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[JayMcGee]

Early Heinlein was very good. The Moon.. and Stranger... are probably his two finest works. 'Time enough for Love' is also not bad, but by this time he was letting his politics show. Check out his early stuff 'the puppet masters', The man who sold the moon, orphans of the sky.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by JayMcGee

Early Heinlein was very good. The Moon.. and Stranger... are probably his two finest works. 'Time Enough for Love' is also not bad, but by this time he was letting his politics show. Check out his early stuff 'The Puppet Masters', The Man Who Sold The Moon, Orphans of the Sky.

Jay, the man's politics always showed. Even his first juvies from the very late forties and early fifties, Red Planet, Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Farmer In The Sky, all include their Heinlein Lecture at some point. It's perhaps easiest to spot when you read a fistful of them one after another. Some of his later material conceals the Lectures more invisibly and smoothly, usually by spreading it throughout the plot and dialogue. Starship Troopers and Tunnel In The Sky come to mind, both of which have a coming of age as the backbone of their plots. The Lecture hits several points: liberty is good; competence also, and the more varied the better; maturity is essential; skill at arms can save you when nothing else will do; discipline is accomplishment's handmaiden; government should be minimal, for a government that governs most governs worst -- and that was the essential plot of more than one of his novels. It's all through Time Enough... with its hero who sticks around long enough to take a very long perspective -- personally. I'd call that one his masterpiece. You can run your life around his Lazarus Long's Notebooks entry on "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

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