Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein does Fantasy !
Review: This was basically Heinlein's take on a Sword (literally) and Sorcery novel, and it's surprisingly good considering Fantasy stories (although see his story "And He Built and Crooked House" --which is wonderfully witty) are not necessarily his forte.In this story, an unemployed, returning Vietnam vet meets a beautiful Amazon-like woman, Star, after answering an ad for a job. She thinks he's the perfect candidate, and before you can say "shazzam!" he is embarked on a picaresque, swashbuckling romp through the multiple dimensions of the "Seven Universes." I especially enjoyed the sword-play, and all the erudition about fencing, in the book. I didn't know Heinlein knew much about this, but he probably studied it at Anapolis when he was at the Naval Academy. As long as we're on the subject of fencing, there was one scene in this book that reminded me of the "The Princess Bride" where the other swordsman switches sword hands and keeps on fighting Scar Gordon, our hero. Apparently his opponent wasn't even fighting with his "good" hand until then! But despite this amazing display of virtuosity Gordon still defeats his opponent. Whether this is your kind of Heinlein fare or not (fans are divided on their opinions of this book), it's still quite an entertaining story, with more adult themes than his earlier "juvenile" novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein meets Tolkien
Review: This book is Heinlein's fantasy novel, and on the level of pure adventure, it works. Oscar, the hero, is a Vietnam (?) vet who meets a woman, Star, on a beach in France. It turns out Star is on a quest throughout the "20 universes" to get the "Egg of the Phoenix" from the baddies who stole it from her. The treasure item is a McGuffin, of course; the point of the story is the journey and the adventure that develops. Our heroes have to make this journey across a few different planets, linked by stargates, and must battle monsters and foreign social customs along the way. As a pure adventure, the story works. Some plot devices are contrived (they must use bows and arrows on one world because firearms are illegal, but if they are killing all the creatures they meet, why does it matter?), but the sword and bow-play is fun and exciting. Unfortunately, the dialogue is so clumsy that if spoken, it would cause the listener to cringe. In addition, pages at a time are devoted to pointless dialogue or illogical explanations. Especially bad is the interaction between the hero and the woman - without divulging any secrets, she has a high position in her planet's hierarchy, yet she meekly submits herself to the hero, apparently because he's the man (this is only noteworthy because Heinlein seems to go out of the way to be "feminist"). Finally, the last 80 pages or so drag out rather pointlessly and should have been cut in favour of "and they lived happily ever after." Overall, the problem is that this is one of Heinlein's juvenile novels in plot and dialogue, but can't be marketed as such because there's too much talk about sex. The author goes off on tangents in social commentary, but they are shallow and severely dated, without the same insightfulness of Starship Troopers or Stranger in a Strange Land. Therefore, as a juvenile novel, packaged as a pure adventure story, the book would have rated 4/5. As an adult novel with the clumsy social commentary thrown in, it drops to 2/5.
Rating: 
Summary: It's good and all these other people are just idiots.
Review: Since everyone else has given a fairly accurate summary, I don't need to. But if you are reading my review, you should realize that Heinlein is writing a great book. It's not "swords & sorcery," it's not "just like Tolkien," it is its own story. How many action heroes have to read before they can go to sleep. How many grooms have to shave people lying down because they learned on corpses? Many of Heinlein's books have misogynist overtones, but he is writing from a less enlightened time. Not that you would know it from reading these reviews. He is still the greates science fiction writer, even if some people don't know enough about Heinlein to realize it.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of a male hero named Evelyn!
Review: Glory Road is quite different from what you might expect of a novel by Robert Heinlein. More of a fantasy adventure than science fiction, it seems to me that Heinlein was very much in a transitional phase while writing this book. Well, this experiment can be considered a great success and Glory Road is a fascinating adventure well worth your time. The story is told in first-person narrative by Evelyn Cyril(E.C.)Gordon, a recently discharged American soldier. Since his discharge(which he considers to be an opportunity to see the rest of the world) E.C. has been bumming around Europe and enjoying a nice laid-back and easy lifestyle. Only one problem: money is starting to run low. One morning while drinking a café in Nice, he spots an ad in the classifieds for a job that he feels fits him to a tee. Once he goes to the interview, he realizes the job entails much more than he bargains for. Basically, his mission is to travel to a distant planet, capture a lost egg that was stolen from the planet "central" and return it safely to its rightful owners. Along the way, E.C. and his two travel mates encounter swordsmen, Tyrannasauruses, giants, sea creatures and a wide range of other obstacles. One thing I found took that took getting used to is Heinlein's writing style. I found it to be very short-phrased and all over the place. I came pretty close to putting the book down and dismissing it as experimental garbage after the first chapter but I'm glad I stuck it through. Heinlein also injects a huge amount of his philosophies on politics, capitalism, society that are often amusing if somewhat questionable. I got the impression reading this book and Starship Troopers that Heinlein veers waaaay, waaaay to the right. This is a very wild and very unique adventure that Heinlein gives us. It reads fast and is always entertaining(except for the first chapter that is). Glory Road is definitely a road worth taking.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual Heinlein - Heinlein goes Fantasy
Review: This strange ( but not bad ) book seems to be Heinleins take on Sword & Sorcery ( It is NOT Science Fiction ! ) as his hero ( the usual lovable Heinlein kind, always with a smart and amusing remark on his tongue ) follows a beautiful women on a quest into a wondrous multidimensional (fantasy-) universe. Heinlein succeeds in playing this genre, rather to my surprise, as evidenced in some scenes that seem almost like he lifted them from Tokien - they have the same kind of fairy-tale magic. Well worth a read, if not among his greatest. But Heinlein shows that his scope goes far beyond his classic hard SF.
Rating:
Summary: Happily ever after?
Review: This one's kind of an odd entry in the Heinlein catalogue, but it's less odd if we recall that he wrote some fantasy/horror stuff in the early 1940s. Ostensibly it's a sword-and-sorcery adventure/fantasy. But since it was written by Heinlein, it overturns and undoes quite a few of the usual fairy-tale cliches. The ending, for example, exemplifies Heinlein's own non-fairy-tale take on what really constitutes living 'happily ever after'. The Hero is one Evelyn Cyril 'E.C.' (and eventually 'Oscar') Gordon, a veteran of a long and unpopular war in Vietnam. (Major prognostication success here: remember, Heinlein published this in _1962_. And the Heinlein who had devoted _Starship Troopers_ to exploring 'why men fight' manages to deal pretty sympathetically here with the corollary question of why some don't.) Gordon hooks up with a Heroine -- Star, Empress of the Twenty Universes, who needs some help recovering the Egg of the Phoenix. Heinlein gets to show off his swordsmanship a bit (like David Lamb, 'The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail', he was a champion swordsman at the naval academy). He also gets to have a little fun with a monster or two. And -- it wouldn't be Heinlein without this part -- he takes the reader on a guided tour of some cultures whose mores differ from those of Middle America, by way of illustrating that (most) morals are _customs_ relative to time, place, and social milieu. Well, it's a pretty enjoyable romp through a world of fantasy, and there's enough of Heinlein's signature on it to keep it interesting even for those of us who aren't into the dungeons-and-dragons stuff. But _Lord of the Rings_ it ain't, and this sort of thing is definitely not Heinlein's strength. Readable, pleasant, diverting, and fun, and it's right on the money in its exploration of the _sense of adventure_. Nothing really groundbreaking, though, and it's interesting mainly because it's Heinlein.
Rating: 
Summary: Unentertaining and incredibly sexists
Review: It surprises me that more people dont comment on how sexist this novel is. Star is the only female main character. The narrator spends more time describing her phsyically then making any other comments about her. At least twice she says that she wants to 'model' clothes for him and she says that she packed her clothing thinking of him. At one point in the book the narrator wonders if another character maybe have tried to rape her, but he says that she was capable of avoiding rape and not to hurt the potential rapist's feelings. The other main chracter will only refer to her as She and in italics.
Aside from all the sexism the book is boring. How Oscar gets to the other world is never explained and it goes on and on with little adventures without explaining why he was choosen and what they're doing. The only reason I finished reading this was because it was required for a class and everyone in my class hated it too. I'm surprised its still in print.
Rating:
Summary: Sword & Sorcery
Review: As far as I know, this in Heinlein's only Sword & Sorcery novel.
I missed it in my 12-14 SF years. It's pretty good, although nothing great. Heinlein did predict the problems with Vietnam in this book, several years before the while mess started. And I had no idea that he knew so much about fencing (I didn't have a clue about the terms he used). There's a pretty intesting plot
twist at the end, which I won't give away. If you're a fan of
Heinlein, this of course is a must. And if you're a fan of
Sword and Sorcery, it's worth taking a look at, too.
Rating:
Summary: Saw it coming
Review: I had only experienced Heinlein through "Stranger in a strange land" but I had high hopes of this fantasy as i enjoyed "Stranger" and am usually able to get into fantasy books. I cant get through it. I hear that "Stranger" had really slow parts but i wasnt really shaken by them. This books faults are more on the massive string of action cliches level. I am no experienced sci-fi reader so maybe this is above average but just isnt my type o novel. Probably good beach reading, it seems to be an adventure written like a laid back day of lying in mud. Take this with a grain of salt, maybe the book gears up from where I am, halfway through... I'll update if I can get back into it.
Rating:
Summary: Glory Road is definitely a road worth taking
Review: Glory Road followed closely on the heels of Stranger in a Strange Land, but it is a much different book. Written in 1962, this is Heinlein's only full-fledged fantasy novel, and that in itself makes it an interesting read. Heinlein was definitely writing for an adult audience by this point in his career, and he boasted that this novel had enough sex in it to cause heart failure among those who had complained about Stranger. By today's standards, the adult relationships included here are barely noticeable, implied certainly but never described at all. E.C. Gordon is hanging around Europe, having received both a medical discharge and facial scar from fighting in a "non-war" in Southeast Asia, when he encounters a stunning young woman on the beaches of France. Thinking he has won a sweepstakes he reluctantly rushes out of town, fearing that in doing so he has blown his one and only chance with the girl of his dreams. His winning ticket proves a forgery, and he decides to answer a personal ad asking "Are you a coward?" To his surprise, he encounters his lady from the beach and soon finds himself transported to another universe. Dubbed "Oscar" by "the princess" Star, he assumes the role of hero, aiding the mysterious woman on an extremely urgent quest that promises lots of adventure and even more danger. With Star's assistant Rufo, the group journeys through the portals of several universes, killing dangerous beasts that get in their way, in a quest to claim the Egg of the Phoenix. Oscar settles in to his new role, and the adventure proves to be most interesting, especially when he finally learns what the whole thing is all about. Somewhat to my surprise, the novel could almost be said to end two-thirds of the way through, but fortunately it does not (despite the request of at least one editor that it do so). The rest of the novel is much different but is no less satisfying. In these pages, Heinlein incorporates some of his normal philosophizing about life, society, politics, etc. More importantly, it is only here that the real story of what has gone on before is brought to light, and the depth added to the characters in these concluding chapters makes Glory Road much more satisfying than it would be had the story stopped at the end of the adventure itself. This is not the Heinlein most readers will expect, and some fans will doubtless count this novel among Heinlein's least enjoyable works. I personally found it stimulating and great fun. Heinlein sort of shows us another side of his personality in this atypical offering, and with it he offers even more proof, unnecessary as it is, that he is an amazingly gifted writer.
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