Heinlein, Robert, LT

Later work, 1980?1987

After a seven-year hiatus brought on by poor health, Heinlein produced five new novels in the period from 1980 (The Number of the Beast) to 1987 (To Sail Beyond the Sunset). These books have a thread of common characters and time and place. They most explicitly communicated Heinlein's philosophies and beliefs, and many long, didactic passages of dialog and exposition deal with government, sex, and religion. These novels are controversial among his readers, and some critics have written about them very negatively.[24] Heinlein's four Hugo awards were all for books written before this period.

Some of these books, such as The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, start out as tightly constructed adventure stories, but transform into philosophical fantasias at the end. It is a matter of opinion whether this demonstrates a lack of attention to craftsmanship or a conscious effort to expand the boundaries of science fiction into a kind of magical realism, continuing the process of literary exploration that he had begun with Stranger in a Strange Land. Most of the novels from this period are recognized by critics as forming an offshoot from the Future History series, and referred to by the term World as Myth.[25]

The tendency toward authorial self-referentialism begun in Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough For Love becomes even more evident in novels such as The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, whose first-person protagonist is a disabled military veteran who becomes a writer, and finds love with a female character who, like all of Heinlein's strong female characters, appears to be based closely on his wife Ginny. The self-parodying element of these books keeps them from bogging down by taking themselves too seriously, but may also fail to evoke the desired effect in readers who are not familiar with Heinlein's earlier novels. Many readers are split on their reactions to Heinlein's wit, particularly in his dialogue ? characters from a plethora of milieus tend to favor the same midwestern-American, post-Depression style and referents. Some find it charming and disarming. Others attack it as unsophisticated.

The 1984 novel Job: A Comedy of Justice is a sharp satire of fundamentalist Christianity.

[edit] Posthumous Publications

Several Heinlein works have been published since his death, including the aforementioned For Us, The Living as well as 1989's Grumbles from the Grave, a collection of letters between Heinlein and his editors and agent, 1992's Tramp Royale, a travelogue of a southern hemisphere tour the Heinleins took in the 1950s, Take Back Your Government, a how-to book about participatory democracy written in 1946, and a tribute volume called Requiem: Collected Works and Tributes to the Grand Master, containing some additional short works previously unpublished in book form. Off the Main Sequence, published in 2005, includes three short stories never before collected in any Heinlein book (Heinlein called them "stinkeroos.")

Spider Robinson, a colleague, friend, and admirer of Heinlein, wrote Variable Star, based on an outline and notes for a juvenile novel that Heinlein prepared in 1955. The novel was published as a collaboration, with Heinlein's name above Robinson's on the cover, in 2006.

Here's what you'll need to read all of Heinlein's short fiction:

* The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
* The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (1999)
* Off the Main Sequence (2005)
* Expanded Universe (1980)
(for a few non-sf stories)
* Requiem and Tributes to the Grand Master (1992)
(for a few non-sf stories)

And the novels:

* --For Us, the Living-- (1937)
(posthumous publication in 2003)
* Sixth Column(1941)
(aka The Day after Tomorrow)
* Beyond This Horizon (1942)
* Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)
* Space Cadet (1948)
* Red Planet (1949)
* Farmer in the Sky (1950)
* Between Planets (1951)
* The Puppet Masters (1951)
* The Rolling Stones (1952)
(aka Tramp Space Ship)
(aka Space Family Stone)
* Starman Jones (1953)
* The Star Beast (1954)
(aka Star Lummox)
* Tunnel in the Sky (1955)
* Variable Star (1955)
(by Spider Robinson in 2006 from Heinlein's outline)
* Double Star (1956)
* Time for the Stars (1956)
* The Door into Summer (1956)
* Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)
* Have Space Suit, Will Travel (1958)
* Starship Troopers (1959)
(aka Starship Soldier)
* Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
* Podkayne of Mars (1962)
* Glory Road (1963)
* Farnham's Freehold (1964)
* The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1965)
* I Will Fear No Evil (1970)
* Time Enough for Love (1973)
* The Number of the Beast (1979)
* Friday (1982)
* Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
* The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
* To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)