“In this outstanding biography and critique, Franklin presents a carefully documented and thoroughly researched analysis of both Heinlein’s works and the greater context of world events in which they occur. . . . Highly recommended.”

“Most exciting is Franklin’s book about Heinlein, not only because a book-length study of single author is a rarity in science fiction criticism, but because it is a particularly fine work: thorough and responsible but not overly pedantic, and illuminating about Heinlein’s characteristic themes, the contradictions in his treatment of them and their relationship to his social milieu. Franklin’s observations about Heinlein and America are, by extension, of interest in a consideration of the relationship between any science fiction and the social milieu from which it grows. . . .
Franklin’s study of Heinlein is the first in a series of critical studies of science fiction writers edited by Robert Scholes. If the other volumes in the series come anywhere near the standard set by Franklin’s work, science fiction criticism will truly have grown up to the stature of mainstream literary criticism.”

“Franklin is one of those critics with whom one may frequently disagree but from whom one almost always learns. So it is with the book on Heinlein. . . . it also is one of the finest books we have on any writer of science fiction as well as being an important addition to American cultural studies.”

“(Heinlein) is probably the most read of the living science fiction authors, if not the most popular. Franklin’s study has exposed and cataloged the roots of that appeal . . . . If, like some readers of science fiction, you have avoided reading Heinlein, put off by his political reputation, this excellent introduction to his work may persuade you to read him, and it will tell you where to begin.”

“A cruel but fair study of Heinlein’s work. . . . (Franklin) sees Heinlein as evading the realities of history and encapsulating in an extreme form the myth of middle-class self-creation. But Heinlein is also a frontrunner of America’s triumphs and tribulations. A genuinely fascinating book.”

“I loved every word of this detailed examination of the works of a writer who has been a major influence in the field of speculative fiction for more than fifty years.”

“Not merely a critical work, but also an excellent survey of Heinlein’s entire career and output. . . . Unlike all too much academic criticism, Franklin’s is highly readable and, for the most part, equally sensible.”

“H. Bruce Franklin, in his outstanding biography and critique, “Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction,” has captured the complexity and contradictions that make Heinlein’s stories so popular and fascinating.”