 According to the 2009 "Science Fiction Handbook", it had the effect of giving Heinlein a reputation as a "fanatical warmongering fascist".Scholar Jeffrey Cass has referred to the setting of the book as "unremittingly grim fascism".He has stated that the novel made an analogy between its military conflict and those of the U.S. after World War II, and that it justified U.S. imperialism in the name of fighting another form of imperialism.