Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein's last, but not his best
Review: This "novel" is actually a thinly disguised series of reminiscences held together by a thin plot involving kidnapping or sex or something. Heinlein digs back into his own autobiography and presents a lot of it in fictional form - occasionally remembering to drag in (say) D.D. Harriman in order to remain tied in to his multiverse "metanovel." Once in a while he remembers that his protagonist is a woman and has her make glowing references to the fellows she likes to have sex with - not an unusual feature in Heinlein's later novels. In short, a book of interest only to diehard Heinlein fans who either want to know more about his personal history or enjoy the sort of claptrap he wrote in his declining years. For everybody else, there's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS.
Rating: 
Summary: it is an instant classic of sci-fi literature
Review: this book caters not only to the avid sci-fi reader, but also to those who lack the vocabulary to question the morals of society.
Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein at his best and worst.
Review: This book embraces all of the best aspects of Heinlein's writing: plausible science fiction, an epic narrative, keen insights on modern society, and interesting (albeit two demensional) characters. In this book, Heinlein attempts to bring all of his adult fiction, from his future history, through "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," to "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls," together in one epic masterpiece. He succeeds in this goal through an autobigraphy of Maureen Johnson, the mother of Lazerous Long. Like her son, Maureen is an adventurous person who bucks society and popular culture and truly manages to catch a readers imagination. In a somewhat cynical narrative, Maureen tells the events of her life, from her birth in the late eighteen hundreds to slightly beyond the events portrayed in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls." Woven throughout
are refrences to Heinlein's future history, and the idea of the world (worlds?) as myth. Interspersed sporadically through the novel are places where Heinlein, through the guise of Maureen, delivers a speech on his morals, ethics and worldview. Even if you do not agree with his conclusions, it is very interesting reading. However, it does interupt the story and may be distracting to the casual reader. The reason that the book recieved only four stars is that, like many of Heinlein's later books, the novel has enough sex in it that it could easily be considered erotica instead of science fiction. I can understand an author using sex to advance a plot but Heinlein goes to the extreem. Incest and adultury are almost treated as the main focus of the book which is something that I find personally distasteful. However, in spite of it's faults, this book is truly a wonderfull narrative of not just Maureen Johnson's life, but the entirety of Heinlein's work. Like many of Heinlein's other works, you will either love it or hate it. Personally, I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Heinlein at his best and worst.
Review: This book embraces all of the best aspects of Heinlein's writing: plausible science fiction, an epic narrative, keen insights on modern society, and interesting (albeit two demensional) characters. In this book, Heinlein attempts to bring all of his adult fiction, from his future history, through "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," to "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls," together in one epic masterpiece. He succeeds in this goal through an autobigraphy of Maureen Johnson, the mother of Lazerous Long. Like her son, Maureen is an adventurous person who bucks society and popular culture and truly manages to catch a readers imagination. In a somewhat cynical narrative, Maureen tells the events of her life, from her birth in the late eighteen hundreds to slightly beyond the events portrayed in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls." Woven throughout
are refrences to Heinlein's future history, and the idea of the world (worlds?) as myth. Interspersed sporadically through the novel are places where Heinlein, through the guise of Maureen, delivers a speech on his morals, ethics and worldview. Even if you do not agree with his conclusions, it is very interesting reading. However, it does interupt the story and may be distracting to the casual reader. The reason that the book recieved only four stars is that, like many of Heinlein's later books, the novel has enough sex in it that it could easily be considered erotica instead of science fiction. I can understand an author using sex to advance a plot but Heinlein goes to the extreem. Incest and adultury are almost treated as the main focus of the book which is something that I find personally distasteful. However, in spite of it's faults, this book is truly a wonderfull narrative of not just Maureen Johnson's life, but the entirety of Heinlein's work. Like many of Heinlein's other works, you will either love it or hate it. Personally, I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: A great book to read!
Review: This is a wonderful book to read after reading Time Enough For Love. It details the life of the fascinating mother of Lazarus Long. She is an incredible character. As a redhead myself, I enjoyed the potrayal of such a strong and lively red-headed woman. Heinlein's leading ladies are always intelligent, strong, and resourceful.
Rating:
Summary: His Best
Review: To Sail Beyond the Sunset is a powerful book with an incredible plot. A 160 year old lady who is the mother of Lazarus Long and looks like she is 18 goes on a Burroughs irrelevancy bus to New Manchster only to have it hijacked. The next thing she remembers is waking up in bed with a dead man and a cat. Taken into prison for the capital crime of sacrilege, she records this biography. This book is favorite for many reasons, the first of which is the characters. Heinlein uses my four favorite characters from the Heinlein universes, Deety, Zebadiah, Hilda, and the main character of the book, Maureen. I like these character because they have a very human point of view that I understand. My second reason is that there are no inconsistencies between 'Theodore Bronson's' encounter with Maureen in Time Enough for Love and Maureen's in this book. My last reason is the fact that there is a Committee for Aesthetic Deletions that sits around discussing and coming up with'Artistic' ways to kill people with petty crimes.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite Heinlein books
Review: To Sail Beyond the Sunset is one of my favorite Heinlein books. I loved the continuing story of Lazarus Long and Maureen. A must read if you read the previous stories in the saga (Methusela's Children, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, etc.)
Rating:
Summary: The captstone of Heinlein's career
Review: To Sail Beyond The Sunset was the last book Robert Heinlein wrote during his life, and it is a fitting capstone to his career. It is the autobiography of a fictional character, Maureen Johnson, mother of Lazarus Long. It is a bit like Time Enough For Love in the sense that it is about one central character, however, unlike that book, this one is actually written in an autobiographical format-it reads like a serious, real autobiography-and is (mostly) chronological to boot (unlike Time Enough For Love.) Throughout the long book, Heinlein ties together many of the characters and storylines from his major works and even some of his lesser-known early pulp stories, and thus places a definitive capstone on one of the richest universes in all of science fiction. It is nothing short of amazing how he draws together literally dozens of characters from a multitude of books (some over 40 years old), and manages to make their storylines fit logically into this book. There are many interesting things about To Sail Beyond The Sunset. It is literally the great tie-together; it seeks to unite Heinlein's future history, his early pulp stories, and some of his other novels, and it succeeds. This must have been an astonishingly complex book to write. (There is a large appendix in the back of the book that lists some of the dozens of characters included, as well as a list of related books and other information, but even it is not complete.) It ties up a lot of loose threads that a lot of other books left dangling. It is also interesting to see, in this book, events that took place in Time Enough For Love or The Number of The Beast, say, from Maureen's point of view. This is a consumate Heinlein work. If you are at all into books like Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, etc., then this is a must-read. Also if you'd like to see how the Futurer History series finally ends up. Also, if you are a woman, I reccommend that you read this book. You'll either love it ("That's the kind of woman I'd like to be!"), or hate it ("That why women have such a bad image!"), but I guarantee that it will provoke a reaction. That's why Heinlein continues to matter. He was one of the few mainstream writers who dared to challenge public mores, to smash conventions, and write the kinds of books that he really wanted to write, unafraid of public opinion or reaction. His books (his later ones, anyway) are heavily idealistic. You won't always agree with him, but he will at least get you thinking. This is one reason why "To Sail" is such a great book. A fitting end to the career of what many consider to be the greatest science fiction writer of them all.
Rating:
Summary: There is no point on commenting on this book other than
Review: to say, if you're not a Heinlein fan already, don't read this book yet. If you become a fan, you won't bother reading reviews, you'll just read it.
This book of course really isn't sci fi, not in the literal sense of what sci fi is usually thought to be. A lot of the story takes place in the past, and most of the story is about people and mainly one woman and her take on life.
If you're interested in Heinlien, start reading some of his earlier works, you'll have months and months of reading before you should consider picking up this one.
As to the themes of sex, incest, etc that Heinlein brashly includes in this (and all of his larger) works, they only make sense in the broader picture of all his works, trying to say this is not a good book because it has so much incest, sex, etc is a comment coming from someone that hasn't really read Heinlein at all unless they are claiming that they have read ten books by a guy that they give 1 star too... I doubt it...
Rating:
Summary: There is no point on commenting on this book other than
Review: to say, if you're not a Heinlein fan already, don't read this book yet. If you become a fan, you won't bother reading reviews, you'll just read it.
This book of course really isn't sci fi, not in the literal sense of what sci fi is usually thought to be. A lot of the story takes place in the past, and most of the story is about people and mainly one woman and her take on life.
If you're interested in Heinlien, start reading some of his earlier works, you'll have months and months of reading before you should consider picking up this one.
As to the themes of sex, incest, etc that Heinlein brashly includes in this (and all of his larger) works, they only make sense in the broader picture of all his works, trying to say this is not a good book because it has so much incest, sex, etc is a comment coming from someone that hasn't really read Heinlein at all unless they are claiming that they have read ten books by a guy that they give 1 star too... I doubt it...
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