Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein

Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This reads like a draft by an exceptionally interesting though potentially dangerous teenage boy.

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Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It's not just that there was incest in the book, or that it was long and boring, it was that it was a long and boring book almost entirely for the purpose of justifying incest and almost entirely full of stories of incest in various different futuristic variations. Taboos are taboos for a reason, but Heinlein postulates what if the genetic reason was totally gone?

My answer is that it would still be totally gross because it's still an emotionally messed-up relationship. (Did Heinlein even have children?) For example, the story of Dora- arguably one of the more interesting stories in this novel- is still gross even though she is not related to him. That's because he knew her since she was a child (sufficient in my opinion) and took care of her as if she were his own family.

Heinlein tries to mask how totally abusive these relationships are by writing all the situations in the following format: the girl or woman begs him to ignore their family relationship and sleep with her. He has the women be the aggressors 100% of the time, even though this would never happen in such cases of incest, in order to shed the responsibility of the parent-figure. He knows a more realistic portrait of the adult male being the instigator wouldn't be helpful to his point that incest is okey-dokey.

Even assuming that there's a futuristic world where incest is not a genetic problem and all these women are begging for it, I still have the following objections: 1) as the adult and/or parent-figure he should still say no to Dora, the twins, etc. 2) this futuristic mentality wouldn't account for his mother being exactly like all the futuristic women (it also can't be explained in the inverse, as the futuristic women being her ancestors, as Dora is not related), 3) he doesn't tell his mother who he really is and that's unfair and immoral, though I suppose that in Heinlein's universe she still wouldn't care because he has written everyone as basically amoral.

I am also deeply troubled by Heinlein's inability to distinguish physical attraction from romantic love, and especially from platonic or maternal love. I am also troubled by his general rejection of ethics as linked only to religion and therefore antiquated.

Finally, I am really troubled by some of the reviewers that said things to the effect of, "the incest in this novel didn't bother me that much." Well, did it bother you that the entire book was just a vehicle to argue in favor of incest? No? Well, then maybe time to switch to books about ethics, philosophy, behavioral economics, and parenting because you might be missing some relevant information that you need to add to your worldview. Just a suggestion.

I liked entire concept of Minerva, the computer turned flesh-and-blood human. That would have been a more interesting novel.

P.S. I really hope this isn't your first Heinlein book. I recommend The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land instead.

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Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein

Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fun idea for science fiction and interesting religious metaphor. People aboard a generational ship forget everything about Earth, science, and technology, and as the areas with windows to the outside are shut off, they forget even that they are on a ship, but begin to think the ship is all of existence. It's a brilliant concept and I would have loved to see how StarTrek (STNG) would have handled it. Unfortunately, Heinlein's version is not very deeply thoughtful. The characters are not developed very deeply, the society is very primitive and extremely stubborn, and most disappointingly, the women never get revenge for all the sexism inflicted on them. The mutated humans are a fun twist, especially since Siamese twins Joe and Jim. While Joe-Jim is not treated with a lot of dignity by other members of the crew, they are accorded a fair amount of respect by Heinlein, at least relative to the other characters.

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The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein

The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very fun and short. It's almost a puzzle to solve with fictional futuristic tools. Two funny or irritating things (I can't decide which) are 1) the big plot hole in the resolution, and 2) Heinlein's creepy sexism and hilarious projection of sexism into the future.

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Friday by Robert A. Heinlein

Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, sometimes I display bad taste. This is a good example. This book is bad because the main character is a woman and she displays a very cavalier attitude about gang rape. This can be attributed to any number of causes: 1) perhaps Heinlein just doesn't understand female anatomy and women's emotional lives, 2) perhaps Heinlein wanted to display what a superhuman badass spy the main character is, 3) just trashy writing so as to kick up some publicity bad or otherwise to sell books? And I tried to forget this initial disaster except the main character goes on to completely forgive one of the rapists. Ugh, too much.

But let's say you just ignore that whole thing, which is tough, but let's say you do-- what a fun meandering sci fi book! It's fun to see what Heinlein predicted right or wrong, though he still has the opportunity to be proven right. The difficult-to-obtain futuristic library technology described by Heinlein is completely ours these days. In Heinlein's future it's easy to travel the galaxies, but expensive, whereas in real life we're not even close. IVF and even 3-parent IVF is already real, though specific genetic modifications to the embryos are still just on the horizon. (Crispr/Cas9)

And I like Friday/ Marge/ whatever her current identity is. I like how she's an unstoppable badass and a needy emotional mess at the same time. (Except when it comes to rape?)

Anyway, worth reading if you can compartmentalize feelings about fiction and enjoy trashy fun.

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read this as a kid, but my rating is the same as then. There are many interesting things to consider in this novel: a conscious computer, consciousness versus having a conscience, the principles of freedom and rebellion, the dangers of a crowded dystopian Earth, and some fun guesses at utopian futures: racial integration, varying family structures, tax-free government etc. All of this, plus the tricky revolution plots, make for a very fun book. But large chunks of the book drag, especially in the second half.

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Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently reread this and still really enjoyed it. The plot is well-worn but the details of the story are fun. Though many of the characters are somewhat flat I really enjoyed the father-figure character, Jubal Harshaw.

Also, here's a link on the flags of Mars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mars.

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Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a cute children's book, and is a better, earlier version of A Wrinkle In Time." This is the kind of book I'd be excited to see my kids reading. That said, as a kid, I didn't actually enjoy it much (and I did enjoy A Wrinkle in Time). So maybe it's a children's book for adults?

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Dad's Favorite Books

I recently found my dad's Goodreads.com profile. I'm sure I asked him to join, and I'm not sure how much effort he put into writing his profile but he listed his favorite books:

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1966) (review here)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992) (review here)
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) (review here)
The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman (1985)

I've read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but it was many years ago. I do remember loving it. I've tried and failed to read Gravity's Rainbow, but I will try again. I'm afraid of whether or not I got rid of Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Shining Mountain even though I got rid of very very few books, but I will look for them. Maybe starting out with this smaller list will help since it's been two years now and I've made no progress in reading his books.