Best Robert Heinlein novel?

[Vault Dweller]

To keep this seven year old thread alive, I figured I would register on these boards.

I have been a Heinlein fan for a while now and have recently purchased someone's collection so I am looking forward to making my way through 35+ Heinlein books, but I wanted to share my favorites.

For anybody who hasn't read it yet, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel is by far my favorite Heinlein novel. It is just such a well rounded novel full of wonderful plot twists. While the concepts he came up with in Stranger in a Strange Land are some of the most amazing out of all literature in my opinion, some of his ideas in Have Spacesuit were what really got me to love Heinlein's work. From the Mother Thing and her people, to the galactic court at the end and the fact that it was located in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, this is by far a must read for any Heinlein fan.

A close second would be Citizen of the Galaxy. What I especially enjoyed in this novel was the idea of The Family and how Heinlein created such a unique universe for this story. I really feel like the Nine Worlds/Hegemony/Family parallel could have made way for an entire series of novels that were just as compelling as any other. The fact that all of this is just in the background of the novel really show how much of a genius Heinlein will always be.

That being said, when I think of Heinlein's work I see it as being written by two different authors. His early stuff varies so much from his later work, yet both groups are masterpieces in their own right. I will always have a love for his early work because it has that romantacized SF feel to it.

[J Riff]

Sure enough. Some of his stuff I read when I was ten or younger, and it worked as adventure for kids too! Starship Troopers and Glory Road and a few others. But he seemed to never write a bad one, though JD will probably be able to tell us more about that if he wanders in.
Puppet Masters was great. Someone was talking about blow-away type stuff but Heinlein wasn't that, he was just consistently real good sciFi, all over the map, like his life was.

[The Spurring Platty]

This thread has added to my "Need to Read" list.

[HaveSpacesuit]

As my user-name suggests Have Spacesuit will Travel has a particular appeal to me. When I was very young I consider reading a chore that I only did because I had to. When I was about 11 my father bought me the above mentioned book. I loved it (boy saves planet earth), what young boy wouldn't, and I became a voracious reader.

It's certainly directed at a younger audience than much of Heinlein's stuff, but having re-read it recently I still found it enjoyable. I would HIGHLY recommend it for parents to buy for a kid who, like myself at the time, finds reading a chore. Hopefully he'll find, as I did, what a pleasure it can be.

[JustPassingThrough]

I just joined, like a few minutes ago, but this is the first section I came to. I just recently discovered Robert Heinlein a few months ago and so I am very early in deciding what is best of his because I think the one I am reading is great and then I read the next one and I proclaim it as the best. With that said, that last one that I read was The Door into Summer, which was very good. However, the second book I read of his was Puppet Masters and as of right now I still have to say that one is my favorite. It was so good that at the time I started to read it I was about to begin another book as well, read the first page of said book and read the first paragraph of Puppet Masters and threw the other book across the room and plunged ahead into the world of The Old Man.

[DrMclony]

The Door Into Summer? I always had a soft spot for that too. The idea you could maybe change your own destiny so radically has a universal appeal. Puppet Masters was always a fun one. The movie was kind of interesting - unless thats just rose coloured memory. Though like Starship Troopers, it never did the book justice.

[JustPassingThrough]

The Door into Summer got me because of Pete. That first paragraph jumped up and took hold of me and said, "Come on, I want to show you something." I didn't know they made a movie out of Puppet Masters, of course I didn't know that there was an uncut edition of the book either until a few weeks ago, so I am looking forward to reading that too.
I haven't decided what's next for Mr. Heinlein. I try to hold off because he is so good that I don't want to go through them so quick and then I am left with nothing.

[j. d. worthington]

Actually, there have been two films (at least) of The Puppet Masters, though neither is what I would call a masterpiece....

For me, though, Heinlein is a writer whose work can be read multiple times without losing anything, which is why I still tend to revisit it now and again, even though I've been reading it for 43 years now.....

[Morph1]

To Sail Beyond the Sunset is my all time fave of his. Friday is a close second. Stranger in a Strange Land was a very interesting read, but just didn't appeal to me as much as the others.

Morph

[Abernovo]

'Stranger' was the first Heinlein I ever read, so it has a special place in my heart, but it's not my favourite.

'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' and 'The Number of the Beast' make my top three, but for me, his best was 'Job: A Comedy of Justice'.

I think I love it for its contrariness, but I also like the protagonist's personal journey from fundamentalism to tolerance.