Mass market paperback, 511 pages
English language
Published Sept. 12, 1986 by Fawcett.
Heinlein buff David Potter explained on alt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the Heinlein Society, that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples of HOW NOT TO DO IT right there in the foreground, and constant explanations of how to do it right, with literary references to people and books that DID do it right, in the background." He noted that "every single time there's a boring lecture or tedious character interaction going on in the foreground, there's an example of how to do it RIGHT in the background."
I do sometimes feel as if I miss the point of a Heinlein. This started out with a great deal of promise, parody accepted and welcomed, but then sort of fell into his great debauched mishmash of the Tirtiun crew, who really only make sense in small doses or in similarly-sized groupings.
