It’s always fun to occasionally take a look back at some science fiction classic books. So, we’ll start our look back this week with Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. This book is one of the early examples of military science fiction and was surprisingly rejected by the original publisher. This rejection led Heinlein to stop writing the juveniles (kid friendly science fiction stories that Heinlein had been publishing for most of the 1950s). After it’s publication, it won the Hugo and attracted a lot of praise and controversy. So, what did the Heinlein do this time to cause controversy.

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein is a futuristic tale about the past. Heinlein was well into his libertarian phase as a writer and this book was a look back at the American Revolution. It put the past into the future and talked about a similar revolution with moon colonies playing the part of the Americas. It’s an interesting view of a small group leading a revolution.

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Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein was the start of a new era for Heinlein. His previous book Starship Troopers finished a series of 19 novels published between 1947 and 1959 (18 if you don’t count Sixth Column which was serialized in 1941). To celebrate, Heinlein took a year off and nothing was published in 1960. Stranger in a Strange Land is very different than previous Heinlein books and I don’t think anyone suspected the success that followed, not only in science fiction circles but in the growing counter culture as well.

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