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The Man Who Sold the Moon [C]
by Robert A. Heinlein (1950)

In the absence of the omnibus 'The Past Through Tomorrow' (1967), this early collection is the best of RAH's 'Future History' tales currently on offer. Future History is a loosely-connected framework that was created mainly for marketing purposes. Dating back to 1939, some of Heinlein's best short fiction is found here - including the title story, 'Roads Must Roll' and 'Requiem'.

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The Puppet Masters
by Robert A. Heinlein (1951)

First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. Case closed. Heinlein capably panders to 1950s anti-communist paranoia in this story about an invasion of Earth by alien ‘slugs’. The novel hums with excitement as the insidious aliens latch on to people’s nervous systems and reduce them to mindless puppets.

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Citizen of the Galaxy
by Robert A. Heinlein (1957)

Novel written for young readers that impacted on a lot of lives. A young slave boy is sold to a man who is apparently a beggar, then becomes a free trader on a starship - and eventually learns he is an heir to wealth. The book is jam-packed with so many messages about society and morality that it makes one shudder. Classic boys' stuff that had a huge impact on 1950s America.

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The Door Into Summer
by Robert A. Heinlein (1957)

Popular tale of temporal revenge sees an electronics engineer invent the ultimate household robot, but his greedy business partner and wayward fiancee pull a double-cross. Duped into the 'Long Sleep', he wakes up in the year 2000 and utilises space jumps to inflict his recurring revenge. The title is based on something Heinlein's wife said when their cat refused to leave the house.

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Have Space Suit, Will Travel
by Robert A. Heinlein (1958)

Kip from midwest Centerville USA works the summer before college as a pharmacy soda jerk and wins a stripped-down spacesuit in a soap contest. He answers a distress radio call from a rag doll-clutching kid genius. Some unsavoury aliens whisk him away to a planet where he is forced into some interpersonal development and to accept his responsibilities to the human race.

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Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)

No hippie-era pad was complete without a copy of Stranger lying on a beanbag. Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and free love.

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
by Robert A. Heinlein (1966)

Heinlein's last truly great novel is choc-full of the libertarian ideals. It is essentially the re-telling of the American Revolution in Heinlein terms, with an open Lunar penal colony the setting for the plotted overthrow of authority. It is also a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family.

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Friday
by Robert A. Heinlein (1982)

Although Heinlein was far from the peak of his powers with this later effort, it is still an enjoyable romp that contains an occasional insight of note. Friday Jones is an AP or 'Artificial Person' struggling for acceptance in a near-future where she works as a secret courier. Heinlein's Libertarian ideals are again evident and, of course, as with many of his later works there is plenty of sex.