Negative Positive
Title: Very poor understanding of subject material
Review: This book is best viewed as a source of questions which should be answered rather than a critical analysis of Heinlein. Panshin will, in one chapter, praise Heinlein for the economy of his descriptive prose, while in another chapter criticise him for the dearth of descriptive prose. Panshin introduces very worthwhile topics for analysis of Heinlein (such as Heinlein's extended character dialogues); unfortunately Panshin does not seem capable of addressing the topics he raises. The best review of this book of which I am aware is "Rah, Rah, R.A.H." by Spider Robinson, reprinted in "Requiem: New Colleccted Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master." I urge all Heinlein fans to read this book, but I don't expect that anyone will derive significant enlightenment from it
Is the review positive or negative? 