To Sail Beyond the Sunset

This is my favorite of all the Heinlein novels I have read. Far from being a story of debauchery and helpless characters, it is both a wonderful scifi novel and an exploration in open-mindedness. The sexual attitudes represented here are refreshing in their non-conformity, and yet completely logically reasoned out. Maureen is a wonderfully real character with flaws and aspirations to delight any reader. Our favorite scifi kitty Pixel also makes an appearence. This is one of those books that I will read over and over again, and it will hold a place amongst my favorite scifi novels for a long time.

If you don't know who Pixel is read THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS first. If you don't know who Maureen is read TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE and THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS. If you are unfamiliar with the Long family in general read METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN and THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST first. The story opens with Maureen waking in a strange hotel room with an unknown man, who happens to be dead. Her day does downhill from there. As she sits in jail charged with murder she dictates the story of her life beginning with her birth in the late 19th century Missouri and through her current life a couple of thousand years later on a distant planet. This is the last of Heinlein's novels about Lazarus and his family. Most of the characters from his previous novels make at least cameo appearances. While it would be possible to enjoy this book by itself knowing the backstories would be better. As always with Heinlein's work either the reader loves it or hates it. There seem to be very few inbetween. Heinlein continues his questioning of society in general with this book, particularly as it relates to family and sexual morals with special emphasis on incest. Whether a reader loves or hates the book it will, like all Heinlein's work make the reader re-examine all the rules that he 'knows' are true.

Robert Heinlein spiked this one into the end zone as he dropped. What an ending to his career.(The title is a reference to a line in Tennyson's 'Ulysses', having to do with accomplishments in old age, and it's undoubtedly intended to describe what Heinlein himself was up to here. He succeeded.)A word of warning, though -- if you didn't like _Time Enough for Love_, stay away from this one. Even (if possible) more than its predecessor, this one just oozes s-e-x, including wife-swapping, incest, and other stuff probably not in conformity to the mores of your tribe. In my view, it's all very tastefully and responsibly handled, but then my own opinions on such matters (including my devout antigrundyism) were in large measure informed by massive reading of RAH during my formative years. Just be aware that the usual suspects have dismissed this novel as pornographic trash.At any rate, this novel was clearly a labor of love for Heinlein. In it, he gets to revisit the world of his childhood (or close to it; he actually has to start a bit earlier than his own birth).You see, it's the story of one of Heinlein's most compelling heroines: Maureen Johnson Long, of the Howard Families, mother (and co-wife) of Woodrow Wilson Smith (a.k.a. Bill Smith a.k.a. Ernest Gibbons a.k.a. Lafe Hubert a.k.a. Aaron Sheffield a.k.a. Lazarus Long). And she lived just down the road a piece from Heinlein (and Sam Clemens, who makes a nice cameo appearance in her memoirs).There's a thin shell of story around it, but most of the novel consists of Maureen narrating her life to herself (and us). We learn a lot about her unconventional childhood and her interesting relationship with her father (Lazarus's Gramp, Ira Johnson). We watch her grow up, get married (to fellow Howard Family member Brian Smith), make a home, bear children, and do all sorts of other things.Of course since the stuff that happened in Heinlein's 'Future History' stories didn't actually come to pass in _our_ world (no rolling roads, for example, and our moon shot was a government affair), Lazarus and his kin must hail from an alternative timeline. And sure enough -- right around the beginning of the Second World War, we start to see events that diverge from our own history. But boy, it turns out Maureen was there behind the scenes for quite a bit of that 'Future History'; she knew Delos Harriman, was sleeping with George Strong, and provided some crucial assistance to what in her world was the first lunar landing.Great stuff, filled with the wonderful narrative, dialogue, and characterization that Heinlein's longtime readers had learned to expect -- not to mention the Old Man's usual range of soapboxery and iconoclasm, in spades. And it's always good to see Lazarus again.As I've said elsewhere, I credit Heinlein with three absolutely magisterial SF novels: _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, _Double Star_, and _The Door Into Summer_. This is one of his near-magisterial second-tier novels; it falls just ever so slightl

This has long been one of my Favourite novels ever by RAH. Not only does it tie up all the loose ends with his previous Lazarus Long Novels, but it gives an insight into his ideas on life, love and relationships. "Mama Maureen" gives us many words to live by and I can only hope that I would be as strong as she is in similar situations. Heinlein gives such "historical" detail to his novels that you can almost believe that this is what should have actually happened - even when his history goes off in odd directions. This is a novel I go back and read over and over again.

This is my favorite Heinlein book of all time! Maureen's practicality and stand-for-nothing attitude are wonderfully refreshing to read in an era of vaporish heroines. At the same time, she has a remarkable blend of old-fashioned values and a tendency to thumb her nose at "Mrs. Grundy". Also, after reading "Time Enough for Love" and "Number of the Beast" it was fascinating to get another perspective on some of the same events. Maureen is a woman afer my own heart, and I will not tire of reading this book, nor can I wait until my daughter is old enough to read it!