589 pages
English language
Published Aug. 21, 1988 by Ace Books.
Heinlein brought back Lazarus Long (his almost immortal) and covered parts of his life. It is one of Heinlein's best life, love, immortality and death.
This is the book that made me (eventually) give up on reading Heinlein. I'd read a couple of other books of his before this, and read one or two after. Some I liked, some I tolerated, but then when I started to try to fit more into my shrinking reading schedule I stopped and asked myself "why?"
It's one of my very favourite books.
Heinlein's greatest work, without a doubt. A masterpiece, and a world I wish I lived in.
It gets 4 stars instead of 5 simply because I thought there was some filler and unnecessary cruft. The amazing bits (and the overall story/idea) are lovely, there are just some bits that I found dull. And there are a few minor points of philosophy on which I have to disagree with RAH.
Addendum: A few hours after writing this, I managed to put my finger on something elusive about this book. I am definitely convinced it's an important book, but I'm not particularly inclined to keep it on my bookshelf along with others that I want to reread again and again. This confused me, until I realized why: this book is one of those that anyone who wants to understand me better would be well-served to read. But the philosophy and moralism …
Heinlein's greatest work, without a doubt. A masterpiece, and a world I wish I lived in.
It gets 4 stars instead of 5 simply because I thought there was some filler and unnecessary cruft. The amazing bits (and the overall story/idea) are lovely, there are just some bits that I found dull. And there are a few minor points of philosophy on which I have to disagree with RAH.
Addendum: A few hours after writing this, I managed to put my finger on something elusive about this book. I am definitely convinced it's an important book, but I'm not particularly inclined to keep it on my bookshelf along with others that I want to reread again and again. This confused me, until I realized why: this book is one of those that anyone who wants to understand me better would be well-served to read. But the philosophy and moralism expressed in it is very familiar to me, being very close to my own; I didn't really learn anything new from it.
Despite the fact that it was [b:Stranger in a Strange Land|350|Stranger in a Strange Land|Robert A. Heinlein|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1156897088s/350.jpg|908211] that I read during my teenage years, when I was still developing and discovering my own ideas about life and love. I think Heinlein says the same thing, better, here.
