What would you do if you could live 4,000 years? Try out every profession at least once? Make enough babies to populate a planet? Travel as far as the galaxy goes? Lazarus Long has done all that and more. He’s about to die peacefully when he’s kidnapped and rejuvenated and coerced to tell his memoirs. I could read stories about Lazarus’ life for months, but unfortunately this book only contains two. The rest is action in the ‘present’ (4272 Gregorian), and at the end, an account of Lazarus’ trip back in time to visit his “first family” (parents, brothers and sisters, grandfather).
This is the first of the last four books Heinlein wrote, and it was clear he was nearing the end of his life, looking mortality straight in the face and writing his fantasy of living forever. Lazarus shares his collected wealth of knowledge and wisdom, although he’d insist he’s got nothing to say of any worth, and much of it is the best advice I’ve ever heard.
Those not familiar with Heinlein might find his morals a little depraved, especially the more sexually straight-laced, although science fiction often contains stories of societies whose taboos are not our own, and would be scandalized by ours. The only complaint I have about the book is how annoying it is that certain parts are (omitted), then return to the story in the middle of the sentence. It’s not smooth, and although the omissions are mostly for brevity’s sake, I felt like I missed something important. I wish I had access to the complete memoirs of Lazarus Long, but unfortunately they won’t be available for a couple thousand years, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to live that long.

1 star: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

Presented primarily as the musings, ramblings, and experiences of one Woodrow Wilson Smith, aka. Lazarus Long, et. al., this book has enough proverbs, pithy sayings, thou-shalt-nots, and who-begat-whom's to qualify as a potential "Hedonists' Bible." Unlike some of Heinlein's other works, the gratuitous sex is kept to something of a minimum (not ignored!), and he instead focuses on the attitudes and platitudes that have allegedly kept his main charater alive for 2500+ years in an exciting and dangerous universe.

Why "allegedly?" Because the "historians" who claim authorship of the volume (themselves characters in the story) sincerely doubt that Senior Long is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Still, they admit, it's a pretty good yarn, and so leave in even the "obvious" lies so that the reader may come "to better understand" the oldest man who ever lived.

I read this book years ago, but just recently re-read it to refresh my memory, and had a blast doing it. This book is a must-read, not only for science-fiction fans, but also for anyone interested in philosophy, space/time, the nature of life, and the meaning of love. Of course, the unabashedly humanist ideals laid out tend to grate harshly against most other religions and philosophies, but the book is an excellent exercise in rational thought for the mature reader. (Sorry, youngsters - you just don't have a chance here.)

So leave your moral distaste at the door (you can always pick it back up later), put on your thinking cap, and enjoy one of the best tall tales ever told. It'll be well worth your while.

I’m my own grandpa. And I seem to recall it has a prototype of “Charlie’s Angels”.

TEfL is one of those Heinlein books I have a love/hate relationship with. There are tales within the tale that move me, interest me, and that I get a lot of enjoyment from. On the other hand, all of the "contemporary" framing action tends to bore the snot out of me.

Or, to put it another way, when Heinlein is telling a story here, it's good stuff. "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter," "The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail," etc. -- the more Lazarus is relating the stories of his past, the better. Even the trip back to 1916ff is, where it doesn't get self-indulgent, interesting.

But all the bits on Secondus and Tertius, all of the "this is what an ideal household, via Lazarus Long and his extended family, is like" stuff ... seriously meh.

(The same will be true for most of Heinlein's novels from this point forward -- he still tells a ripping yarn, but when he stops to describe an ideal world, which usually means this same Long family setting, everything grinds to a halt.)

This is a case where 3 stars means lots of 2 and lots of 4.

Parts of this book were fine. As a possible study of what being an immortal would be, it has possibilities. I can't say that when I write out, or use immortal characters, I haven't fallen back on this kind of fan-fic level material. But all of Heinleins works are horribly dated - I've been going through a few recently and they're almost unreadable now.... whatever edge they had when they were published has long dulled.

I really don't have much to say, some parts were good, some could (and should have!) been deleted altogether. The rest was just an old man droning on.

It gets a 2.5 stars - with a half star for it's patina of age. 3 stars for what it is, as it's no less readable then, say, Robinson Crusoe for Racist Imperialism. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, however.

First of all, some of Heinlein's views and ideas are pretty progressive and liberal, others terribly outdated and unlikable for a modern audience, and some just weird. It's not for everyone, but if you're along for the ride you'll see that he puts so much more effort into his characters than his contemporaries (I deeply cared for them), tells entertaining stories that are more than what you expect from the simple premise (or at least just kind of different), describes an interesting future and questions the understanding of right and wrong.
This book isn't really what I expected from it, it's actually mostly 4 stories with some extras: The framework is Lazarus basically sitting around, discussing concepts and forming a relationship with some people, then there is a story of two slaves he frees that become like children to him, next one were he raises an orphan until she proposes to him and they start a colony on a far off planet (that story was much sweeter than it had any right to be) and lastly Lazarus revisits his childhood family. Some of Heinlein's "quirks" may seem inexcusable, but he sold all of the relationships so well to me. The whole story just fellt convincing and impressive, especially since it was a quiet, relationship-focused story where I could feel how everyone deeply cared for each other and enjoyed their time around.
Sure, it reads like Heinlein's power fantasy, but it embraces it and I had a way too good time to have contructive critiscm drag my rating down. If you can sell that shit to me and make me almost buy your justifications, you deserve 5 stars. Also, great settings.

dnf

I'm not suggesting this is Heinlein's greatest book, his best writing, his most daring exploration, perhaps not even his most penetrating observation on the human condition, although I do think it has something to say about that. I suspect what I enjoy is listening to Heinlein, using his creation Woodrow Wilson Smith, now the oldest known man in the universe, as a mouthpiece, give me his personal views on life and humanity, without any agenda other than that.

1976 grade A-
2009 grade B
2020 grade C+

LL'73 book 2 of 5 I think.

Lazarus Long series.

The book is basically Heinlein's philosophies, fascinations, and obsessions presented in fiction, repeatedly. It is good character driven fiction but rather tedious, and I won't be reading it again. As you can see, it took me quite a while to finish it. But its structure made it easy to stop and restart, and I read several other novels during the stops.

Details. (I cannot do this without some very low level spoilers about the structure. I will Not give any details that will spoil it.) The book is basically 5 stories intertwined. The connecting story is the protagonist in the future in a clinic recovering. During that time he talks to many people who want to know his past, tells them three stories, and sets up things to do. The first story is set in the WW2 era and is period fiction, not SciFi. The second is pretty good SciFi. The third is also good. The first half is SciFi but the second half is basically a settling of the "west" in covered wagons story. The SciFi is incidental. After these, there is a time jump to farther in the future which discusses the results of things set up after the clinic. The book ends with the a final story that is again only incidentally SciFi. It is well done character driven fiction but is too long and kind of a stupid story in my opinion.

Overall, it is not bad and don't hesitate to read it because of my review. I mainly read it because an alternate version of novel 3 was recently released that I want to read.

THIS is how one begins an intelligent conversation. Heinlein pushes a lot of buttons... delightfully, deliciously. The book itself reads clumsily at times, but who cares: it's the ideas, the morality, the epic vision of what we can be.

This book is very long; too long. It is a collection of anecdotes and tales linked together by a meandering conversation with much pontification. There are two 'intermissions' containing lists of Heinlein aphorisms and even a spate of doggerel. There is no real plot except for the ones in the individual stories. The predominant theme is incest. In the end, our protagonist, Lazarus Long, proves himself to be, literally, a motherf***er.

Wikipedia says: "Three novels from (Heinlein's middle) period, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love, won the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, designed to honor classic libertarian fiction." Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are two of my favorite science fiction novels. I don't put Time Enough for Love in the same class. I knew that Heinlein espoused libertarianism and free love; Time Enough for Love made me wonder if he had an Oedipus complex.