Robert A. Heinlein Books in Order

Robert A. Heinlein was the writer who took American science fiction from pulps to engineering - the first Grand Master of the genre, and the only author to run four distinct careers inside one shelf. The twelve juveniles he wrote for Scribner's between 1947 and 1958 taught a generation the solar system; the 1959-1966 run - Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - is the peak of his adult novels and contains at least two of the genre's permanent books; the late Lazarus Long era, from Time Enough for Love on, is longer, stranger, and where most readers step off. Most of the books share one Future History. This page runs the three eras in order and marks the peak (1939–1987).

Where to start

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), the best single novel. Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958) for the juveniles.

Does the reading order matter?

Three eras, one order. The juvenile era (the aggregate row below, 1947-1958) is its own complete shelf - one book a year with editor Alice Dalgliesh, no sex, no cynicism, and the best engineering problems in kids' fiction; Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958) and Tunnel in the Sky (1955) are the two adults still reread. Methuselah's Children (1958, expanded from a 1941 story) bridges to the mature run. Then the peak, four books in eight years: Starship Troopers (1959) - the book the movie flattened, and still the argument about citizenship and service; Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), the outsider novel the counterculture adopted; Glory Road (1963) and Farnham's Freehold (1964), the contentious middle; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) - a computer, a revolution, and his best-constructed book. The late era: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Time Enough for Love (1973) - Lazarus Long's thousand-year memoir - The Number of the Beast (1980), Friday (1982), Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984), The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985), and To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987), the last. Fair warning: the late books braid into each other; readers usually stop wherever the charm stops, and that is a legitimate order too

Which one is the best?

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966); Stranger in a Strange Land (1961); Starship Troopers (1959).

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Isaac Asimov books in order, Arthur C. Clarke books in order, Dune books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.