Author:	Robert A. Heinlein
Copyright:	1987
Date Reviewed:	4/9/92
Rating:	3.0

"To Sail Beyond the Sunset" tells the life story of Maureen Johnson, mother of Lazarus Long. There is virtually no plot in this novel. The book begins with the framing and imprisonment of Maureen by members of a secret society. From then on, each of the 20 odd chapters begins with a short status of her imprisonment followed by a review of her life from the late 19th Century to her rescue from death in 1982. Heinlein's stories are often occasions for him to get up on a soap box but in his latest novels he foregoes good plot and character definitions almost completely if favor of presenting his own value system. The novel concerns itself mostly with sex and incest, themes already explored by Heinlein in previous novels. It is highly repetitive.

Maureen's life takes place on time line two where moving roads provided a new means of travel for the country. It seems to only purpose Heinlein had for writing this novel in this timeline was to justify the predictions of his earlier stories from the 1940's that never came true. The novel is a sequel to "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" of sorts. In both novels, Pixel has the capability of moving through time and space at will, although no explanation is ever given.

The end is very anticlimactic and predictable. In the last 48 pages, Maureen is rescued from the secret society, and goes back in time as part of a larger operation to rescue her father. A shame to have to read 379 pages to get to this minor piece of plot.