<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

This is a very good overview of Heinlein's life and career, but I have a couple of somewhat picky points to dispute:

Starship Troopers: The society in Starship Troopers doesn't require military service for citizenship because of the war with the Bugs. It requires it for philosophical reasons, and did so prior to the Bugs' initial attack. I've read elsewhere that RAH said the book "makes clear" that any formal public service - not just military service - made an individual eligible for citizenship, but it seems to me that any such indications require a lot of interpretation to be understood that way.

Stranger in a Strange Land: Grokking is not a form of extrasensory perception. While it's true that V. M. Smith (the eponymous Stranger) has psychic powers, "to grok" is simply to understand something so thoroughly that it becomes part of oneself - the object becomes part of the subject.

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I agree with the discussion points above. My impression was that Starship Troopers is set in a time following a global conflict. A global government arose out of surviving countries largely in the Southern Hemisphere and full citizenship comes only from military service. There is no conscription, however there is no limit to how long the government requires your services during times of emergency. Verhoeven's imagery certainly put a twist in my childhood interpretation of the book.

It puzzles me that no one has adapted Glory Road for the screen, since there seems a constant, if cyclical, demand for sword and sorcery.

And the kind of special effects used in contemporary science fiction movies, like Armaegeddon or The Matrix would make The Moon is a Harsh Mistress an incredible testament to Heinlein's conception of Future History.