| | Heinlein Plot Synopses
Here are my recommendations of good starter works for would-be Heinlein readers. These works are from his mature period and stand on their own. Other titles such as The Red Planet may be too juvenile for some people's tastes (they are still good adventure stories) and some of his works such as any featuring the character Lazarus Long are parts of series that should not be read out of order. The books below can each be read without preparation. I have listed them my favorite first, with a very brief synopsis.
FRIDAY: A genetically enhanced secret agent of the near future discovers who her real friends and her real enemies are. An incredibly fast paced page-turner, the book's social setting is eerily prescient of some of today's headlines. Self-discovery and the nature of happiness in an irrational society.
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS: A computer repairman living in a lunar penal-colony befriends a network that has become self aware. Sent to correct a glitch, he discovers that the artificial mind is trying to understand what "humor" is. A libertarian friend suggests that a good joke for the computer to play might be overthrowing the penal warden's rule. The nature of mind and the cost of freedom.
FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD: An unhappily married man saves his son, wife, and neighbor from a nuclear attack in his bomb shelter. When they emerge it is not to a holocaust, but rather is in the pleasure Garden of a m*slim nobleman who eats Christians for lunch. Racism and self-discovery. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: A cult favorite, this book rivaled Tolkien and Rand in popularity on college campuses during the 60's. An Orphaned survivor of a doomed Martian Colony returns to Earth with the body of a man and the mind and powers of a demigod. An exploration of politics, sex, and love in a libertarian perspective.
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL: The worlds richest and oldest curmudgeon is loved only by his secretary. Having arranged to have his brain transplanted at death, he awakens in a very unexpected place. Sexuality, identity, and the nature of soul.
NUMBER OF THE BEAST: Friends discuss theoretical time travel at a cocktail party. One of the guests invites the hero to have a look at a prototype. Sexuality and politics among intimate friends. Features the "Society for Aesthetic Deletion"
STARSHIP TROOPERS: After world anarchy, order is restored by an autocratic military government along the lines of the Roman Republic. Those who serve in the military can vote. The rest are free to bitch all they like. Then alien contact is made, and the aliens aren't all that warm and fuzzy. Politics, war, ESP, personal growth and responsibility. The movie version was okay but left much out.
THE PUPPETMASTERS: A spaceship lands in the corn belt, but those who go to investigate report that it's just a hoax, and set up a sideshow to which one-and all are invited for a look-see. But there is no possibility of this being a hoax. Drug use, sex, secret agents and how nudism saves the world. The movie adaptation failed miserably.
Ted Keer, 12 December, 2006, NYC
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