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Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

There are similar time-loops and incestuous themes in this Heinlein novel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_for_Love

which is popular among poly people but is one of the very Heinlein books I didn't read when I was a kid, maybe because being the story of a 2000-year old man it's crazy long. (It doesn't help that Heinlein had serious health problems after he wrote "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and that everything he wrote after that had quality problems)

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It's not quite that simple; after he had an operation things got much more coherent. Friday is arguably a return to form. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is also worthwhile. The thing about his works after Moon, both with brain problems and repaired-brain is that he clearly decided he was done with avoiding explicit sex and that he would write about it the way he wanted to write about it.

The first few chapters of 'The Number of The Beast' are some of the most amazing chapters ever written but then the book degenerates into senselessness which is really too bad.

It's been a long time since I read it but I feel like that was part of the point, eh? Like the title points to the degeneration into senselessness as the strictures of space and time and literary form and convention dissolve...

I actually really like Time Enough for Love (though not as much as Moon). That said, it's more a series of linked stories than a conventional novel. (And you should probably read the prequel short first.)

> There are similar time-loops and incestuous themes in this Heinlein novel

Let's not forget "The Door into Summer".

Even more so... Plus "Door into Summer" is unambiguously a good read.

(Actually though I tell people who like Heinlein that Joe Haldeman set out to out-Heinlein Heinlein and was successful with "The Forever War" and "Worlds")

If we're doing recommendations, I'd say Double Star is Heinlein's best work of the 1950's, although it contains neither time travel nor implied incest.

I know this is a side note, but I had never heard of worlds and I quite liked "forever war". Is it worth reading?

I think so. ;-)

Just like "The Forever War" is a reply to "Starship Troopers", "Worlds" is a reply to "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". I would put "Worlds" in a category like Pohl's "Gateway" (but not the sequels to Gateway) in that it reads more like literature than genre fiction.

The copy of Worlds that I have has a false copyright date (I think 1954) and I was thinking "... they didn't have lasers in 1954" and "... they sure didn't have O'Neill colonies in 1954". I think the fake date was no accident but part of the homage.

Personally I think you should beam yourself into the past and tell your former self to read Worlds... It's that good.

> Pohl's "Gateway" (but not the sequels to Gateway)

Side note: am I the only one who loved "Gateway", when the Heechee and their ships and artifacts were mysterious and almost unknowable -- the whole "we think ships of size 5 or 1 are dangerous. Also these colors are probably good, and we think these are bad" -- but was disappointed when the Heechee finally made their appearance and lost some of their mystery?

Gateway was wonderful. Skip the sequels.

I never read the sequels to Gateway and now I'm glad I didn't. Gateway is such a great novel, but it's unsurprising Pohl wanted to investigate more of the universe.

I obviously need to read "Worlds", but one thing I've wondered for a long time is whether LeGuin's "The Dispossessed" was also partially written in response to "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"?

It's been a long time since I've read either although Moon is my favorite Heinlein and The Dispossessed is my favorite LeGuin. But I never noticed any connection.

I will have to take a look at Worlds. The Forever War is one of my favorites but I have never really cared for any other Haldeman--but haven't tried that.

I think 'To sail beyond the Sunset' was quite wild. Read that in college.

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