"Citizen of the Galaxy"

Citizen of the Galaxy (Robert Heinlein)

This is not Heinlein's best work. I'm not sure if this novel was published in serials, but it seems plausible, given the fact that it reads more as four connected short stories with the same hero. Unfortunately, only the first one of these is very good. The middle two see Heinlein at his worst, laying out complex new human social structures and (I imagine) perspiring heavily while cranking out the pages about trading nubile young space girls between ships. The last fourth picks up a little bit, but it eventually devolves into not terribly interesting legal and economic wrangling, and the book doesn't so much end as peter out.
Still, for all I complained, it's not a bad book, it's just middle of the road. Heinlein's done far better than this, and I'd recommend passing this one over unless you really need to have everything he's written.

Grade: C