Recommended for Science Fiction and Mainstream Readers Alike

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	• Time Enough for Love Robert A. Heinlein Ace, 1987 - 608 pages average customer review:based on 141 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not Heinlein's best, too long and boring

I've read most everything Heinlein wrote, and of what I remember well, I've liked most of it. Time Enough for Love though is boring and for me, was unfinishable. The back cover of the edition I have states it is his "longest and most ambitious." Well, in this case, length isn't a strength. In fact, even in Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein's greatest story and arguably the best SciFi story ever), the story loses its way 1/2 way through. Shorter would have been better in both cases.
True scifi and Heinlein fans will need to read this anyway. I'd suggest a steady diet of caffeine to make your way through it.

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5 stars, but . . .

I have some resevations (see below), but I'll give it 5 stars (besides - there are Jerry Springer videos getting 4 stars, and this book is truly an epic sci-fi masterpiece). This is a lengthy, well-constructed work of genious. In Heinlein fashion, the author does not use fictional license to just "make things happen", but reasons things out and explains so as to make them actually plausible . . . at least as best as an author can do with issues such as time travel, tele-transportation, etc. Other reviewers have adequately summarized the storyline.

You won't get a discussion this frank from other reviewers, but let me tell you what's going on here. The clever title of the work summarizes it -- "Time Enough . . ." alluding to what is essentially human immortality achieved through technology, and, ". . . For Love" (spell love, S-E-X) alluding to protagonist Lazarus Long's penchant for public nudity and having guiltless sex with anyone and anybody, including; multiple partners, his children, his mother, and - via cloning - himself. Frankly, it kind of creeped me out and makes me want to distance myself from Heinlein, figuratively. The sex aspect is not graphic or pornagraphic, but the situations are out of the comfort zone for a lot of us.

On the upside, Heinlein's work with time and location changes, and plausibility is, as I mentioned above, genious. Heinlein typically wrote of a universe without God. This book is no exception. For me, that is a universe of hopelessness. But this story was too good to put aside and at times was a page-turner.

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Heinlein's Opus

Don't attempt to read this one until you have read as many of his other Lazarus Long books as possible. This his most in depth examination of the Howard Families and of the 2000 year old man. In short, it is Lazarus's life story... if you don't understand my review, then read a few other Heinlein books first. However, this is one of my favorites along with Stranger in a Strange Land (Unabridged) and is a must for any Heinlein fan.

Worth reading again, and again!

Robert Heinlein has a way of drawing you in. You will find yourself identifying with one or more of the characters. I found myself re-evaluating my own life and choices I've made. He makes you realize that life is worth living, and enjoying. There are so many quotes in there that you will want to take with you. Lazarus.... Well, you could go on and on.

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Recommended for Science Fiction and Mainstream Readers Alike

Most people reading these reviews will probably be Heinlein fans and will have already read this book. I'm writing more for those that have not read this book. Robert Heinlein fans are diehard. Although Robert Heinlein's writings fall under the genre of science fiction, I knew readers that read only Heinlein, not science fiction, so it was difficult to consider them SF readers. With just having completed Time Enough, I've now read eight Heinlein novels and hope to consider myself transitioning from the novice to the intermediate Heinlein reader. This is the quintessential Heinlein novel. Although there are other better known Heinlein novels, including those that have won Hugo awards, this appears to be the novel that anchors readers that become Heinlein fans.

For those that have read Heinlein before, you're familiar with his style. There's a lot of dialogue between characters in the novel. This typically makes for lighter reading and allows one to read through his novels faster. That doesn't mean that the ideas are light. In this modern era of Speculative Fiction where magical amulets, auras. faery handbags passes as `cutting edge' award winning `science fiction', Robert Heinlein is considered conservative by these speculative fiction writers and critics. If a group you have open hearted welcomed into your home for dinner tries to kill you and rape your wife and in the process you end up killing them, you're a fascist right? You would be, in `Heinlein country' as SF critic John Clute puts it. Heinlein is big on personal responsibility, responsibility for ones own actions and this rankles liberals and is a major, major dividing line between liberals and conservatives; between Democrats and Republicans. Sure enough, there are extremists on the other side, everyone knows some gran'ma or Aunt May that will consider it your own personal fault for knocking over that glass of water, for that car accident, for the stock market crash, but Heinlein here is trying to take the middle road. Such as regarding a former creative-writing college professor that remains destitute because he insists on following his profession on a new, colonized planet, no matter there's no need for one. Heinlein is suggesting that that person may consider a new line of profession for that location.

This is a telling book of the time of its publishing in the 1970's, during the "me" decade. There were people I knew that took the selfishness part to heart. I had one friend that would backstab you just for a beer, not something you would expect from a friend. Or a women that would lay as still as possible during intimate moments because she wanted to concentrate on deriving the most amount of pleasure from the situation. What these people didn't seem to understand was the feedback mechanism of friendship, that if you're good to a friend, they're good back to you, and sure enough their attitudes came back to them from the people around them. It's like the Prisoner Dilemma that has three potential outcomes. If one of two prisoners backstabs the other, and the other doesn't, then he or she derives maximum reward, if both cooperate with each other then they receive a moderate reward, and if both backstab each other, then they both receive a minimal reward. So if one backstabs the other unexpectedly, then, sure, they receive a maximum reward. However, if the other knows the first is going to backstab, then guess what the second will do. So although the parable called The Person Too Lazy To Fail, is of someone looking out for their own self-interest, and in the course has to do a fair amount of work to do so and helps people along the way as well, it's hoped that readers don't take this selfishness too simplisticly, exploiting everyone, including friends and family, around them.

As one lives through adulthood, one encounters many of the situational themes in the novel. This is more like a guide to life, so I would recommend this novel to those in their late teens and early twenties. The advice from this book are like words of wisdom from an experienced grandfather (just don't take the first section on selfishness too close to heart). There's a fair amount of sex throughout the novel, although not graphic. Even incest is explored on several levels.

This is a long novel, and clocks in at 589 pages plus the 17 pages for the introduction for a total of 606 pages. There are sections that feel like filler material, and if at times you find yourself re-reading the same section over and over, just plow ahead, because they'll be some great sections ahead, the best IMHO being at the very end. Heinlein writes a bit about World War I, which is worthwhile as the events of that war are not generally as well known as more `modern' wars, particularly WWII.

For those that want to know what makes Heinlein fans Heinlein fans, this is the book to read. Heinlein has cross-over appeal to both science fiction and mainstream readers and this book would appeal to both. Although other books by Heinlein may be suggested to read before this, it isn't necessary. The exploits and adventures of Lazarus Long, the 2200 year old protagonist, are self-sufficient, and if you're short on personal time for reading (who isn't) then dive right in.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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