Interesting to see Stranger in a Strange Land on his list. It shows up quite often on top lists of sci-fi books and Heinlein books. I'm halfway through it, after reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land is certainly the weaker book so far in my opinion.
As I struggle to wade through it, I wonder why it was ever as popular as it once was. What is it about this book that make so many people recommend it?
His writing is terrible on the level of style, characterisation, and even plot, but I think many of the ideas he expressed about human relations in his books are profound - that the rules which govern our societies are temporary, contingent and negotiable, that we don't live according to the principles we claim to, that free is often anything but, that colonies often become stronger than the parent society, that revolution comes when there is too big a gap between perception and reality, the tension between soldiers and citizens etc.
For me, I really like the first half of the book where he's viewing society from outside. It kind of falls apart for me when that is kind of set aside. Heinlein almost always has problems with the endings of his books. There's some that stay consistent throughout, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or Podkayne of Mars, but most kind of land with a thud. I love his books quite often for the ideas and settings, but yes, the writing isn't the best.
A funny comparison, since I could see The Moon is a Harsh Mistress getting compared to Ayn Rand due to the depictions of (and brief philosophical expositions on) stateless society.
Yea, definitely: I haven't read either of them in a while, but my memory is that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress felt like it had a plot with some philosophizing added on, but Stranger In A Strange Land was political exposition/description of wish-fulfillment orgies with an attempt at forming a plot around it, and that's why it is more like Ayn Rand novels.
I also read Time Enough for Love every few years. I've owned and read and loved much of Heinlein's work over my life, but it's the one that's stuck with me for the past decade.
My problem with Stranger in a Strange Land is it kind of falls apart around halfway to 2/3rds of the way through the book. The ending is pretty weak (as is most of Heinlein's endings). But, I found the first half of Stranger in a Strange Land to be excellent. In contrast, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a solid book all the way through. Also, a later book has a nice, little tie-in to it.
