Not For the Religious Faint of Heartby Lost-in-books

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January 03, 2009: Robert Heinlein was a graduate of the US Naval Academy and in his early years wrote swashbuckling SF Naval adventures-in-space with a very personal philosophical and political view. He is one of the great early science fiction writers, along with Clark, Asimov, Niven, and others, who moved beyond the BEM genre into modern, "legitimate" SF. He becomes more philosophical and less martial as he matures, but he always presents topics to ponder, puzzle, and discuss.
In [Job] Heinlein looks at Judeo-Christian religion in particular, from an unorthodox (to say the least) viewpoint that will startle, titillate, confound, illuminate, provoke, and in many cases infuriate, depending on the readers's personal belief structure.
I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting, my mind running the entire gamut of emotions from rolling-on-the-floor laughter to fury. In challenging what I expected, it challenged my lifeview and my worldview and indeed my view of the divine; the reader who can't deal with extreme irreverence will probably not enjoy this book, but it has a permanent place in my library.