Time for the Stars

Time for the Stars is good old-fashioned science fiction. It's a space opera that features the themes of relativity and telepathy. In this book, telepathic messages travel instantaneously, unlike radio communication which travels at the speed of light. This phenomenon, simultaneity, is a theme in Ursula K Le Guin's The Disposessed, and ultimately led to the development of the ansible, a device which allows instantaneous communication over great distances. The ansible device is also used in the novels in the Ender universe by Orson Scott Card, and by others. So, in that regard, Time for the Stars is a seminal novel in the annals of science fiction.

A minor theme of the book is how culture and technology change over time. Heinlein, however, did not foresee the changes in attitudes towards gender equality that took place in the time between when this novel was written and the future in which it takes place.