There may be no single author in science fiction more persistently misread than Robert A. Heinlein. He is a militarist, a mystic, a libertarian firebrand; he writes novels that venerate duty and others that dissolve it, texts that praise hierarchy and others that work to dismantle it. Starship Troopers is cited by conservative politicians for its advocacy of earned citizenship; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is direct rebellion. In between, Stranger in a Strange Land was adopted by free-love communes as spiritual scripture. The contradiction seems total. How could one author plausibly inhabit all these roles at once—much less within a single decade?
Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs