Robert Heinlein was known as the dean of science fiction. Although he was controversial, he influenced the field perhaps more than any other author. Known for a straight-ahead style and good story telling, Robert A. Heinlein’s novels often extolled military virtues, free love and some libertarian views. Perhaps his most controversial themes, though, involve the sexual lives of children and the morality of incest.
Here are my choices for the top 5 Robert Heinlein books
5. Friday
Friday was published in 1982. It was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, three of science fiction’s most prestigious prizes. Friday tells the story of the eponymous heroine a woman who works for a rather mysterious organization as a courier. But Friday’s work involves getting messages from and to anywhere, under any conditions. These are often perilous, and Friday is not above extreme violence to get her message through. This novel bears some traits of a thriller, and includes many sexual scenes. Friday includes some descriptions of alternate marriage schemes.
Friday is an “artificial person”; that is, she is modified to be smarter, faster and stronger than “normal” humans. This allows Heinlein to explore another of his themes – that of prejudice.
4. Glory Road
Glory Road was published in 1963 and was nominated for the Hugo award. In this novel, we follow a recently discharged soldier who sees an intriguing classified ad “Are you a coward?” He responds, and adventures ensue.
Glory Road is less provocative than some of Heinlein’s other works. It is more of a pure adventure.
3. Citizen of the Galaxy
Citizen of the Galaxy was published in 1957, and is often classed as a “juvenile” or “young adult” novel. The hero of Citizen of the Galaxy is Thorby Balsam, who begins life as a slave. He is bought and then freed by a supposed beggar, who is, in actuality, much more than he appears. This is Robert A. Heinlein’s impassioned argument against slavery and, to a lesser extent, racism and prejudice.
2. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was published in 1966 and won a Hugo award. Robert Heinlein sets this novel on the moon, which has been turned into a penal colony and is run by the Lunar Authority. This echoes the way Australia and other remote places were used as penal colonies in history, except that the moon is uninhabited. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress tells the story of a rebellion against the authority; it includes one of the first instances of a self-aware computer.
The society that develops on the moon in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress includes Heinlein’s projections of how such a society would function with regard to sexual relations. Women run things. And marriages are interestingly diverse, with monogamy being unusual, and a variety of schemes such as clan and chain marriages more common.
1. Stranger in a Strange Land
Probably Heinlein’s most famous novel, Stranger in a Strange Land was originally published in 1961 and won the Hugo award. In 1991, Heinlein published the original version, which had been cut by previous editors. Stranger in a Strange Land tracks the later life of Valentine Michael Smith, the only survivor of a mission to Mars. He returns to Earth as an adult, and has many powers that ordinary humans do not. When he first returns, he is weak from being raised in Mars’ lesser gravity, and totally innocent of Earth’s ways. But he becomes a part of the household of Jubal Harshaw, a wealthy eccentric, and quickly adapts. He then forms his own religion, based partly on Martian ways.
The religion that Smith forms includes a lot of both heterosexual and homosexual love, and introduced the word “grok” into English.
Reference:
- Heinlein site www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/index.htm
