Have space suit, will write SF books

One of my favourite SF authors is Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988). He was prolific and controversial, and wrote some of the most influential SF novels ever, eg Stranger In A Strange Land and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

He started as an early pulp writer, and published a dozen books targeted towards youth readers (the Scribner Junior novels). But it was his adult-focused novels, particularly his expansive Future History series, with which he really left his mark on the genre.

I particularly enjoyed the Future History series, as he describes an alternate future, full of interplanetary intrigue, and massive social, political and economic upheaveal on Earth. He introduced the Howard families, a group of long-lived humans led by Heinlein's most celebrated character, Lazarus Long.

Lazarus is featured in many of the Future History books, particularly the later ones. He's the central character in the sprawling Time Enough For Love, and is a pivotal character in the strange Number Of The Beast, a book that begins to draw together the parallel worlds of Heinlein's imagination. And of course he plays a major part in Heinlein's last novel, To Sail Beyond The Sunset (the autobiography of Long's mother, Maureen Johnson).

Heinlein had some controversial views that he expressed in his novels, such as militarism (Starship Troopers), free love (Stranger In A Strange Land), consensual intergenerational sex (TE4L, 2SBTS) and extreme libertarianism (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress). He also knew not to take himself too seriously, as when he derived the concept of pantheistic solipsism. It's a theory that suggests every time a fictional universe is imagined, it's actually created. (With this device, Heinlein actually took a few good-natured swipes at his own writing (in The Number Of The Beast) by having some of his characters ridicule the works of Robert A. Heinlein.)

Here's a list of his books. Some have been published posthumously, including Variable Star, written by Heinlein in 1955, finished by Spider Robinson in 2006, to be released later this year.

• Beyond This Horizon (adult) (1942)
• Rocket Ship Galileo (sj) (1947)
• Space Cadet (sj) (1948)
• Red Planet (sj) (1949)
• Sixth Column (aka The Day After Tomorrow) (adult) (1949)
• Farmer In The Sky (sj) (1950)
• Waldo & Magic, Inc (adult) (1950)
• Between Planets (sj) (1951)
• The Green Hills Of Earth (fh) (1951)
• The Puppet Masters (adult) (1951)
• The Rolling Stones (sj) (1952)
• Assignment In Eternity (adult) (1953)
• Revolt In 2100 (fh) (1953)
• Starman Jones (sj) (1953)
• The Man Who Sold The Moon (fh) (1953)
• The Star Beast (sj) (1954)
• Tunnel In The Sky (sj) (1955)
• Double Star (adult) (1956)
• Time For The Stars (sj) (1956)
• Citizen Of The Galaxy (sj) (1957)
• The Door Into Summer (adult) (1957)
• Have Space Suit-Will Travel (sj) (1958)
• Methuselah's Children (fh) (1958)
• The Robert Heinlein Omnibus (adult) (1958)
• Starship Troopers (adult) (1959)
• The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag (adult) (1959)
• Stranger In A Strange Land (adult) (1961)
• Glory Road (adult) (1963)
• Podkayne Of Mars (adult) (1963)
• Farnham's Freehold (adult) (1965)
• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (adult) (1966)
• The Worlds Of Robert A. Heinlein (adult) (1966)
• The Past Through Tomorrow (fh) (1967)
• I Will Fear No Evil (adult) (1970)
• The Best Of Robert A. Heinlein (fh) (1973)
• Time Enough For Love (fh) (1973)
• Expanded Universe (nf) (1980)
• The Number Of The Beast (fh) (1980)
• Friday (adult) (1982)
• Job: A Comedy Of Justice (adult) (1984)
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (fh) (1985)
• To Sail Beyond The Sunset (fh) (1987)
• Grumbles From The Grave (nf) (1989)
• Tramp Royale (nf) (1992)
• The Fantasies Of Robert A. Heinlein (adult) (1999)
• For Us, The Living: A Comedy Of Customs (adult) (2003)
• Variable Star (fh) (2006)

fh = future history
nf = non-fiction
sj = Scribner's Juvenile novel