I had so much fun with the Heinlein short stories that I\u2019m rolling into the Heinlein juveniles.\u00a0 I think many people understandably feel that the juvenile novels may be Heinlein\u2019s best work.\u00a0 I confess I\u2019m of two minds about that.\u00a0 They have different properties and leave room for adult novels to show their quality in a different way.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s see where we can go with these stories.\u00a0 I think I\u2019ll rank them best to worst according to my incredibly sensitive literary faculty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Have Space Suit\u2014Will Travel (1958)<\/p>\n
The Rolling Stones (1952)<\/p>\n
Farmer in the Sky (1950)<\/p>\n
Starman Jones (1953)<\/p>\n
Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)<\/p>\n
Tunnel in the Sky (1955)<\/p>\n
Red Planet (1949)<\/p>\n
The Star Beast (1954)<\/p>\n
Space Cadet (1948)<\/p>\n
Time for the Stars (1956)<\/p>\n
Between Planets (1951)<\/p>\n
Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve left out Starship Troopers (1959) because although Heinlein included it in his juvenile series.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s actually one of his adult stories.<\/p>\n
Now my order is obviously idiosyncratic and to be perfectly honest most of the stories are fairly equally good so it\u2019s a very rough sorting.\u00a0 I did put Rocket Ship Galileo last because now, space nazis do seem a bit silly to me.\u00a0 But at the time the story seemed just fine to adolescent me.\u00a0 Maybe depending on the day \u201cTunnel in the Sky\u201d and \u201cCitizen of the Galaxy\u201d could switch places on the list.\u00a0 And maybe a few other ones too.\u00a0 But let\u2019s go with this.<\/p>\n
The only story that I think I can objectively hold up as accurately ranked is my first choice, \u201cHave Space Suit\u2014Will Travel.\u201d\u00a0 I think Heinlein did excel his usual juvenile story here.\u00a0 The protagonist, characters and plot devices are especially enjoyable and I can say even now, a sequel or two in this universe might be a fun read.\u00a0 Who knows, maybe one day I\u2019ll contact the Heinlein estate to find out if they have any provisions for making that part of his intellectual property available to \u201crespectful\u201d collaborators.<\/p>\n
I gave copies of all these books to my grandsons as soon as they were old enough to read.\u00a0 I consider them excellent company for growing boys.\u00a0 Just looking at that list of names makes me think of picking up \u201cStarman Jones\u201d or \u201cThe Rolling Stones\u201d just to relive the feeling of reading them for the first time.\u00a0 They are each a touchstone to a very happy time in my life when the local library had a whole shelf of these Heinlein stories just waiting for me to read them and move onto the next one.<\/p>\n
One other word on these books.\u00a0 Of all the books, I think \u201cBetween Planets\u201d was the only one I never reread.\u00a0 I remember it took place on a Venus that was tropical in climate.\u00a0 There was a Venusian named Sir Isaac Newton, I believe, but I don\u2019t remember very much else about the plot other than some kind of interplanetary political intrigue.<\/p>\n
So, what is your order of excellence?\u00a0 And what is your rationale?\u00a0 And where exactly do you stand on the \u201cStarship Troopers\u201d question?\u00a0 And what is your opinion on space nazis.\u00a0 Leave your comments in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had so much fun with the Heinlein short stories that I\u2019m rolling into the Heinlein juveniles.\u00a0 I think many people understandably feel that the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,5,2510,818,237,4,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current-events","category-literature","category-ocf","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n