Robert A Heinlein

 Imaginary Interviewer: Another month, another book. What are you reading next?

Me: We are finally getting to my very favorite author, Robert Heinlein. The book is 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'. And yes, I'm excited.

II: Tell me about Heinlein, please.

Me: Heinlein (RAH) is a very interesting cat. He was born in 1907, so he isn't modern. He served in the Navy, worked in left-wing politics in California and eventually started writing because it looked like an easy way to make money. RAH became very successful. With the use of pseudonyms, he was several of the most popular writers in science fiction during the late 30's and 40's.

II: Did that continue?

Me: Yes. He was often placed as a member of the Big Three, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. RAH won four Hugo awards for best novel. Three of them are on our list, but I want to say that the fourth one, 'Double Star', is a great read as well. He was popular, but also controversial.

II: Why is that? 

Me: The three books that we're reading all have strong appeal to different groups of people. 

• Starship Troopers (1959) - appeals to those within the military community
• Stranger in a Strange Land (1962) - made a huge impact on the hippie / "free love" communities
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1967) - beloved by libertarians

If you made a Venn diagram of those groups, you'd find very little overlap at all. Somehow RAH spoke to each of them.

II: And he's your favorite?

Me: Oh, yes! His writing is simply fantastic. You'll hear lots of people talk about his "voice" and I guess that's as good a way as ever to describe it. He is always interesting. Even when he's writing about philosophical things, he's difficult to dismiss. You can disagree with him, but you should at least engage! He frequently said that he wasn't trying to give people answers. He was trying to ask questions and hoped that his readers would do the work of trying to answer them.

II: Anything else we should know?

Me: Uh, yeah. I'll write a specific intro to 'Moon' as well. If I add that in here, it will be so long that no one will read the whole thing. Consider this your intro to Robert Heinlein.