Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
STRANGER marks a clear distinction in Heinlein's body of work.
Before, he wrote tightly focused idea stories populated with interesting and distinct characters.
After, he grew less and less disciplined as a story-teller and tended to meander and bloat a bit. Also, he tended to fall back on his "competent older man" archetype way too often. After the mess that was NUMBER OF THE BEAST he did better with FRIDAY and JOB but his peak really was the 50's.
BEYOND THIS HORIZON; HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL; STARSHIP TROOPERS; THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, all show increasing levels of sophistication and narrative excellence leading up to STRANGER. But afterwards... FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD is good but a bit overweight, GLORY ROAD is merely good but the bloat gets in the way of what should've been great. Oddly enough, it is the bloat and lack of focus that makes TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE work (it fits the character and story) but it really hurt I WILL FEAR NO EVIL and destroyed NUMBER OF THE BEAST.
So yes, early Heinlein was very good, mid-Heinlein brilliant, but later-day Heinlein pretty much lost what made him great. Still mostly readable but not always fun. Occasionally even...boring...
It's something that afflicts other successful writers.
It seems they become "too big to edit".
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I agree with your analysis, although just to note that "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (1966) was published five years after "Stranger" (1961). A last flash of the "old" Heinlein, to my mind.