It Came From the 1990s!: Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion by J. Daniel Gifford and James Gifford was published in 2000, but that’s the end of the 1990s, it counts!
This is a nonfiction catalog of all the writing by Robert A. Heinlein, almost all of which I have read in the course of my life; the first straight-up science fiction I ever remember reading was a copy of his juvenile space adventure Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Heinlein was notable for his strong narrative voice, rollicking plots and, in his later novels, characters who had a lot of sex outside of marriage, which was not usual in the science fiction of his period!
I didn’t read this book cover to cover; it’s been more interesting to jump around the entries, which are in alphabetical order, in my own way, so I can read about the juveniles, read about the Hugo-winners, etc.. The most interesting section of each entry is “Curiosities and Anomalies,” which includes a lot of little facts that I didn’t already know.
It’s a great book to read when you are tired and have a short attention span, that is if you’re interested in this author. When culling my book collection before a big move, I discarded all but a couple of my aged, used Heinlein paperbacks because I had no desire to re-read. However, I’m still interested in reading about his significant place in the history of American science fiction.
