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Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1973.
The book is about Lazarus Long, the universe's oldest living person, who is tired of living and wants to die.
The book takes the form of several novellas tied together in the form of Lazarus's retrospective narrative.
The Tale of an Adopted Daughter is a lengthy, western-style story about his days as a pioneer, which is rather un-SF fare for a book proclaimed as a SF classic. On the other hand, the pioneering does take place on another planet, and several genetically engineered animals — notably some talking, fertile mules — accompany Lazarus on his venture.
One of the stories is about a US naval cadet who was "too lazy to fail". Another story is the high-tech colonization of a planet in the "modern" way. There is a bit of time travel at the end of the book.
There are two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and aphorisms, possibly based on the author's views on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Some of these have become quite popular and can be found (amongst other places) in internet signatures to this day.
This book is an outgrowth of the earlier Methuselah's Children and is connected to The Number of the Beast also by Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and several other Heinlein novels.
Finally, most of the events are told in first person from the point of view of the protagonist, Lazarus Long. Many are retold, also first person, from the point of view of his mother, Maureen Johnson Long, in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the last novel Heinlein wrote and published before he died in 1988. This was, and still is, an uncommon approach to storytelling, and may be unique in fiction writing.
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