I wanted to love it, but I just wasn't into it. Sadly, I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I know it was brilliant in its time, and I respect that. The writing just didn't pull me into the story. I didn't care about the characters or what they were doing. I only got to Chapter 3. It's still on my bedside chest with a bookmark in it. :-(
Oh boy, you're brave to start a Heinlein discussion. :D He's practically a corollary to Godwin's Law.
It's been years and years since I've read this book, so I honestly don't remember a lot of it, but I'd say it was one of the last of Heinlein's "adult" novels before he descended into the wankery that marked his later career. I don't remember it being exceptionally sexist or racist -- it was certainly a product of its time, but it had Heinlein's trademark Geek Fantasy-Girls: super-competent but also super-hot, laws and custom and their own bad-assery protects them from abuse, but don't worry, they'd totally want to do you (the male reader).
Many of his other novels were far more egregious (Friday and Farnham's Freehold come to mind), but Heinlein at least wrote female characters who did things, which is more than you can say for a lot of his contemporaries. I still maintain that his juveniles were some of his best work (though quite sexist as well) and that his later books should be skipped entirely unless you're really a fan.
I still maintain that his juveniles were some of his best work (though quite sexist as well) and that his later books should be skipped entirely unless you're really a fan.
This. I am in the same boat of having read this years ago and not remembering much. I do remember being amused by Mike and sad by the way he ended, but that's about all that stuck with me.
I haven't read Stranger in a Strange Land, but I have read quite a few of his juveniles and loved them. Granted, I was pretty young myself at the time, but I've re-read at least one of them as an adult (Farmer in the Sky) and it was as good as I remembered, though definitely a product of its time.
The biggest thing of all, really, is that he was actually writing female characters. So many male SF authors of his time rarely even bothered to include women in their fiction, or if they did, they were the adoring and/or threatened by villains girlfriends, and had absolutely zero agency.
No matter how Heinlein's women seem to today's readers, in the 50s and 60s, they were revolutionary. They had advanced university degrees, they had professions, they had lives of their own, they had sex when they wanted it without guilt or regret, they ruled worlds and handled swords or guns or spaceships with competence and courage...
I know I've gone beyond the confines of what we see in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, but in many ways, as a young girl in the early 60s, reading Heinlein's female characters was one of the things that prepared me to be a feminist.
That's awesome, and also great to hear. Revisionist judging is a dangerous thing, because what appears to be horrible to a modern reader wasn't horrible at all and showed real progression, like you said. I wasn't totally convinced of sexist viewpoints on this book alone, though I could see how some people might have issues. Thanks for sharing!
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It's been years and years since I've read this book, so I honestly don't remember a lot of it, but I'd say it was one of the last of Heinlein's "adult" novels before he descended into the wankery that marked his later career. I don't remember it being exceptionally sexist or racist -- it was certainly a product of its time, but it had Heinlein's trademark Geek Fantasy-Girls: super-competent but also super-hot, laws and custom and their own bad-assery protects them from abuse, but don't worry, they'd totally want to do you (the male reader).
Many of his other novels were far more egregious (Friday and Farnham's Freehold come to mind), but Heinlein at least wrote female characters who did things, which is more than you can say for a lot of his contemporaries. I still maintain that his juveniles were some of his best work (though quite sexist as well) and that his later books should be skipped entirely unless you're really a fan.
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This. I am in the same boat of having read this years ago and not remembering much. I do remember being amused by Mike and sad by the way he ended, but that's about all that stuck with me.
I haven't read Stranger in a Strange Land, but I have read quite a few of his juveniles and loved them. Granted, I was pretty young myself at the time, but I've re-read at least one of them as an adult (Farmer in the Sky) and it was as good as I remembered, though definitely a product of its time.
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The biggest thing of all, really, is that he was actually writing female characters. So many male SF authors of his time rarely even bothered to include women in their fiction, or if they did, they were the adoring and/or threatened by villains girlfriends, and had absolutely zero agency.
No matter how Heinlein's women seem to today's readers, in the 50s and 60s, they were revolutionary. They had advanced university degrees, they had professions, they had lives of their own, they had sex when they wanted it without guilt or regret, they ruled worlds and handled swords or guns or spaceships with competence and courage...
I know I've gone beyond the confines of what we see in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, but in many ways, as a young girl in the early 60s, reading Heinlein's female characters was one of the things that prepared me to be a feminist.
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