Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Robert A. Heinlein, science fiction author and futurist. Heinlein had a bold vision for humanity's future in space, and thought we'd be out there in force by the end of the 20th century. He was wrong about that, unfortunately, and wrong that computers would remain the size of entire rooms with little more power than a calculator, fortunately. But these days there's a growing movement to privatize space exploration and development, and it'd make him smile to hear it. So here's a list of some of my favorite Heinlein books, a little light summer reading:

Tunnel in the Sky: Mankind is colonizing the stars with "gates" that transport people from one place to another instantly. To get any job in the Outlands, one has to pass a survival course, which includes a very real final exam pitting students not just against the elements, but possibly against other humans. Rod Walker goes out on his final exam along with several other classes. But what starts out as a hard test of survival--which includes being stalked by a murdering thief from another class--gets much worse when the return gate never appears. Stuck on a barely-charted planet, the students must band together to survive.

The Rolling Stones: Ever wanted to just head out to the stars on a rocket? Well the Stone family, who had grown too comfortable on Luna, does just that. They head out to Mars, the asteroid belts, and finally on to the outer planets. It's a great tale all around, and includes two notable pieces of trivia: The grandmother was a minor character in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, where she appeared as a child. Also of note, this story introduced "flat cats" which later inspired Star Trek's tribbles.

Citizen of the Galaxy: A space epic of huge proportions, this story starts out with a boy being sold as a slave--to a beggar who isn't all he appears. The beggar educates the boy and eventually entrusts him to a roving Gypsy-like family of traders who adopt him, but the story doesn't end there. In this story the setting is everything, an expansive universe with piracy and slavery and chaos. I'm fairly certain this story inspired Brian Daley when he wrote of the Third Breath in his Floyt-Fitzhugh trilogy (which in turn, along with this book, inspired my comic). And if you've ever seen Quest of the Delta Knights, a bad '90s fantasy romp that was mercilessly pilloried on MST3K, you'll recognize the first act as more or less being directly lifted out of this book.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: The book that paved the way for the libertarian movement, this one shows the moon being used as a penal colony. The descendants of the first prisoners, free men and women themselves, are still subject to the authority of the Warden and the moon still sends out lots of grain for Earth without getting anything good back. Problem: The people are getting restless, and the moon is running out of ice. Solution: The computer's moon-born, Earth-educated maintenance guy has learned that the massive machine has become sentient, and befriended it. With the help of "Mike" and a few friends, they turn a disorganized group into a true revolution. Tanstaafl!

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel: A teenager wins a minor prize in a soap sweepstakes: one of the suits used to construct a space station. He fixes up his new suit "Oscar" and goes on a test run outdoors, only to accidentally make contact with a stolen flying saucer piloted by a kidnapped younger girl and her alien protector. The plot thickens as everyone is swiftly recaptured, and they discover that the "Wormfaces" are mounting an invasion of the solar system.

Glory Road: Marking sort of a middle period, this novel explores a mix of fantasy and sci-fi with some slightly more adult themes. It's a little weird, and a lot of fun, though it could probably have ended sooner. You haven't lived, though, till you've seen Igli fed to himself and squished into a greasy ball of nothingness.

Starman Jones: I liked this one a lot, being one of his other "juvenile" novels it's pretty lighthearted. The protagonist is a gifted older boy who wants to be an astrogator, and blunders into a chance to be just that by faking his credentials. Ships travel from star to star by making "jumps" which require split-second calculations, and the computers in this book are nothing compared to the human brain. But one misstep gets the ship hopelessly lost, and Jones has to try to get them home.

I've read more of Heinlein's work but these are some of my favorites. For those who've asked, no, I did not get my nickname from the creature in The Star Beast; in fact that's one I haven't read yet. Last year though I did read Double Star, about an actor playing the part of a politician, and I highly recommend it.