Starship Troopers
A concise, standalone Heinlein novel and a foundational military-science-fiction work.
Author guide
Robert A. Heinlein Books in Order
Robert Anson Heinlein (1907–1988) was an American science-fiction writer and one of the genre's central twentieth-century figures. He wrote under several pseudonyms, including Anson MacDonald, Lyle Monroe, John Riverside, Caleb Saunders, and Simon York. His work ranges from hard science fiction and juvenile space adventures to political novels, speculative fiction, memoir, essays, poetry, and screenwriting. Several posthumous works were assembled or reconstructed from manuscripts and unpublished material.
science fictionspeculative fictionjuvenile fictionnonfictionmemoirscreenwritingpoetry
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Stranger in a Strange Land
A landmark philosophical and social novel that represents Heinlein's mature style.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
An accessible political revolution novel with strong characterization and a self-contained story.
Read in order
Books by series
shared-universe · completed
Future History
A connected history of humanity's future represented by Heinlein's linked stories, collections, and novels.
- 1 The Man Who Sold the Moon
Book 1 · collection · 1950
- 2
- 3 Revolt in 2100
Book 3 · collection · 1953
'At the height of America's secular decadence came Nehemiah Scudder, bearing the rod and wrath of the Lord for those who opposed him, and the promise of earthly happiness and heavenly bliss for those who followed him... and America fell…
- 4 Methuselah's Children
Book 4 · novel · 1958
Rear Cover Synopsis "After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in 'Stranger in a Strange Land' and chronicled in 'Revolt in 2100', the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution; for…
- 5 Orphans of the Sky
Book 5 · novel · 1963
**Menschen zwischen den Sternen** Das Universum ist fünf Meilen lang und besitzt einen Durchmesser von 2000 Fuß. Das denken die Bewoh- ner des Schiffes, denn sie haben das Erbe und die Mission ihrer Vorväter längst vergessen. Sie kennen…
- 6 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Book 6 · novel · 1966
It is the late 21st Century and the Moon has been colonized -- as a giant, open, prison. Every aspect of life is overseen by the Federated Nations "Lunar Authority"; until one day when a self-aware Super-Computer, a Jack of all Trades…
- 7 Time Enough for Love
Book 7 · novel · 1973
The capstone and crowning achievement of the Future History series, from the New York Times bestselling Grand Master of Science Fiction... Time Enough for Love follows Lazarus Long through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and…
publisher-series · completed
Heinlein juveniles
The twelve Scribner juvenile novels written by Heinlein between 1947 and 1958.
- 1 Rocket Ship Galileo
Book 1 · novel · 1947
- 2 Space Cadet
Book 2 · novel · 1948
A young man reports for the final tests for appointment as a cadet in the Interplanetary Patrol, survives the tests, studies in the school ship, and goes on a regular Patrol vessel and encounters danger on Venus.
- 3 Red Planet
Book 3 · novel · 1949
Jim Marlow and his strange-looking Martian friend Willis were allowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tuned into a treacherous plot that threatened all the colonists on Mars, and it set Jim off on a terrfying…
- 4 Farmer in the Sky
Book 4 · novel · 1950
Farmer In The Sky is a 1950 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a teenaged boy who emigrates with his family to Jupiter's moon Ganymede, which is in the process of being terraformed.
- 5 Between Planets
Book 5 · novel · 1951
A young man travels from an uuper class dude ranch school to join his family on Venus from Earth. He is evidently unbeknownsth to himself a courier of secret information vital to the out come of an impending interplanetary war. As the…
- 6 The Rolling Stones
Book 6 · novel · 1952
SciFi YA - The rollicking adventures of the Stone Family on a tour of the Solar System. It all started when the twins, Castor and Pollux Stone, decided that life on the Lunar colony was too dull and decided to buy their own spaceship and…
- 7 Starman Jones
Book 7 · novel · 1953
When his stepmother's remarriage drives him from home, Max and a hobo fake their way into the Space Stewards, Cooks, and Purser's Clerks brotherhood to get an opportunity for space travel in an age when only the wealthy are privileged.
- 8 The Star Beast
Book 8 · novel · 1954
Lummox had been the Stuart family pet for years. Though far from cuddly and rather large, it had always been obedient and docile. Except, that is, for the time it had eaten the secondhand Buick . . . But now, all of a sudden and without…
- 9 Tunnel in the Sky
Book 9 · novel · 1955
TUNNEL IN THE SKY, the story of a group of students who are dropped on a foreign planet in order to test their survival skills. When the rescue ship doesn't arrive, they must create a new society and learn to adapt to their new life in…
- 10 Time for the Stars
Book 10 · novel · 1956
This is a coming of age story about a set of twins who embark on a journey of exploration in space, but one never leaves planet earth. One grows old, the other ages much more slowly due to the relativity aspects of the journey. The…
- 11 Citizen of the Galaxy
Book 11 · novel · 1957
From helpless slave to beloved son to aspiring merchant to prodigal heir, Citizen of the Galaxy shows the inner and outer growth of a young man in a far-flung Galactic culture. From the moment he is bought and freed by the beggar Baslim…
- 12 Have Space Suit—Will Travel
Book 12 · novel · 1958
A science fiction novel for young readers by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (August, September, October 1958) and published by Scribner's in hardcover in 1958. It is…
novel-sequence · completed
World as Myth
Heinlein's late multiverse sequence, involving alternate realities and recurring characters from his broader fictional universe.
- 1 The Number of the Beast
Book 1 · novel · 1980
Heinlein buff David Potter explained on alt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the Heinlein Society, that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of…
- 1 The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes
Book 1a · novel · 2020 Optional
- 2 The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Book 2 · novel · 1985
- 3 To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Book 3 · novel · 1987
The autobiography of Maureen Johnson, the mother of Lazarus Long and also eventually his wife and perhaps his daughter as well.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (16)
- Beyond This Horizon
novel · 1948
Synopsis courtesy of GoodReads : Utopia has been achieved. For centuries, disease, hunger, poverty and war have been things found only in the history tapes. And applied genetics has given men and women the bodies of athletes and a…
- Sixth Column
novel · 1949
After the U.S. is conquered, an enclave of brilliant misfits leads a rebellion against near-impossible odds. The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on…
- The Puppet Masters
novel · 1951
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were…
- Double Star
novel · 1956
One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to…
- The Door into Summer
novel · 1957
Electronics engineer Dan Davis has finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot with extraordinary abilities, destined to dramatically change the landscape of everyday routine. Then, with wild success just within reach,…
- Starship Troopers
novel · 1959
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one…
- Stranger in a Strange Land
novel · 1961
Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the…
- Podkayne of Mars
novel · 1963
"A delight."-"New York Herald Tribune" A tale beloved by many fans of Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars tells the story of a young Marswoman and her inter-planetary adventures with her uncle and her genius brother. Told largely through…
- Glory Road
novel · 1963
Science-Fantasy novel by Robert Heinlein, famous American writer known for 'hard' Sci-Fi. Glory Road represents his unique venture into Sci-Fan ahead of its time; first serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction & then…
- Farnham's Freehold
novel · 1964
Hugh Farnham was a practical, self-made man and when he saw the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he built a bomb shelter under his house. What he hadn't expected was that when the apocalypse came, a thermonuclear blast would tear apart…
- I Will Fear No Evil
novel · 1970
The brilliantly shocking story of the ultimate transplant from New York Times bestselling author Robert A. Heinlein. As startling and provocative as his famous Stranger in a Strange Land, here is Heinlein's awesome masterpiece about a man…
- Friday
novel · 1982
Friday is a secret courier. She is employed by a man known to her only as "Boss." Operating from and over a near-future Earth, in which North America has become Balkanized into dozens of independent states, where culture has become…
- Job: A Comedy of Justice
novel · 1984
SciFi - Alexander Hergensheimer, KS minister, faints after firewalking in Polynesia. When he returns to his ship, it appears very different and he is referred to as Alec Graham. With stewardess Margrethe he goes through a series of…
- Grumbles from the Grave
nonfiction · 1989
- For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs
novel · 2003
SciFi - Originally written in 1938-9 but never published, RAH's first novel is a raw work filled with themes used throughout his career. Perry Nelson, a Navy flier, is killed in an auto accident in 1938; he awakens in 2086 and spends the…
Nonfiction (1)
- Tramp Royale
memoir · 1992
Tramp Royale is a nonfiction travelogue by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, describing how he and his wife, Ginny, went around the world by ship and plane between 1953 and 1954.[1] It was published posthumously in 1992, and…
Plays (1)
- Project Moonbase and Others
screenplay-collection · 2008
Other (9)
- Waldo & Magic, Inc.
collection · 1950
Waldo: North Power-Air was in trouble. Their aircraft had begun to crash at an alarming rate, and no one could figure out what was going wrong. Desperate for an answer, they turned to Waldo, the crippled genius who lived in a zero-g home…
- Assignment in Eternity
collection · 1953
The scene: The United States after World War III, after the communist reign, after the revolution which tossed out the commissars. It is a new world, brighter, faster, richer than before, but obviously no better. Worse, in fact. A world…
- The Menace from Earth
collection · 1959
- The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
collection · 1959
SciFi - The novella The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (1942). Short stories are: " -- And He Built a Crooked House"; "They --"; "Our Fair City"; "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants"; and, "-- All You Zombies --".
- The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
collection · 1966
- The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
illustrated-book · 1978
- Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
collection · 1980
Frequently asked questions about Robert A. Heinlein
Who was Robert A. Heinlein?
Robert Anson Heinlein (1907–1988) was an American science-fiction writer, naval officer, and engineer. He was born in Butler, Missouri, and died in Carmel, California.
Sources: heinleinsociety.org (opens in a new tab)nebulas.sfwa.org (opens in a new tab)
What did Robert A. Heinlein do before becoming a full-time writer?
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929 and served as a naval officer. After illness ended his military career, he entered politics and later worked as a civilian aviation engineer before establishing himself as a writer.
How did John W. Campbell help launch Robert A. Heinlein’s writing career?
Heinlein sent his 1939 story “Life-Line” to John W. Campbell Jr., editor of Astounding Science-Fiction. Campbell published it and several subsequent stories, helping establish Heinlein as a major science-fiction writer.
Sources: heinleinsociety.org (opens in a new tab)heinleinsociety.org (opens in a new tab)
What awards did Robert A. Heinlein win?
Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master in 1974 and won four Hugo Awards for novels. Three of his works also later received Retro Hugo Awards.
Why is Robert A. Heinlein important to science fiction?
Heinlein helped raise the genre’s standards for scientific plausibility and literary quality and became one of its most influential twentieth-century authors. His fiction also introduced or popularized terms such as “grok,” “waldo,” “TANSTAAFL,” and “pay it forward.”
Sources: nebulas.sfwa.org (opens in a new tab)sf-encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)