Surprisingly boring, "Beyond" is very talky, even preachy, with little action; and much of the talking and preaching is about silly "science" that Heinlein has used in other books and which are silly there, too.
Mind reading, for example.
Heinlein was a creative and imaginative writer, and he has actually contributed a lot to what we sometimes laughingly call "the real world."
In this book, though, other than "an armed society is a polite society," there is not much of real value.
However, it IS Heinlein, so is worth reading at least once. ( )

Solid first half, then wanders off to a somewhat thin ending I think. Thought it was interesting that I didn't pick up the discussion of 3-d cams as calculating machines in previous reading - I only caught it this time because I'd tripped over a Navy video showing WWII era fire control computers and how they worked. Most of the rest of it stands the test of time pretty well I'd say (except perhaps the Newtonian universe ideas in there somewhere)
Enjoyable read. ( )

Here we have the story of a future dystopian society with shades of Brave New World-esque classism/racism at perhaps his penultimate peak and an effort to overthrow it and return to a darker time as seen through the eyes of our protagonists.
Beyond this Horizon is one of Heinlein's earlier, non-juvenile, works. While many of his later themes are present, its clear he's still working out some of his political and philosophical ideas.
As is the case with any Heinlein, there is certainly misogyny, an unfortunate seeming fondness for both libertarianism and fascism (somehow), and in this case some definite hints of racism/elitism/classism.
However, due to being an early work, I think this and several other works give us what may be hints that Heinlein perhaps did not agree as wholeheartedly with some of those distasteful ideas we believe due to his mouthpiece characters espousing them. Maybe even that, in some way, he's 'devil advocate'-ing these ideas and philosophy.
A good example of this is the oft-(partially)quoted by the NRA passage about a polite society being an armed society. Besides the issues with it only being a fragment of a quote, and lacking context, there are certainly contradictions presented here. From everything he wrote, we see Heinlein viewing being armed, and even personal violence, as perhaps fitting with interpretation of the quote presented by gun advocates. However, the individual making that statement in this very book insists he prefers to go unarmed, and that sort of personal violence should be considered crass and distasteful, that we would better off if no one was armed.
There are similar contradictions in his famously negative view of socialism and pro-capitalist/libertarian stance. While as usual characters may denigrate socialism vocally here, we also see that this post-scarcity utopian society only continues to function as a 'capitalist' one because annually wealth is redistributed among the population based on complex computations, and that the government is continually looking for projects that benefit and enrich society as a whole to throw money at, since 'production' is largely unnecessary. These are very socialist ideas, and presented in a very positive light...but are somehow still framed as being capitalist?
If for no other reason than looking at these contradictions that either indicate Heinlein is still working out his ideas, or had been playing devil's advocate all those years in some kind of grand jest, this is definitely worth reading. ( )

Open-carry of guns is not only a universal right, but celebrated. Dueling is an accepted practice if you argue with someone in a restaurant. Main male character is surprised that a woman carries and can use a gun. Hmmm, I’m opting for that Jimmy Carter Universe in that other novel.

Its a clunker of the novel that deserves begrudging respect. The science infomercials are tedious, the plot is absent. It is like it is super smart on some scientific elements and utterly moronic with some things like common sense, personal social skills, and entertainment. I'm glad I read it, I'm glad I never will read it again. ( )