In which I admit publicly that I no longer loathe RAH.

I received Off The Main Sequence as an automatic monthly selection from SFBC.

Last year I read an ebook of Heinlein’s non-fiction and decided I might be willing to forgive him for Stranger In A Strange Land and Friday and all that other incestuous crap.

I’d always found reading Heinlein to be like this: he’d set up a great premise with great characters and the first half of the book would be a joy to read. Then… well, then they’d all start fucking each other – sometimes they’d time travel and screw their own ancestors – and good sci-fi would degenerate into interstellar soft porn. Ugh.

I also pretty much hated the second half of Stranger, but that’s another story.

Anyway, I read some of his non-fiction quite by accident and realized that he really was the genius all the dust jackets said he was. And not too long ago I read a book of his shorts and loved it, and now I’m reading another book of his shorts with equal relish.

Okay, so, I’ll come out and say it: I was wrong. Heinlein doesn’t suck. I’ll even dig up some of the novels I hated and re-read them now that I’m older and of dirtier mind.

(But I never did like LOTR and I never will and I don’t care who knows it.)