Robert A. Heinlein

[The Dude]

I read Stranger in a Strange Land six or seven years ago, and was thinking about rereading it. While I'm at the book store, I'll probably want to buy three or four of his other books. Any suggestions?

[Beerfund]

For Us, The Living is the only other one I've read,not as good, but worth the read if you liked Stranger.

[MLG]

I remember that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Cat who Walks Through Walls, and Time Enough For Love were good. Most of his writing is pretty excellent but you have to be careful because a bunch is intended for younger readers.

[The Dude]

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you have to be careful because a bunch is intended for younger readers.

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Yeah, I remember reading Orphans of the Sky in 6th grade. Enjoyable book, but not the kind of Heinlein I'm looking for now.

[Filip]

Sixth Column and Starship Troopers.

While you are shopping books i would like recommned Peter F Hamilton.

[The Dude]

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i would like recommned Peter F Hamilton.

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Without hijacking this thread, explain.

[Chairman Wood]

I have only read Stranger in a Strange Land. Sometime in the future please bump this thread and give a brief review of his others that you read. I'm really interested.

[The Dude]

Books loaded with Polital, Cultural, and Social commentary (like Stranger in a Strange Land) are preferred, BTW. So far my list is SiaSL, Time Enough for Love, and Starship Troopers. Others I will look at when I get there.

[Filip]

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i would like recommned Peter F Hamilton.

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Without hijacking this thread, explain.

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He writes epic "space opera" with nice story and characters. Worth reading imo.

[MLG]

Starship Troopers is classic, but not exactly loaded with social commentary (its been a while since I read it so maybe Im forgetting something but i dont think so). Also if your looking for cool science fictiony stuff that has more to add try Neil Stephenson. Cool complex story lines with all sorts of interesting information tied in in very creative ways.

[Blarg]

Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land are the ones that his fans consider his big thumping classics.

The Starship Troopers book was a lot of fun to read when it came to the action parts, and the movie didn't do it justice, but overall, Heinlein can be a clumsy writer when he veers from imaginative action and tries to deal with people and social issues -- which he unfortunately does all too often. His reputation as a borderline fascist is well deserved, and Starship Troopers(was that even the real name of the book? I forget) is filled with long self-congratulatory passages of his tedious social theories that really add nothing to the book and subtract an awful lot from it. If you can read it without groaning aloud, you'd probably be willing to strangle and dismember anyone who couldn't.

If you want imaginative fiction by someone who can really write, try the short stories of J.G. Ballard. If you can find them, the short stories of Dennis Etchison, which often have a horror element to them, are unbeatable. And if you want probably the best imaginative writer of the century, try Italo Calvino, who wrote a broad variety of imaginative fiction. Lovers of science fiction can't do better than to read his Cosmicomics and its follow-up, t-Zero. I'd also recommend Invisible Cities extremely highly. Everything that guy touched turned to gold. We're not talking about boys with rayguns fiction anymore when we're talking about writers of that calibre.

[Beerfund]

A short write up on this book and also good info on Heinlein

For Us, The Living (http://www.heinleinsociety.org/newsFUTL.html)

[natedogg]

I read a LOT of Heilein when I was young. For those who read my posts in the Politics forum, that should explain a lot, haha.

Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a must read. He really hits his libertarian stride with that one.

Heinleins' sci-fi will be a bit dated if you are just starting to read it now. He's from Bradbury's era. Rockets, moon men, space suits. Computers don't play a big role.

Compared to the modern guys like Alastair Reynolds, Iain Banks, Charles Stross, even Dan Simmons' Shrike stuff etc., he's way dated. But his stories are good and the main character is always his own alter-ego. Since Heilein would have been a perfect companion to sit around the bar and b.s. with, his characters are fun to read.

BTW, Starship Troopers is fantastic. It's a VERY quick read, and Heinlein does indeed place a lot of emphasis on the esprit de corps of a military that is fighting a just war... but he's no fascist. I have no idea how anyone could read Heinlein and think he's a fascist.

For the juvenile stuff: Tunnel in the Sky and Time for the Stars are probably the two most likely to be readable as an adult.

Oh, I almost forgot. Probably the most dated, sci-fi wise, but definitely one of his coolest stories. A time-travel revenge tale: The Door Into Summer.

natedogg

[The Dude]

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Sometime in the future please bump this thread and give a brief review of his others that you read. I'm really interested.

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Well, here are the books I ended up with: Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, Starship Troopers, I Will Fear No Evil, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Methuselah's Children. (I also got a few non-Heinlen books as well.)

Here's my tentative plan. First I'll read Starship Troopers and Methusela's Children. They are both a little over 200 pages, so they should be quick reads and easy to get out of the way. Then, I'll finish Les Miserables, which I've been picking at for a few weeks now. Then, I'll either reread Stranger in a Strange Land or read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Time Enough For Love and I Will Fear No Evil will probably get put off for a couple months. I've been meaning to read The Iliad and The Odyssey for a few months now, and will probably read those first.

[The Dude]

natedogg,

Thanks for the info. The next time I'm at a bookstore I'll pick up The Door Into Summer.

[natedogg]

It's the one Heinlein book I haven't read. Yes, I know, that means I've read a lot of Heinlein. But I was a geeky bookworm as a kid, unlike now. HA

Anyway, seasoned Heilein fans, please let me know if it's worth reading.

natedogg

[The Dude]

??? Huh? If you've never read it, then how do you know it's one of his coolest stories?

[natedogg]

I never said it was.

natedogg

[The Dude]

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Oh, I almost forgot. Probably the most dated, sci-fi wise, but definitely one of his coolest stories. A time-travel revenge tale: The Door Into Summer.


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Can you clarify, please?

[natedogg]

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Oh, I almost forgot. Probably the most dated, sci-fi wise, but definitely one of his coolest stories. A time-travel revenge tale: The Door Into Summer.


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Can you clarify, please?

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Sure: "The Door Into Summer" is a different book than "I Will Fear No Evil"

I think you need to get some sleep or you need to take a break from four tabling! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Take it easy.

natedogg

[thatpfunk]

Is this the same Starship Troopers of movie fame?

[Blarg]

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Sometime in the future please bump this thread and give a brief review of his others that you read. I'm really interested.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, here are the books I ended up with: Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, Starship Troopers, I Will Fear No Evil, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Methuselah's Children. (I also got a few non-Heinlen books as well.)

Here's my tentative plan. First I'll read Starship Troopers and Methusela's Children. They are both a little over 200 pages, so they should be quick reads and easy to get out of the way. Then, I'll finish Les Miserables, which I've been picking at for a few weeks now. Then, I'll either reread Stranger in a Strange Land or read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Time Enough For Love and I Will Fear No Evil will probably get put off for a couple months. I've been meaning to read The Iliad and The Odyssey for a few months now, and will probably read those first.

[/ QUOTE ]

For god sake, read The Odyssey and The Illiad, over and over, and use the rest for paperweights and doorstops.

Enjoy the transexual fantasies in I Will Fear No Evil. I guess there was a little bit of J. Edgar Hoover in good ole Heinlein.

[Dead]

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Is this the same Starship Troopers of movie fame?

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Yes, unfortunately.

[The Dude]

Gotcha. Missed the title of your post, only saw that you were responding to my post. Customizing the title in the middle of the thread, and without drawing attention to it within the post, it is a bit presumptuous to assume people will have noticed.

Four tabling? Who just four-tables anymore?

[adsman]

I read a lot of Heinlein when I was a kid. The Time enough for love trilogy has been mentioned, but one that I remember really enjoying was Friday.

[scrub]

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If you want imaginative fiction by someone who can really write, try the short stories of J.G. Ballard.

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I'm unimpressed with the Ballard I've read, but I think that might be because the Ballard I've read was selected by a professor teaching an experimental fiction course.

Which of his stuff would you recommend?

Note: I've hated most of the Lovecraft I've read.

scrub

[scrub]

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For god sake, read The Odyssey and The Illiad, over and over, and use the rest for paperweights and doorstops.


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But don't get the Lattimore of the Chapman, get the Fagles or the Fitzgerald.

I like the Fitzgerald more, but that might be because I read it first.

scrub

[Girchuck]

If you want a Heinlein dealing with Internet and computers, try Friday. There is a lot of good stuff in there. Genetically designed babies, US and Canada no longer existing, fractured into several parts, corporate-sponsored nuclear terrorism, vague solution to energy crisis.

[MLG]

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If you want a Heinlein dealing with Internet and computers, try Friday. There is a lot of good stuff in there. Genetically designed babies, US and Canada no longer existing, fractured into several parts, corporate-sponsored nuclear terrorism, vague solution to energy crisis.

[/ QUOTE ]

and a nice gang bang rape scene to boot. Heinlein always uses sex in his stuff, and gnereally well. This one I felt like there was a lot of sex just for sex, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that.

[swolfe]

a couple that weren't mentioned that are some of my favorites are farnham's freehold and glory road. i loved the moon is a harsh mistress (although it may take some time to get used to the loony dialect). the number of the beast is a strange, but interesting one, as are all the lazerus long books. he's also got a few short story collections that have some great stuff, and as was mentioned starship troopers is awesome (the movie was only extremely loosely based on the book).

another recommendation i'd make is armor by john stakely.

[Nick-Zack]

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I'll probably want to buy three or four of his other books. Any suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

Go to the library and read all of them. Save the money that you would have spent on all these books and buy more porn!!

[Nick-Zack]

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Is this the same Starship Troopers of movie fame?

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The shower scene is this way goofy but nice at the same time.

[Blarg]

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If you want imaginative fiction by someone who can really write, try the short stories of J.G. Ballard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm unimpressed with the Ballard I've read, but I think that might be because the Ballard I've read was selected by a professor teaching an experimental fiction course.

Which of his stuff would you recommend?

Note: I've hated most of the Lovecraft I've read.

scrub

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Ballard can get tediously experimental for me in his novels, so I recommended his short stories instead. Some of them are incredibly moving and vivid. There used to be a very dull-named collection from his different short story collections, which had a number of really good ones in there. It was just a generic title like Best of, or 30 Stories from...something like that.

One I remember that was almost painfully good reading was about an overpopulated future absolutely crawling with people jammed into each others space. A guy finds a boarded up, papered over space in an apartment, and it's like a dream until it turns into something very sad, and you just know he can't stop himself from blowing it and screwing himself over. Another cool one was called something like The Rose of Time. And a really great imaginative one was about sound sculptors, who somehow manage to clean buildings of sounds that have sunk into them. Anyway, some very cool stuff by a guy who can actually write, not just tell goofy kid stories.

As far as Lovecraft, I love him, but I would recommend Dennis Etchison for a more contemporary imaginative fiction/horror slant. Most of his stuff doesn't have monsters in it, but he's kind of like Ruth Rendell with mysteries, exploring with real insights the basically monsterish parts of regular people. I wish he wrote more, because his stuff can be stunningly good.

Another guy who wrote some great imaginative fiction is Heinrich Boll, the Nobel Prize winner. His book of short stories called "18 Stories" has some really great stuff in it. Very funny and fun.

And again I can't recommend Italo Calvino highly enough. Cosmicomics is absolutely brilliant. He was Italy's leading writer of the last maybe half century. Unbelievable talent and imagination. Very moving writer. I can read some of his stories and literally feel in awe of the guy.