets and space travel itself are nothing like Heinlein described them here. Even calling someone a "space cadet" has become an insult. But that never bothered me any.

It's back in print in a hardcover edition from Tor. I do regret that it's just the novel, that there's no accompanying essays on its importance as literature and science fiction.

Sure he wrote most of his opus's (opui? what is the plural) with "demure" female characters but when you actually look at his female characters they are powerful demonstrations of Heinlein's view of Free and Unfettered female spirit both socially and sexually as his cultural context would allow.

Take For Us The Living his very first attempt to get published. (For those of you who don't know of this book let me provide important background information this was in 1939 and in this book he uses many of the tricks and philosphical points in this one that are sprinkled throughout the rest of his works.)

He uses the time travel trink (ala Farnham's) to send the MC to the future where he meets a woman who saves him from exposure. This woman makes her living "dancing" this is the euphamism Heinlein uses for the eroctic acts both solo and in duo that the woman uses to pay her bills.

Heinlein has the character become jealous then resolve his jealously as a vestige of a time long passed (ala Stranger in a Stragne Land or Time enough for Love)

Now if you have read much Feminist literature, you will know that you can find some who see this type of work as Chauvinist but still others who see a Female who is sexually free to be as sexual and erotic as she desires to be the right of every woman.

Further more in Time Enough for Love Lazurus Long declares that "Equality is a disaster for women" insisting that given their control over reproduction and sexual intercourse should make them far more than equal with men (ala the ancient minonian culture where the saying goes women ran everything and men jumped bulls by day and the women by night)

I read Sci-fi because I like social criticism. My favorite authors are those that take a in depth view of a near future human society and examines how they live (its the sociologist in me i guess).

Therefore I like his book's like Stranger in a Strange Land or For Us The Living.

Others might like his light hearted works like Job or Friday.

But in all truth most of RAH's books are questioning or making fun of something that someone else holds dear. Its just that some are less explict about it.

"Rocket Ship Galileo"
"Space Cadet"
"Red Planet"
"Farmer in the Sky"
"Between Planets"
"The Rolling Stones"
"Starman Jones"
"The Star Beast"
"Tunnel in the Sky"
"Time For the Stars"
"Citizen of the Galaxy"
"Have Space Suit---Will Travel"

(Avoid "Starship Troopers" and "Podkayne of Mars," sometimes considered part of this set, until you are better acquainted with these works.)

You might pick up his adult novels published in the fifties: "The Puppet Masters," "Double Star," and "The Door into Summer," written when Heinlein was at the height of his powers.

Of course, there's his masterpiece, "Stranger in a Strange Land." This is available in short and long versions---I recommend the long version: it reads more smoothly than the short version.

Of his sixties works, you might start with "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress." The rest, and the later works from the seventies and eighties, might be worth a look once you're hooked, if you get hooked---till then, stay away from them.

I'm younger than Robert is but the very first Sci-Fi i read was Farenheit 451 in the 6th grade. I never found the YA SF to be worthwhile even Yolen's stuff was distinctively kiddish.

As for RAH I hate his YA stuff in comparison to any of his adult stuff. I didn't even make it through my first reading of Have Space Suit will travel.

My first piece from RAH was Starship Troopers and I loved it. My next read was Moon was a harsh mistress, then Stranger in a Strangeland.
I own three different versions including an unabridged audio copy of Time Enough for Love.
Then there's Job which is an pretty good allegory to the biblical story but a good twist on the ol God v Devil thing.

I could go on but I'm not. I just don't believe there is a right way to read a Master like RAH.

I had to review it once for a magazine. I believe I referred to it as the worst SF novel I'd ever read.

I find it interesting that, in the era when Heinlein was considered the top science fiction writer, he would produce work like this (and "Beyond This Horizon," published not long after) that seems to me of an inferior grade, especially compared to his other works, or other works by other authors published at the same time. I have no idea how well (or badly) this particular novel was received at the time.

There was one earlier novel, "For Us the Living," not published until recently. For you non-fans, do not waste your time on this, it's even worse than "Sixth Column." For fans, it's worth a skim, especially as several passages shed new light on some details of his later works.