Anyone here a RAH fan? What was your favorite RAH story of All Time? (if such can be determined ... LOL) Mr Heinlein was a major player in my formative years, and contributed to a personal motto I eventually formulated: "Keep Thinking". His philosophy and thought-provoking stories were many a late-night page-turner for me, and still are. BTW, this may interest RAH fans, if you don't already know: http://www.heinleinsociety.org/index.html
Now that some have waded in ... My list varies with my mood, so there are several, in no particular order: * The Long Watch (short story) (this is likely my most-read story) * Starship Troopers (the book, not the stinky movie Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) * The Moon is a Harsh Mistress * If This Goes On ... (novella) * Methuselah's Children (novella) * Puppet Masters (either unabridged or original-as-published) * Podkayne of Mars (unabridged version is better) * Friday * "'—We Also Walk Dogs'" (short story)
Boy, talk about a tough question... I would say my favorite novel was "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress", but my favorite story overall is "By His Bootstraps." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! This latter story is so beautifully recursive. Other Honorable Mentions... If This Goes On The Puppet Masters Stranger In a Strange Land (particularly the unabridged version) ...and well, on and on. Heinlein rules! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I've been partial to Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but also like Starship Troopers. If they did a remake and made it closer to the book life would be grand indeed.
Imagine a Miniseries, on the grand scale similar to Bab5, of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress ... wouldn't THAT be cool?
Heinlein is kind of a strange one...he wrote some really fantastic stuff, but he also wrote some really, really bad stuff. I notice no one is plugging "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" or "Glory Road". But when he was on his game, I don't think anyone could do it better.
Actually, for a juvie, Have Spacesuit is one of my favorites - if you count "favorite" by the number of times I've re-read a Heinlein story. As for Glory Road, it was one of his very few forays into fantasy: but his skeptical mind just couldn't get past the "science" part .. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I like Glory Road, and have read it 3-4 times. Not as much as other stories, but it wasn't bad. ... I'd say that Mr Heinlein's major flaw was not knowing when to stop a story: sometimes, to me, his stories just seemed to end abruptly. Friday comes to mind. (Although I've read that one 5-6 times ...) Come to think of it, the only stories I've only read once are Fifth Column and ... well I can't think of another that I only read once. Even Farnam's Freehold, I've read twice.
Anyone care to comment or contrast between Heinlein's early, middle and late works? Early, would be "Moon is a Harsh", "Starship Troopers", "Rolling Stones" and such. Middle would be "Time Enough for Love", "Friday" and such Late would be the last 1/2 dozen he wrote at the end, "To Sail the Sunless Sea", "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls" and such. Any thoughts?
Well, I guess I am just like most everybody else here. My list would be: "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Of course there are only maybe two or three that I didn't like, so 4th place is probably something like a 20 way tie Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As you can see TANSTAAFL is my motto! I set it after smashing 3 or 4 "perpetual motion" ideas on the physics forum in the space of a week or two. -Dale
Apparently you did not like the nothing-from-the-book-but-the-name movie either! What did you think of the adaptation of Puppet Masters? It at least made an attempt to follow the plot as outlined by Heinlein, more or less. I thought it wasn't that bad, really. The movie left out all the political/social commentary that was so prevalent in Heinlein's work, but that would've required about 10 times the dialog that the movie had to get across effectively.
Didn't see it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! About Starship Troopers, they made an attempt, and I like the movie, but it wasnt close to the book. They were trying to make a movie though, and showed a more human side of it. The point of movies is usually to make a connection to the characters Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! All in all, I liked the book more, it really dealt with the technology and the government, etc. I also like the movie, originally when it came out because of the boobies, but now just because Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I've decided to start reading "Time for the Stars" (About telepathy as a means of interstellar communication). Some time ago I read the first chapters of "The moon is a harsh mistress", though I never finished it. Interesting the Lunar dialect, though.
For a different view on heinlein, one that acknowledges his flaws as well as his good bits, look for Alexei Panshin in google. He wrote a really good critique of Heinlein over 30 years ago.
Well I see there is *one* thread here that's not about movies or TV... I'll go with The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, too. For short stories... well there are so many wonderful ones, but I think "All You Zombies" stuck in my mind more than any other.
