G'day everyone - I hope you're well.

My first post on the forum and my thanks to those responsible for putting it together and keeping it running. You seem like a dedicated and committed group of fans. I apologise in advance for some possibly challenging views.

I've been a fan for over 30 years and regularly re-read RAH. Recently I've introduced my 15yo son to some classics such as Puppet Master, Starship Troopers, Glory Road, etc and he's asked for more. The juveniles are fine, but I realised I was holding back on some others. Perhaps my attitudes have changed as I became a father, but some of RAH's later works now niggle me. It got me comparing the early works with later ones and I'd be interested in your views.

1) do you think the quality of RAH's writing and ideas declined later in life (possibly as a result of illness)? For example, where he wrote "both Heinleins were there" in one of the alternate universe novels (Job?) seemed unnecessary. Is the "alternate universe" road trip just a device to string several stories together in the absence of a strong plotline?

2) if he had been a parent, do you think it would have changed some of his writing (eg incestual relationships in Time and (?) Sunset).

I also read Tramp Royale for the first time last month. Ginny may have been saintly in later life but on that trip RAH made her seem like a parody of a bad tourist: over-packing, unreasonable, challenging authority, etc. And RAH mostly caved in! Not the LL-type kind but firm patriarch whose word stands. Maybe it was literary licence to make the journey more interesting but as a personal insight, well...

Anyway, I don't mean to criticise too harshly: the bottom line is I'm viewing RAH and his work from a different perspective which makes him more of a man, and less of a savant. I think I like him better that way. What do you think?

Oh, one thing more. Ginny was not "saintly" in later life. That's a silly idea, and I don't know where it comes from. I treasure one of the remarks she made to David Silver: "I'm just an old hag trying to have some fun."