Stranger in a Strange Land- Robert Heinlein

Anybody read Heinlein in the house? He wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship troopers, The Puppetmasters, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and many others. His short stories are great and stand up to the test of time.

[Djinn Raffo]

I read Starship troopers and i liked it. I liked the movie too but when i went to see it i didnt think i would.
One of my allies is a huge Heinlein nut. He's always trying to get me to read more.

[DEADMAN]

not avidly, I'm still working through his works, But I do enjoy them and have a good start through his calalog. For a favorite, I guess Starship Troopers, but I also realy liked Friday.

[ScottG]

Heinlein is perhaps the first great scifi/fantasy writer ever, followed by Asimov (who is better).

More than most writers he went through "phases" in his writing style. Early in his career he wouldn't hesitate to kill off main char.s to add more realism to his stories (along with graphic depictions of their deaths - a la Starship troopers) - later books had that flavor where "every thing is going to work out fine" flavor (perhaps Glory Road personifies this flavor the best).

I have read many of his works but "strangly" I never really got through reading Stranger in a Strange Land,(it seemed to move rather slowly), which is widely regarded as his best book.

My personal favorites of his are:
Waldo (semi-short story)
The 5th Colum.

[Mouse]

Originally posted by ScottG: Heinlein is perhaps the first great scifi/fantasy writer ever, followed by Asimov (who is better).)

Personally my vote goes to Robert Silverberg closely followed by Ray Bradbury

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Mouse

[This message has been edited by Mouse (edited 09-14-2001).]

Originally posted by ScottG: Heinlein is perhaps the first great scifi/fantasy writer ever, followed by Asimov (who is better). More than most writers he went through "phases" in his writing style. Early in his career he wouldn't hesitate to kill off main char.s to add more realism to his stories (along with graphic depictions of their deaths - a la Starship troopers) - later books had that flavor where "every thing is going to work out fine" flavor (perhaps Glory Road personifies this flavor the best). I have read many of his works but "strangly" I never really got through reading Stranger in a Strange Land,(it seemed to move rather slowly), which is widely regarded as his best book. My personal favorites of his are: Waldo (semi-short story) The 5th Colum.

The 5th colomn, hmmm I'll hafta look for that one. My faves by him are- "the moon is a harsh mistress" and "stranger in a strange land" to name two. Strange how similar the main characters are in those books, and they are both named mike? I like every thing Ive read by him though, quite diverse. Alot of other Authors call him the "Grand Master" for his innovative spirit.

[ScottG]

Both Silverberg & Bradbury are more contemporary than Heinlein or Asimov. Hubbard was almost a contemporary of H. & A., and I'm not quite sure in time where Edger Rice Burroughs fits - but I believe he was pretty early as well (possibly earlier). Though having read books from all of the above Asimov is still the best (and intrestingly is also the most prolific writer EVER - he wrote far more non-fiction books than fiction, many, MANY science texts). For pure Alien in a compelling book Asimov's the Gods Themselves is prob. one of the best ever (though one of my least favorite). The Foundation Series & the Robot series are master works akin to Tolkien's material. (Indeed, the Robot theroms are being use today in the budding field of AI for Robots.)

Its intresting to note that the "flavor" I mentioned isn't restricted to Heinlein. Piers Anthony has also gone through similar development in writing style (though to a lesser degree). Perhaps one of Anthony's most intresting books was one of his first, Macroscope (which is a "harsher" novel - as were the early Hope Hubris series). (Reading Macroscope is a mind-trip - one of the best.)

BTW, I consider Waldo to be the best short fiction story I have ever read. (I believe that Waldo was combined w/ God Inc. to form a book.)

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by G'kar: Anybody read Heinlein in the house? He wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship troopers, The Puppetmasters, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and many others. His short stories are great and stand up to the test of time.

Personally I think that his novels are not really good, short stories are better. Stranger is long, too long, boring and the end is poor. Starship Troopers are nice, quick to read but naive. There is great novel of Harrison : Bill, the hero of Galaxy" (it is my translation so maybe original has little different name - only first part was serious). Starship Troopers have "political - militaristic" background - I mean ideas they propagate (written in 50-ies). Harrison's book was inteded to be parody of this militaristic style and is super.

Z.