Title: Time Enough for Love

Author: Robert Heinlein

Publisher: 1973

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 589

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Well-rounded Reader - Science Fiction; ebook; Lucky No. 14 - Chunkster; Chunkster Challenge

Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries. Time Enough for Love is his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical (for 1946) ideas on sexual freedom. His use of slang, technical jargon, sharp wit, and clever understatement lend this story a texture and authority that seems the very tone of things to come.

Recommended by J as it is one of his favorite books.  I had previously read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Have Spacesuit-Will Travel, and Starship Troopers.  And while Heinlein isn't my favorite author, I have enjoyed most of his writings.  J has been bugging me to read this one for almost two years.

And I can't say that I loved it.  I think part of my problem was the conversational yet not conversational tone.  I didn't always feel like Lazarus was speaking to me.  The switching back and forth pulled me out of the stories.  As to the characters, I really liked Lazarus.  A very fun and interesting guy.  The rest of the characters in the present day I could take or leave.  There were more filler than true characters.  The stories were interesting, but sometimes a little hard to follow with the deletions and edits.  This is definitely a tome of Heinelin's personal philosophy more than a true novel.  It was interesting, but not my favorite.