Reading List

[mr_nice!]

Hi Everybody

I have just purchased the following Heinlein books and wondered what order I should read them in and if there any gaps in between need filling

1. To Sail Beyond The Sunset
2. Time Enough for Love
3. The Number of the Beast
4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
5. Methuselah's Children
6. The Rolling Stones
7. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Would appreciate your thoughts on the order of reading and if I should purchase any others (obviously I have Stranger)

Nice

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by mr_nice!

Hi Everybody

I have just purchased the following Heinlein books and wondered what order I should read them in and if there any gaps in between need filling

1. To Sail Beyond The Sunset
2. Time Enough for Love
3. The Number of the Beast
4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
5. Methuselah's Children
6. The Rolling Stones
7. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Would appreciate your thoughts on the order of reading and if I should purchase any others (obviously I have Stranger)

As these are closely related (either part or his Future History series, or closely allied to it), even though you'll be jumping back and forth as far as his career and writing is concerned (at least with the first few), I'd suggest the following:

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Rolling Stones
Methuselah's Children
Time Enough for Love
The Number of the Beast
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To Sail Beyond the Sunset

[OmahaRenegade]

Originally Posted by mr_nice!

Hi Everybody

I have just purchased the following Heinlein books and wondered what order I should read them in and if there any gaps in between need filling

1. To Sail Beyond The Sunset
2. Time Enough for Love
3. The Number of the Beast
4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
5. Methuselah's Children
6. The Rolling Stones
7. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Would appreciate your thoughts on the order of reading and if I should purchase any others (obviously I have Stranger)

Nice

1. Starship Troopers
2. Farmer in the Sky
3. Space Cadet

Was not a fan of time enough for love, myself. But to each their own.

[Connavar]

Heinlein's Future History

Methuselah's Children (1941)
The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950)
The Green Hills of Earth (1951)
Revolt in 2100 (1953)
Orphans of the Sky (1963)
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973)



I would recommend reading his late books much later than his early Future History books.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Heinlein's Future History

Methuselah's Children (1941)
The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950)
The Green Hills of Earth (1951)
Revolt in 2100 (1953)
Orphans of the Sky (1963)
The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973)



I would recommend reading his late books much later than his early Future History books.

Well... except for not having the single story, "'Let There Be Light --'" (a very minor entry in the series; the major connection being the light panels which are used in "The Roads Must Roll"), you could save a lot of money by simply going for The Past Through Tomorrow rather than several of the collections; hence:

The Past Through Tomorrow (which includes Methuselah's Children as well)
Orphans of the Sky
Time Enough for Love

And, actually, his following novels were also a part of that series (at least, I would certainly include them, given the number of connections -- often much tighter connections than one sees between several of the shorter tales -- and the fact that Laz and Maureen play such large parts in them):

The Number of the Beast
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To Sail Beyond the Sunset

[Connavar]

Thats good to know since i got Number of the Beast for some reason earlier. It was later work so i havent read it, good instinct for that.


Heh Life-Line is the first story in my Expanded Universe.

Of course i will not go for the collections and only for The Past Through Tomorrow.

I always thought Methuselah's Children was a novel only.I guess the novella is enough read if you want to read most of his Future History?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Connavar

I always thought Methuselah's Children was a novel only.I guess the novella is enough read if you want to read most of his Future History?

As I recall (I have both) the version published in The Past Through Tomorrow is the full novel....

[Connavar]

I wont trust wiki again, it says the collection has the shorter version.

Sometimes i use wiki because they have so info about an author's collections,contents etc

[j. d. worthington]

Wiki can be a good source for a lot of things, but one does have to approach it with caution. I could be mistaken (it has been some years since I last read the separate novel form of Methuselah's Children to compare the two), but if my memory serves, this is that version.

EDIT: Yep. Must be. I just compared the two. The paperback novel from Signet comes to 160 pp., that in The Past Through Tomorrow comes to 176 pp. Given the very slight difference in design (use of white space, etc.), that seems about right....