Heinlands writing style

First off, a note: I have now read through the entire novel. And it was excellent! Thus, all future posts will be from a "review" perspective rather than  a co-current one. I have already written down some of the parts of the book I want to cover, and I will be writing them over the next few days.



Heinlein is a interesting Sci-Fi writer. He is definitely not my favorite for a good many of reasons, that honor will always go to Alastair Reynolds. But, he does accomplish the one thing that Sci-Fi, TRUE Sci-Fi is galaxy bound to do:

Present 'Concepts'.

A truly good Sci-Fi novel will open up your mind to the future, to the infinite plausible possibilities of what mankind can accomplish, or the horrifying implications of technological developments. And in this light, Heinlein shines brighter than a supernova. In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein presents the concept of a occupied moon, but one where the moon is used as a exile camp. Where undesirables and convicts are sent up. What kind of culture would develop? Economic possibilities? Technology? Structure? Very few things are left unconsidered by Heinlein. Here, Heinlein gets a 10/10 in Moon is a Harsh Mistress

But as a novel, who's purpose is to engage the reader on a fundamental emotional level, it fails.

Heinlein's main fault lies in his writing style. Comparing this to the one other experience I have had with him (Stranger in a Strange Land), the characters were predictable and overall very boring, because the two books were so alike!. Throughout the course of the book, though I could see the characters changing on a surface level, they felt static! Manuel, though he goes from a keep to himself computer technician and mechanic to a responsibility laden "Free Lunar Defense Minister", he still feels like boring old Manuel, with nothing changed but a few phrases he tosses around and some emotional problems you "hear" about, but you don't "see" them, nor "feel" their impact. In essence, the "Logical but good hearted protagonist who unknowingly starts off something massive".

You see, Heinlein has a formula. Or at least from what I can tell from my experience. The unknowing intelligent protagonist, the "above human" co-protagonist (often very intelligent), the old intellectual who helps the protagonists, the intelligent woman love interest, and the intelligent but flawed authority figure villain.

See a pattern?

 The result is that nearly every character brought into the story, even minor ones, is either A. logical and intelligent or B. A massive prejudiced bigot. To the point where it seems almost comical. During one section of the novel where the Professor is trying to present his case to the F.N committee (Federal Nations, essentially the UN of the future) for a free moon, one member described as being from "north america" seems like his sole purpose there is to throw base insults at the Professor and the moon! In a courtroom environment! So case and point.

In his writing, there is little of that delectable "Grey zone", where the true meat of human society is. His characters feel inhuman, because they lack easily visible flaws. They know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. And they only seem to make mistakes when the protagonists often naive nature of certain matters is brought into play. For example, Manuel takes a trip down to earth with the professor to try to convince the F.N Committee (Federal nations) to recognize the Luna Government. While down there, traveling, he talks with this woman, who brings up the subject of marriages. On the moon, polygamy is a accepted practice, as men outnumber women 2:1. So women are treated with respect, and often a woman will take multiple husbands. So he informs her of this fact, and asks for a picture of his family. Next day, Manual is arrested for illegal polygamy, and the papers are making insults about Lunar women.

Overall, Heinlein is a amazing writer. One of my favorites. There are far too many sci-fi novels who simply use sci-fi as an excuse to have their war stories with spaceships and teleporters. Heinlein gets to the true purpose of sci-fi, as a writers tool to bring forth "what if?" scenarios, and make them feel like this could really be a future in store for mankind.