I should add to my original post on the matter that all the Heinlein I have ever read was done as a boy of between 11-12 years old. At that time I read every science fiction novel available in my local public and school libraries (not as many books as one might think since I lived in a very small town). My recollection of Stranger in a Strange Land is that it was about a man raised to adulthood among Martins, and this rendered him so attractive to women that when he returned to Earth all the women were fighting to have sex with him.
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Originally Posted by dwanthny
Interesting how everyone is different.
Three of the above are on the Top 100 Sci-Fi books list and two of them were Hugo award winners. Two are listed as targeted to teenage boys and are part of what are referred to as Heinlein Juveniles. Starship Troopers was meant to be the 13th of the Heinlein Juveniles series but was turned down by Scribner, it ended up published by Putnam and won the Hugo for best novel.
Personally I have only read Stranger in a Strange Land in my early 20s and Starship Troopers just prior to the movie coming out. I recall enjoying both of these books quite a lot.
With 4 Hugo awards, I think it is safe to say that Robert Heinlein is not a Science Fiction author you should never read. |
I can certainly see the targeted for teenage boys observation.
So anyway my opinions should only be assigned the worth due to the opinion of one person with that opinion formed as as a 12 year old boy.
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Originally Posted by BenG
Remember "I grok Spock"?
The big three, or rather the giant three writers of SF in the 40s and 50s were Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. There's no getting around them.
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I did not even recall that “grok” originated with Heinlein. I have always associated it with Spock and Star Trek.
I certainly agree with Clarke, and even more so with Asimov. I just finished with reading books 4 and 5 in the Foundation series (having read the original three many years ago) and was impressed with the quality of writing and the seamless integration into the plot and concepts of the first three even though 4 and 5 were written 30 years later.
Maybe I can toss a does anyone recognize a title request in here? I recall many years ago reading a SF anthology (by Niven or Norton maybe?) that may have been sole author collection, or a number of authors. One story included a pilot of a space ship considering releasing a cloud of radioactive fluorine as a defensive maneuver. It is probably because I had just completed my first course in physical sciences that that bit stuck with me; not just fluorine, but radioactive fluorine. Anyway the collection contained a lot of enjoyable titles as I recall.