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To: stylin_geek
"Yeah, Isaac Asmiov's "Foundation" series, and his "Three laws of Robotics" were fluff all right. Along with James Blish and his "Cites in Flight.""

Yup, read'em all. Have'em in my collection of at about 1000 SF and fantasy titles. Compared to Heinlein, Asimov is fluff. Blish is better than Asimov, but still not up to Heinlein. The best thing Asimov wrote was the short story "Nightfall". It comes "close" to matching Heinlein at his best, but for book-length writing, Asimov's writing is almost one-dimensional compared to Heinlein.

Been reading SF for about forty years, and been subscribing to Analog for at least thirty.

"Sounds to me like you are rather narrow minded in your experience and viewpoint, which makes it easy for me to dismiss you, just as you dismiss the other writers I mention."

See paragraph above.

75 posted on 10/13/2002 3:31:29 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Wonder Warthog
I owned all of them at one time or another, at least, the SF, as I did not really go that much for Science Fantasy. 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.

A couple of newer SF writers I like are Keith Laumer and Joe Haldeman. Haldeman did write the antithesis to "Starship Troopers" when he wrote "The Forever War." As for Laumer, his "Bolo" series is great, along with his amusing tongue-in-cheek "James Retief."

Robert Heinlein is not the end all and be all of SF writing. He may have been at the forefront, but he had some magnificient company when it comes to writing SF.

76 posted on 10/13/2002 3:50:54 PM PDT by stylin_geek
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To: Wonder Warthog
re: your post #75

I agree with you about Asimov, although I think 'The Billiard Ball' and 'The Last Question' were his best short stories. I remember reading The Foundation Trilogy at the shore one summer as a teen - - it was another book I had ordered from the Science Fiction Book Club at the time, what, 1969 or so? I enjoyed it, but Heinlein it wasn't.

77 posted on 10/13/2002 3:54:16 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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