"Robert Heinlein Remembered"

Lever Action Essays ^ | 1988 | L.Neil Smith

[NativeNewYorker]

bttt

[another cricket]

Podkayne of Mars

Charles was one of my all time favorite characters.

a.cricket

[Wonder Warthog]

"I gave up on SF, because I considered the genre has degenerated to the point of being virtually unreadable. Also, about 20 years ago I discovered history, and prefer non-fiction to fiction these days."

Most of the reading I do is also non-fiction, but mostly science-related. One of these days (after I retire), I plan to get into history more deeply.

There WAS a pretty bad slack period for a number of years, but some of the newer authors beginning to publish now show real promise.

"As for Laumer, his "Bolo" series is great, along with his amusing tongue-in-cheek "James Retief.""

If you like the Bolo stuff, you need to read John Ringo and David Weber's stuff (both as separate authors and as collaborators). Ringo has done the best treatment of powered armor since Heinlein's "Starship Troopers".

[VOA]

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[listenhillary]

Novels

Sixth Column *** Book publication 1949
Methuselah's Children *** Rewritten and expanded for book publication 1958
Beyond This Horizon *** Book publication 1948
The Puppet Masters *** 1951 Uncut version published 1990
Double Star *** 1956 Hugo award 1956
The Door into Summer *** 1957
Starship Troopers *** 1959 Hugo award 1959
Stranger in a Strange Land *** 1961 Hugo award 1961 Uncut version published 1990
Glory Road *** 1963 Hugo nominee
Farnham's Freehold *** 1964 1964
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress *** 1966 Hugo award 1966
I Will Fear No Evil *** 1970
Time Enough for Love *** 1973
The Number of the Beast *** 1979 1979
Friday *** 1982
Job: A Comedy of Justice *** 1984
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls *** 1985
To Sail Beyond the Sunset *** 1987

Juvenile Novels

Rocket Ship Galileo *** 1947
Space Cadet *** 1948
Red Planet *** 1949
Farmer in the Sky *** 1950
Between Planets *** 1951
The Rolling Stones *** 1952 1952
Starman Jones *** 1953
The Star Beast *** 1954
Tunnel in the Sky *** 1955
Time for the Stars *** 1956
Citizen of the Galaxy *** 1957
Have Space Suit - Will Travel *** 1958
Hugo nominee
Podkayne of Mars *** 1963 Uncut version published 1990

Selected Nonfiction

"The Discovery of the Future" (Third World Science Fiction Convention Guest of Honor Speech)*** 1941 In Requiem
How to Be a Politician *** 1946 Published as Take Back Your Government!, 1992
"On the Writing of Speculative Fiction" *** 1947
"Where To?" *** 1950, updated versions 1966, 1973 aka "Pandora's Box"
"Ray Guns and Rocket Ships" *** 1952 In EU
Tramp Royale *** 1954 Published 1993
"The Third Millenium Opens" *** Amazing Stories, Apr 1956 In EU
"Science Fiction: Its Nature, Faults and Virtues" *** 1957
"The Future Revisited" (Sixteenth World Science Fiction Convention Guest of Honor Speech) *** 1961 In Requiem
"Channel Markers" (James V. Forrestal Graduation Lecture, Annapolis) *** 1973 Long but incomplete transcript published in Analog, Jan 1974 Shorter transcript published in EU as "The Pragmatics of Patriotism" "Larger than Life" 1979 In EU
"Spinoff" *** Omni, Mar 1980 In EU
"The Happy Days Ahead" *** 1980 In EU
Interstitial commentary in Expanded Universe *** 1980
Grumbles from the Grave *** 1989 Virginia Heinlein, editor

Lots of stuff here I'd like to track down.

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/rahpubs.html

[JenB]

He wrote so much good stuff. The greatest SF writer of all time - and one of the greatest writers, period.

[stylin_geek]

As a caveat, I did read Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle as they did do some pretty good collaborative work in the 70's and 80's.

John Ringo and David Weber are duly noted.

[alfa6]

Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a stand alone novel for the most part. IIRC there a few refrences here and there to other characters in other Heinlein books but I would guess that they number less than 5.

Not knowing what you have read I would suggest Starship Troopers, Glory Road and Farnham's Freehold for starters. There are two anthologies that are out that are pretty interseting, look for Expanded Horizions and Requiem. They both contain a pretty good selection of RAH's short stories in SF as well as what I would call his politcal writings. There is even a Boy's Life serial and short story as well.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[GOPJ]

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[GOPJ]

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[redrock]

"....Alfred Bester.."

Only wrote 2 books that I know of..but what great ones.

redrock

[redrock]

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

...something that we really need to TEACH to the idiots in government....and to some of the idiots who inhabit FR.

redrock

[FreeLibertarian]

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing---with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place. -- Lazarus Long

[redrock]

Thanks AuntB.....Heinlein is my favourite.

..and Lizzie turns 8 in January...and Katie just turned 5....and I'm beginning to feel really old all of a sudden...LOL!!!!

me

[Chemnitz]

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.
Robert A. Heinlein

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/q100989.html

[redrock]

"Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle"

Lucifer's Hammer was an incredible ride.

redrock

[redrock]

Have Spacesuit Will Travel sounds like a perfect fit.

She gets a copy tommorrow.

Thanks!!!

redrock

[redrock]

Thanks for that!!!!!

redrock

[Sam Cree]

Bear, I haven't been much of a Heinlein reader. I tried one 10 years or so ago, it was written in the first person, but as a female. Made me think Heinlein wanted to be a female and I was generally uncomfortable with it.

However, alot of folks seem to be strong admirers, maybe I'll try one on a trip out of town next week. Any that you personally find noteworthy (though there's certainly plenty advice given in this thread)?

Some of the "Lazarus Long" quotes are great.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Any that you personally find noteworthy

The two that I enjoyed most were Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I would recommend either of those, although Starship Troopers is a rather short novel... for a trip, you might want to take along The Moon is a Harsh Mistress instead.

listenhillary in post #85 listed a good bibliography of Heinlein's novels... I think you'd enjoy pretty much any of his novels up through Moon.... Also, I find that his so-called "juvenile" novels are good reads too, although short... that may be a result of the reading ability juveniles were expected to have in the 40s and 50s!