Rating: 
Summary: Essential for Heinlein Fans
Review: Obviously any Heinlein fanatic like myself should own this book. The interview is very interesting and adds some insight to what Heinlein was really like. The draw back is, in both the filler material and to some extent the interview, Schulman has a political axe to grind. This detracted from the interview and other material in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Interview doesn't draw anything new out of Heinlein
Review: Robert Heinlein has always been a source of interesting ideas. I was disappointed that the interviewer asks a series of questions that draw nothing more out of Mr. Heinlein than repetition of statements he has already made in his novels. The other thing every Heinlein fan wonders is how much the real life Heinlein was like the heroic characters in his novels. Since Heinlein was pretty adamant about protecting his privacy, the interview doesn't provide much insight into his personality, either
Rating:
Summary: The Brain-Droppings of a Wonderful Mind
Review: Robert Heinlein remains one of the most prolific and insightful authors, science fiction or otherwise, in history. In this rapturous interview, his view on several subjects including life after death are elucidated. A not-quite-must-read for any true Heinlein fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein -- You Are There!
Review: The interview has a great forthrightness to it, like having lunch with Heinlein and listening to him hold forth. This is the only place I've ever seen his opinions on Ayn Rand, NASA and its incredible ability to make spaceflight boring, and why Heinlein couldn't like one of his characters better than the others. Schulman acquits himself well -- if he hadn't, Heinlein would not have spent an hour with him, let alone 3 & 1/2. I read the _Job_ review with interest, and found the analysis illuminating.
If Heinlein was your 'Dutch Uncle' too, you'll want this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not much insight on Heinlein
Review: The more Heinlein you read, the more you must read. Inevitably, your curiosity about who he was and how he became one of the world's most extraordinary writers begins to eat at your intelligence. Incredibly, J. Neil Schulman, a mere boy at the time, was able to gain Heinlein's complete confidence and trust. This text of the interview Schulman was able to arrange with Heinlein will answer a thousand questions for you. Schulman was as prepared to interview the great man as any person could have possibly been. Any consideration of Heinlein's life and work will be incomplete without including this small in size, but gigantic in significance, look into the mind of Heinlein, whose genius will only be regarded as greater with every passing year. The author, Schulman, went on to become a terrific science fiction writer himself, winning two Prometheus awards of his own.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable for Heinlein Afficionados
Review: The more Heinlein you read, the more you must read. Inevitably, your curiosity about who he was and how he became one of the world's most extraordinary writers begins to eat at your intelligence. Incredibly, J. Neil Schulman, a mere boy at the time, was able to gain Heinlein's complete confidence and trust. This text of the interview Schulman was able to arrange with Heinlein will answer a thousand questions for you. Schulman was as prepared to interview the great man as any person could have possibly been. Any consideration of Heinlein's life and work will be incomplete without including this small in size, but gigantic in significance, look into the mind of Heinlein, whose genius will only be regarded as greater with every passing year. The author, Schulman, went on to become a terrific science fiction writer himself, winning two Prometheus awards of his own.
Rating:
Summary: An historical record of an extraordianry writer.
Review: This book contains an interview with the great American writer Robert A. Heinlein conducted in the early 1970s when Heinlein was under attack by literary acedemia for being a fascist militarist. It's obvious from the interview that Heinlein believed in a strong VOLUNTEER military, but that he was at his very core a constitutionalist who dearly loved freedom and fervently opposed all forms of slavery. In the decades since, it has become much more common to label Heinlein as a libertarian. But back in that part of the 20th century, Heinlein risked a lot by admitting to being a libertarian (rather than a conservative, which light readers might have assumed). He lost support on the Right and gained little on the Left from the admission. In light of that, The Heinlein Interview is an historical record of a shift -- not only in Heinlein's politics, but that of the American nation. Heinlein has given interviews before and since on the subject of writing, or what his favorite book is, or whether America should go back to the Moon. But this was the first (and, as far as I've seen, the most in-depth) discussion Heinlein has ever allowed in print concerning his very deeply held political beliefs. This should be a boon to biographers and the curious alike. The rest of the book consists of miscellaneous exchanges (the "Heinleiniana" of the title) between Heinlein and J. Neil Schulman, an award-winning author in his own right (Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza are two very good novels). It's interesting to read along as the callow Schulman grows into a mature writer and thinker under the tutelage of the patient and understanding Obi-Wan Heinlein. I liked reading this. Anyone interested in Heinlein who can approach the work and the man without preconceived notions will come away seeing him through new(er) eyes. People who hate Heinlein will learn that he knew exactly why they hated him and that he accepted their enmity with enormous pride. When the ephemeral writers of the 20th century fade away because they wrote about ephemeral, negative things, Heinlein will be remembered and elevated because he wrote about values eternal and mankind triumphant. He truly was the dean of science fiction and -- quite likely -- of American literature.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary Questions
Review: This interview asked questions of Heinlein that were truly necessary. First, it is important for any reader of his fiction who takes the philosophical questions and positions that he puts forth seriously, to know how seriously the author himself took those questions and those positions. While Heinlein's tone in writing can make a reader fairly sure of the answer to these questions still, he wrote hardly anything but FICTION! His true stance on the positions and questions he put forth needed very much to be stated explicitly. It is also true that Heinlein, whether intending to or not, pursuaded a lot of people to hold certain political views. Now I happen to personally feel that J. Neil Schulman's politics and mine are very close, and, like him, I attribute this to Heinlein's influance on me. But even I must say that I feel the questions on politics take up too much space in the interview. But I also insist that as much truth as there is to the assertion that Heinlein really started current libertarian politics those questions needed to be asked. I feel I have gotten good value from "The Heinlein" interview. I place it as number two among the books that have helped me to really understand Heinlien. Number one is "Expanded Universe" But before this you need to have a good understanding of his fiction. I would advise that you cannot claim to understand this without having read the following books at least: Have Space Suit - Will Travel (my opinion of the best juvenile. but Red Planet, or Podkayne of Mars as well as others may also do.) The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag ~aka~ 6xH (for containing necessary info on cosmological, time travel and solipsist themes he uses repeatedly. You might supplement or substitute with Assignment in eternity.) Time Enough for Love (you can't understand Heinlein without knowing who Lazarus Long is. You may also meet him in Methuselah's Children, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset.) Starship Troopers AND Stranger in a Strange Land (Read them both. For one he was called a Fascist, for the other a hippie guru. Obviously he can't be both. (in fact he was neither) And these two were published back to back! In fact he put one aside after it was begun so that he could write the other. Read it, think about it, grok it.)
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