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"Robert Heinlein Remembered"
Lever Action Essays ^ | 1988 | L.Neil Smith

Posted on 10/12/2002 11:20:11 PM PDT by redrock

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To: redrock
....Do you prefer smooth river rocks.....

Probably. I don't have many SRRs in my collection the contents of which is mostly rough.

I am however a hiker and have spent considerable time beside large mountain pools, on the beach where the smooth river rocks pile up. You skip the SRRs.

There considerable pleasure to be derived from a well thrown rock as it skips across the pool, curving as the spinning rock slows.

Chunks just don't skip.

141 posted on 02/24/2003 5:19:15 PM PST by bert
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To: redrock

ping


142 posted on 03/07/2005 2:13:00 PM PST by Vaquero
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To: redrock

I haven't read all of Heinlein's work, but my two favorites would have to be "Starship Troopers" and "Job" which is one of the most ironic and funny things I've ever read.


143 posted on 03/07/2005 2:16:26 PM PST by ABG(anybody but Gore) (Ted Kennedy: Boldly driving a '68 Olds where no '68 Olds had gone before)
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To: redrock

bttt to read later


144 posted on 03/07/2005 2:18:20 PM PST by TXFireman
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To: redrock
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."


from Time Enough For Love, © 1973 Robert A. Heinlein


The Moon is a Harsh Mistress does a wonderful job of illustrating what Heinlein calls rational anarchy complete with a society where competition of law and security are not monopolized by the state. ...and cheers to you el Neil -

145 posted on 03/07/2005 2:21:42 PM PST by society-by-contract
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To: redrock
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" One of my favourites. redrock

Ditto

146 posted on 03/07/2005 2:22:08 PM PST by saminfl
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To: redrock

I carried with me thru 2 tours in Vietnam a paperback copy of "Starship Troopers"
I still have it......

redrock

F*ckin A bubba. My all-time favorite book. It was required reading on the Marine Corp ROTC List at Norwich University 1988 - 1992.


147 posted on 03/07/2005 2:31:53 PM PST by strider44
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To: VadeRetro

Thought you might like this.


148 posted on 03/07/2005 2:32:27 PM PST by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: msdrby; Wneighbor; Rose in RoseBear; SAMWolf

ping


149 posted on 03/07/2005 2:33:43 PM PST by Professional Engineer (And the winner is............Bitty Girl by a pigtail.)
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To: Junior
One of my real favorites, Heinlein. A golden-ager. SF was still SF and not fantasy at his peak. It had a clank to it that has never come back.
150 posted on 03/07/2005 2:35:32 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: sadimgnik

Have you read A. E. van Vogt, Clifford Simak or Robert Silverberg?

I would rate these three among the best out there. Actually influenced me more than Heinlein....but that is art for you.


151 posted on 03/07/2005 2:38:02 PM PST by TheLion
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To: redrock
The protagonist's big sister, a tough Marine, gives him her favorite fighting knife to carry as a spare, a gift both practical and sentimental.

The name of the knife was "Lady MacBeth." I read that book when I was 14. I am 52 now. I have not re-read it since.

Anyone who can make an impression like that is a writer.

It may amuse some to learn that in the original version of Podkayne of Mars, Poddy dies saving the little creature, and the last chapter is written by her little brother, playing with the creature and trying to make sense of it all. The publisher sent it back complaining it was too intense for a youth market. The original ending is to be found in Grumbles from the Grave, and yes, it is very, very intense. It's also a better ending, IMHO.

152 posted on 03/07/2005 2:46:28 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: VadeRetro
One of my real favorites, Heinlein. A golden-ager. SF was still SF and not fantasy at his peak. It had a clank to it that has never come back.

RAH left behind some very good minds to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps the most closely tied to his legacy are Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, who were his proteges, in a way. He guided a good bit of their early career and, together, they formed a big part of LASFS in it's heyday. RAH even plays a part in a couple of their collaborations, along with themselves, as characters (SF writers, of course).

Niven and Pournelle are both capable of exploring some fantastic hard science in an extremely capable manner and of creating some really fund stories. Even some of their older stuff, where the science has been superseded by things we have learned since, are still great reads.

Unfortunately at least one of them, Larry Niven, has also fallen afoul of RAH's descent into sex obsession in later books. The next to last Ringworld book, Ringworld Throne, had way too much Rishathra in it for me. Same as Heinlein's last couple of books (though I did love Deja Thoris in Number of The Beast. Niven and Pournelle are at their best when they write together, such as Lucifer's Hammer or Footfall.

There are a stable of good SF writers working out of Baen Books as well. My favorites right now are John Ringo (great military SF books) and Eric Flint.

There are still dreamers who dream and warriors who will fight the good fight. Sometimes they are one and the same.

153 posted on 03/07/2005 2:47:11 PM PST by Phsstpok ("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")
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To: Phsstpok
I suppose it's still out there, just harder to find. I got a little lazier about that in the 80s when the wheat/chaff ratio took a nosedive. Cancelled my subscription to Analog and stopped browsing the SF section at Waldenbooks so often.

But I might as well add I like practically everything I've read by William Gibson. It's not Heinlein's style, but he weaves a curious, dreamlike atmosphere.

154 posted on 03/07/2005 2:58:21 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: redrock

My favorite author, no holds barred. I wish he were alive today, just to see what he'd have to say about our current events. I do believe his death was the only "celebrity" death that ever caused me to weep.

There is no way I could tell you which of his novels is my favorite, but I will say this:

"Time Enough For Love" is worth reading if only for the "Notebook" sections of (now) famous quotations and for "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter," which makes me cry even now, lo these many years later.

Regards,


155 posted on 03/07/2005 3:00:56 PM PST by VermiciousKnid
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To: Phsstpok
Might as well mention Cloud Atlas, a fantastic interweaving of SF and non-SF storylines into a single novel scanning centuries without appeal to time travel. Loved it and am passing it around the family.
156 posted on 03/07/2005 3:13:35 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: Phsstpok
A thread from the wayback machine. :) I just finished Footfall a couple of months ago. I enjoyed it, and am thinking about reading Lucifer's Hammer next.

I've been going through a Harry Turtledove phase, and one of my favorite stories at the moment is Turtledove's Worldwar series. There are a lot of similarities between Footfall and Turtledove's Worldwar, particularly that the alien invaders in both novels are not quite as skilled at improvisation and deceit as us wiley humans. In the Worldwar series, the invaders are a race of reptilians, with fifty thousand of years of history, most of it under an dynastic imperial system. They are a methodical species, drilled from hatchlinghood to obedience. The Race, as they call themselves, have conquered two other life bearing worlds, both populated by pseudo-reptilian life forms like themselves. The story begins when they send a probe to the earth during the middle ages, where they record pictures of knights on horseback. Easy pickings for soldiers wielding automatic weapons, armored fighting vehicles and fighter aircraft. They'll get around to our world soon enough, after all, how much can a world change in only a thousand years? When they arrive, they are suprised to find us engaged in world war 2. That's the setting: The Nazis have been pushed back from Moscow, the Nipponese are advancing, the Americans have begun the island hopping campaign, when all of a sudden the aliens land and start kicking everybody's butts.

157 posted on 03/07/2005 3:20:51 PM PST by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
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To: VadeRetro
Check out Baen.COMs web site. They have a free library of ebooks of a good many of their authors. Not samples, the whole damn books.  If you can see yourself enjoying reading an electronic book this is a great resource to try out some new authors.

I use MS Reader (which is free, from Microsoft) and keep at least one book on my Pocket PC at all times, usually two or three.

Baen doesn't do this out of the goodness of their hearts. They figure you'll read a few, find the ones you like and then go buy the rest of that author's books. Good old profit motive.

Download and read A Hymn Before Battle and March Upcountry by John Ringo in ZIPPED HTML, Microsoft Reader and several other formats.

A Hymn Before Battle is the first book in his ACS (Armored Combat Suit) stories, the Legacy of the Aldenata.  If you liked the combat suits in Starship Trooper you are gonna LOVE ACS!!!!!!

I'd also recommend 1632 and 1633 by Eric Flint.  They are alternate history stories.  The first book takes a fantasy like left turn, a town from current rural Pennsylvania, full of United Mine Worker types, is lifted bodily and swapped with a similar sized bit of 1632 Germany, right in the middle of the 30 Years War, Gustavus Adolphus, the Holy Roman Empire, Cardinal Richelieu and all that.  Once you get over that little left turn Flint (and his collaborators on later books in the series) have done a fantastic job of accurately setting the historical stage for a little bit of 20th Century meddling in historic affairs.  You'll love the Scottish troops reaction to American High School cheerleaders, particularly when they discover one of them was an aspiring Olympic target shooter with her own 308 match grade rifle.  "She's a witch, 'a tell ya'! - but look to those legs!  Not witch I've ever seen had legs like that!"

Not a Baen book, but in that same vein, is Harry Turtledove's stuff.  My favorite is the first of his I read, called The Guns Of The South.

Also in the list is a free book by Niven, Pournelle and another co-author, Fallen Angels, where they skewer every liberal and Luddite sacred cow they can.  The premise is that the greenies win power, turn out to be right about global warming and succeed in stopping the evil pollution that causes it.  Of course we then discover that global warming was the only think keeping the ice age at bay.  The book takes place while the ice bergs are building up around Cleveland.

Wizard's Bane and Wizardry Compiled are by Rick Cook and, yes, they are fantasy.  However, the stories are about a computer programmer who falls through a "hole" into a world where magic works.  OK, that's fantasy plot number 4.  But this guy discovers that he can write a magic compiler.  For anyone in the computer business these books are a riot.  If nothing else it's worth it for the sayings at the beginnings of each chapter in the second book, Wizardry Compiled.  Here's one: "The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a program patch and a user with an idea." 

There's more in the free library, with the ones I've read and can easily recommend marked

Titles Index

>>>> 1632
>>>> 1633
>>>> A Hymn Before Battle
Agent of Vega
An Oblique Approach
Anti-Grav Unlimited
>>>> The Apocalypse Troll
Bedlam Boyz
Beyond World's End
Black on Black
Born to Run
Changer of Worlds
The Creatures of Man
Cross the Stars
Demon Blade
Destiny's Shield
Digital Knight
Doc Sidhe
>>>> Fallen Angels
Far Edge of Darkness
Fiddler Fair
Fire In the Mist
The Forlorn
Forward the Mage
Freehold
Great Kings' War
The Honor of the Queen
The Hub: Dangerous Territory
In the Heart of Darkness
The Lark and the Wren
The Lion of Farside
Lt. Leary Commanding
>>>> March Upcountry
Med Ship
Mother of Demons
The Mountains of Mourning
  Mutineer's Moon
  Northworld
  Oath of Swords
  Odyssey
  Old Nathan
>>>> On Basilisk Station
  Pandora's Legions
  Paying the Piper
>>>> The Philosophical Strangler
  Planets of Adventure
>>>> Pyramid Scheme
  Rats, Bats and Vats
  Redliners
  Retief!
  The Sea Hag
  Seas of Venus
  The Shadow of the Lion
  Sisters of Glass
  Slayer
  Sleipnir
  Star Soldiers
  Stars Over Stars
  Sympathy for the Devil
  The Tank Lords
  Telzey Amberdon
  Time Traders
  The Tyrant
  The War God's Own
  The Warslayer
  Werehunter
  Windows of the Soul
  With the Lightnings
>>>> Wizard's Bane
>>>> Wizardry Compiled
  Wolf Time

158 posted on 03/07/2005 3:45:10 PM PST by Phsstpok ("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")
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To: Phsstpok

Thanks for that. Bookmarked!


159 posted on 03/07/2005 3:57:22 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: Liberal Classic
Lucifer's Hammer is great. It is the ultimate "something hits the Earth" book, just as Footfall was the ultimate "someone invades the Earth" book.

It is somewhat dated by the astronomy and satellite technology in the lead up to the comet. Given that we now have confident claims that it is "impossible" for an asteroid or comet to hit the Earth 30, 50 or 100 years out from only a few days observations it is hard to accept that, right up to THE DAY in the book there is still uncertainty.

Once you get past that it really can't be beat.

I particularly love the description the scientists give to the TV crew of the comet as a hot fudge sundae so that people can get an idea of the masses and scale (I'll post it, if you'd like, it's about 5 paragraphs and a hoot).

I read the first 3 of the Worldwar series and just couldn't bring myself to pick up the fourth. They were just unremittingly depressing! Have you read Guns Of The South? I got introduced to that book, and Turtledove, while listening to the NPR program "Radio Reader." I came in during the middle, not knowing anything about the story. I actually recognized the battle being described as a famous battle in the Civil War and was fascinated... right up until they started talking about the banana clips for their AK-47s!!!!! I yelled at the radio "What the hell!!" and was hoooked. Shelby Foote, one of the recognized experts on the Civil War, was so impressed with the research Turtledove had done that the wrote he forward for the book.

Check out my other post just now about the free ebooks on the Baen Free library. If you can stand reading a book as an ebook then you can't beat free!

160 posted on 03/07/2005 3:58:09 PM PST by Phsstpok ("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")
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