Oddly enough, The Number of the Beast was one of the first Heinleins I read all the way through. Then I picked up a lot of the others, and discovered along the way that my favourites were The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers. Both of these are relatively slim novels, as compared to his later-life doorstops, and were tightly written with no extraneous material. His short stories are also good, as were his early pulp stories.
Heinlein started having problems, in my opinion, around the time where he was writing things like I Shall Fear No Evil. At that time, he'd had a mini-stroke, and his brain wasn't getting the oxygen it needed. At the same time, his wife started collaborating with his editor to publish stuff, and as a result there was some real crap shoved out on the market. (I'm putting it down to a biological cause, because otherwise I have to believe the equally plausible story about the bet with L. Ron Hubbard).
Heinlein's female characters started turning weird back in Time Enough for Love, or even Stranger In A Strange Land. By the time of the later novels, I just accepted that this bloke had no bloody idea. The pregnancy thing is even easier to explain: Virginia Heinlein (his wife) was never pregnant. RAH was writing from a position of complete ignorance, which always helps in these matters.
One final comment: It's not just *recent* Piers Anthony which shows the "dirty old man" tendencies. Heck, that started off way back with the Battle Circle trilogy. Piers Anthony has *always* been something of a creep.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-10-19 04:36 pm (UTC)Heinlein started having problems, in my opinion, around the time where he was writing things like I Shall Fear No Evil. At that time, he'd had a mini-stroke, and his brain wasn't getting the oxygen it needed. At the same time, his wife started collaborating with his editor to publish stuff, and as a result there was some real crap shoved out on the market. (I'm putting it down to a biological cause, because otherwise I have to believe the equally plausible story about the bet with L. Ron Hubbard).
Heinlein's female characters started turning weird back in Time Enough for Love, or even Stranger In A Strange Land. By the time of the later novels, I just accepted that this bloke had no bloody idea. The pregnancy thing is even easier to explain: Virginia Heinlein (his wife) was never pregnant. RAH was writing from a position of complete ignorance, which always helps in these matters.
One final comment: It's not just *recent* Piers Anthony which shows the "dirty old man" tendencies. Heck, that started off way back with the Battle Circle trilogy. Piers Anthony has *always* been something of a creep.