To Sail Beyond the Sunset

I really enjoyed the narrative of Maureen Johnson and the details of her childhood. While the earlier talk about sex (losing her virginity, for one) was enjoyable, the later talk about sex (orgies, incest, etc) felt a bit too much. Nonetheless, her story (especially the part with her stuck in the alternate universe) was a very good read, and a lovely addition to the Long Family/World as Myth books. The alternate realities thing was also a good device for the narration.

One good function this book serves is to show the Howard Foundation in its early stages. Maureen Johnson was second-generation which is very early, and lifespans for them were shorter than the lifespans of those in 'Methuselah's Children', which can be seen as the next show more story in the Howard Families 'saga' that is a story of its own within the World as Myth/Long Family/alternate universes/Pixel the cat series. (yes, long name for a series, I know!) Overall a must-read for any fan of the saga, just be forewarned of gratuitous sex. show less

Reread this recently, partly to see if my general dislike of Heinlein other than his juveniles is justified. It is. The best you can say about this book is that it's better than Farnham's Freehold. The best way to describe this is it's 50% old man yells at cloud, 20% incest and 30% references to better, earlier books of his.

WARNING: Please read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Revolt in 2100, Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls prior to reading this. A familiarity with the "future history" stories are also recommended.
Maureen Johnson, born in 1882 and mother of Lazarus Long, is one horny gal. This is her memoirs, told to us while being held in a jail on some unexplored timeline. Let me just say straight off that if you have a problem reading about incest, you should probably skip this (and the rest of the World as Myth series as well). If you can get over that, you'll find Maureen's life pretty interesting, sort of a rounding out of what we've been told before about Lazarus' show more mother and grandfather. The reasons for the jail cell and the eventual climactic rescue of...someone... cap the book, but I think deserve to have been a little better explained. This isn't my favorite of Heinlein's books, but it is his last full-length novel and the "end" of the World as Myth Series, so I recommend you read it if you've gone that far. It's also a (very) little better as a standalone than the two previous World as Myth books. show less

I really enjoy Heinlein's books about Lazarus Long, and this was no exception. His mother is a fascinating character, and I loved seeing all of the previous stories I had read intertwining with this one. I'm very glad I read this.

Not great, but an interesting read. Not true science fiction. A story in an alternate universe. More of a treatise on RAH's thoughts on sex, morality, politics, and the downfall of The United States. I would not recommend it to anyone but diehard fans of RAH which I am not.

A lot of people dislike TSBS but RAH's description of the early 20th century (the time of his youth) is great.

An parallel telling of part of Time Enough for Love. This should definitely be read after TEFL, but not immediately after, as To Sail Beyond the Sunset doesn't fill those shoes. But it's a decent book in its own right - and its title is second to none.