It's a shocker. All of Heinlein's sexual fantasies roled into one book.

Culmination of "World as myth " I wasn't disappointed.

I think this is the first book where the sex in it actually turned my stomach! It's a shame too. I think it could have been a good story otherwise. I have one more Heinlein book. I might think twice before attempting to read it though.

I LOVE Heinlein and am almost done re-reading all of his works, but this one I actually could not finish. Going through endless blabbings about sexual fantasies and orgies is just not my thing. I found the book preverted and gave up about 1/3 of the way through it, when it came to incest. They say that this is one of the Master's last works. I find it very painful to see such a miserable ending of a life-long of wonders.

Heinlein is essentially masturbating in public here. The biggest load of twisted, self indulgent, narcissistic fantasizing I have ever encountered in print. If an unknown had submitted this manuscript to a publisher they would have been thrown out of the office and permanently banned.

A sad, pathetic end to a monumental SF writer. RAH’ s reputation has not aged well. This book certainly didn’t help.

Heinlein has always had a knack for presenting his personal views through his writing. This gift gave him a rather unique method of storytelling that has endured beyond him in science fiction literature.

“To Sail Beyond the Sunset” in which we follow the roller coaster ride that is the life and times of Mama Maureen, dam of the notorious Lazarus Long, is a striking treatise on the Heinlein’s views of women and their treatment through a few ages of our history.

Add in Pixel (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls), lots of friendly sexual remembrances, and interesting twists that range from gentle to visceral and you have a time bending read worthy of Heinlein’s imagination and style.

This is far from the first time I have read this story, and likely won’t be the last.

I think he knew full well he was going to piss some people off and is still smiling about it.
Many seem not to have read his work, so miss the alternate POV that fans appreciate.
I can't say I don't have my prudish hangups, but this and all of his books have shaped me growing up and still have their place in my life.

Everyone should be so lucky as to tie their life's works together before they sail on themselves.

My favorite of his many greats.

This was an audio book.

It is the 'end' of the World as Myth series and it is prophetic in so many ways when compared to the events of the current Post Modernist world.

This Heinlein at this best, pushing boundaries of what is comfortable reading.

Heinlein's last book from what I understand. He never fails to present the inner workings of a person/characters mind. I liked the book overall. It was an interesting point of view for me since I am Male. To put me into the mind of a female is always interesting. But, I take it all with a grain of salt of course since this is Heinlein's view of the inner workings of a lady's mind.

Although I've been reading sci-fi for forty years, I was never a Heinlein reader. Not sure why, he was just not someone I had discovered and followed. But of course I was familiar with him. And so, in the late '80's I read The Cat Who Walked Through Walls and had picked up this book, a follow-up (and Heinlein's last) novel. This has been on my shelf all these years and I finally got around to reading it. And I'm sorry that I did.

My perception here is that as he was ending his career and life, Heinlein became a dirty old man. There is nothing in this book other than a great deal of sex, described in moderately good detail, though rather clinically (ie boring) so.

I'm hardly a prude, and the sex itself didn't bother me (though the incest and the rape, handled so cavalierly, strikes me as morally wrong), but I saw no purpose to the sex. It's character-defining, sure, but 400 pages of character and no plot is just, frankly, dull.

Although this is an homage to many of his previous books, I would still never recommend this to anyone.

Oy. I should have quit while I was ahead with this series.

Well, "series" is a misnomer. Heinlein wrote several books in a row which were connected through both characters and concepts, but they were disjointed in their style and focus.

But no matter what you call them, this book is the last one. I think. I am willing to be corrected.

It tells the whole saga of Lazarus Long and The World as Myth all over again, but this time through the eyes of his biological mother, Maureen.

And one of his wives, Maureen. Same lady.

Look, I'm not a prude. I swear. But at some time in the series/non-series I felt badly that I was still squicked over the concept of incest. Oh, I understand that the technology was sufficiently advanced to guarantee no genetically screwed-up children... and I understand that their society was sufficiently advanced enough that there was no such thing as jealousy and everybody could love and sex-up everyone else and be one big happy family no matter if the one you were sexing up was your daughter or grandmother or son or whomever. Fine. But ... I can't get over my personal feeling that incest is a step too far; that the protective, nurturing relationship between parents and children should not become sexual. And I felt like an awful, close-minded, backward, prudish jackass for STILL feeling that way after I was done with the books. They all sort of hit one over the head with that message: you ARE an awful, close-minded, et cetera if you don't think it's a beautiful thing that one of the child-producing couples in the huge, multiple-partnered, immortal Long family is a mother and son.

While a lot of the book was interesting, though-provoking, and well though-out, and while I always love Heinlein's writing (hence the three stars,) the interesting and engaging story kept being interrupted by incestuous orgies through the ages. At one point, I just flipped through the middle of the book and read a sentence randomly. It was a father in the 1910's deflowering his daughter. Whee.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, or have read the rest of the books in the series, I would recommend this book. I love many of the characters, and the multi-universe concept is simply beautiful. Just remember you have to wade through siblings porking each other to get to it.