Have Space Suit—Will Travel is the last in a series of twelve novels that Heinlein addressed specifically to a juvenile audience and published at the rate of one per year from 1947 to 1958. The first two novels in the series, Rocket Ship Galileo and Space Cadet, are tentative and rather immature, but beginning with Red Planet Heinlein finds his touch and the rest of the series stands with the author's best work.

Starship Troopers signals the end of Heinlein's early optimistic period. Still written for a juvenile audience, it emphasizes man's savage nature and was rejected by his editors at Scribner's. This must be considered a transitional work, leading to Heinlein's later, darker adult fiction.