Out of the several mid period books by Heinlein, the two favorites of mine are "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land". And now I have a third best favorite in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".
In this one follows a group of people on the Lunar penal colony starting a revolution with the help of a self aware super computer. Again Heinlein touches on the familiar theme of personal responsibility and political freedom, and a constant one also, even including themes of the ever changing definitions of humanity and technology. And is where the phrase TANSTAAFL, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
How Heinlein wrote the book is particularly interesting to me. The story is told through the perspective of Manuel, who works as a computer tech and lives in the lunar penal colony. He sounds Russian when he speaks, even though his name doesn't sound Russian at all.
Sometimes he could be quite funny and others very serious. Really like his interactions with the super computer Mike which are also pretty funny at times as well.
It's definitely one of his better novels from that middle period. Not outright, but it is certainly a cut above along with the other two that I mentioned before, along with a few of his earlier stuff. While already sampled a good bit of the earlier adult stuff from the 40s and 50s, but I still have yet to get my hands on the some of the juveniles that he also did during that time. Maybe when I go back out into sometime or other I'll probably nab a couple.
by i-the-muso-1968
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I grok that shit!