SciFi on Heinlein, my favorite SciFi author of all time!

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
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In Seth Murdock's signature he has a few lines of print with a couple of the lines being,
"- heinlein on skepticism
-- through Maureen Johnson Long"

So I figure that Seth must be a SciFi fan and a big fan of Robert Anson Heinlein.;)
I was pretty sure that Maureen Johnson Long was Woody's mother but it has been so long since I read, "Time Enough for Love" way over twenty years, that I wasn't positive at the moment so I Googled, "Maureen Johnson Long" and sure enough I was right.:thumbup: :D
In Googleing Maureen I found THIS website that I ran amok in for a few minutes refreshing my memory about several things concerning Woody's history.
In doing so I ran across a book title I don't recall if I read or not, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" and I thought that I had read all of Heinlein's books and the history of the Long family and now I'm not so sure. I Googled Robert Anson Heinlein and found lots of info and several fan sites, also found a list of Books by Heinlein.....:thumbup: :cool:

Actually after looking over this list I see several that I never became aquainted with that I need to rectify when I finish my remaining Analog's from 2005 and 2004.

I'll have to dig through the books I kept and see what I still have. I hope any that I haven't read are still available in print of some kind. I would love to have the complete SciFi Collection by RAH in hardback.:cool:

Another favorite author was Issac Asimov and especially his Foundation Series. I know I have the last one, that everyone waited so long for, in hardback and maybe a couple of the others but neither am I real sure of what I have left.
My favorite books by my favorite authors I stowed away in the large built in cabinet I built in the living room so long ago for safe keeping.
Some books just become old friend's and are never permitted to get away ya know.:thumbup: ;)

A few of my other favorite SciFi authors is CS Lewis, Spider Robinson, Ray Bradbury, and a host of others I can't pull off the top of my head at the moment.
I've got a lot of catching up to do ainnit?:rolleyes: :D
 
Kismet said:
When is surgery on the other eye?


I'm happy for you, Friend.
Click to expand...

Thanks my Friend Kis!!!!:thumbup: :D

I got a call just a couple of days ago and the office girl Denise told me she was going to schedule the surgery for March 31st at 11:30 a.m.:D
I guess she is figuring that later in the day may be better for some odd reason or another.:confused:
Denise warned me that I was going to have the same anesthesiologist nurse and that she may cancel my surgery again.:thumbdn: :mad:
I told Denise I understood and that I always knew it wasn't Dr. Brockman or his office that was causing the problem.:D
I also told Denise that the reason I got so hot was because I had a cardiac clearance and a cardiac clearance from one of the absolute *Best* heart Drs' in Oklahoma let alone Tulsa or Oklahoma City!!!!
And that Dr. Katz is not only a MD but also and FACC, aka Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.:thumbup: :cool: :D
 
Yvsa said:
In Seth Murdock's signature he has a few lines of print with a couple of the lines being,
"- heinlein on skepticism
-- through Maureen Johnson Long"

So I figure that Seth must be a SciFi fan and a big fan of Robert Anson Heinlein.;)
I was pretty sure that Maureen Johnson Long was Woody's mother but it has been so long since I read, "Time Enough for Love" way over twenty years, that I wasn't positive at the moment so I Googled, "Maureen Johnson Long" and sure enough I was right.:thumbup:
In Googleing Maureen I found THIS website that I ran amok in for a few minutes refreshing my memory about several things concerning Woody's history.
In doing so I ran across a book title I don't recall if I read or not, "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" and I thought that I had read all of Heinlein's books and the history of the Long family and now I'm not so sure. I Googled Robert Anson Heinlein and found lots of info and several fan sites, also found a list of Books by Heinlein.....:thumbup: :cool:

Actually after looking over this list I see several that I never became aquainted with that I need to rectify when I finish my remaining Analog's from 2005 and 2004.

I'll have to dig through the books I kept and see what I still have. I hope any that I haven't read are still available in print of some kind. I would love to have the complete SciFi Collection by RAH in hardback.:cool:

Another favorite author was Issac Asimov and especially his Foundation Series. I know I have the last one, that everyone waited so long for, in hardback and maybe a couple of the others but neither am I real sure of what I have left.
My favorite books by my favorite authors I stowed away in the large built in cabinet I built in the living room so long ago for safe keeping.
Some books just become old friend's and are never permitted to get away ya know.:thumbup: ;)

A few of my other favorite SciFi authors is CS Lewis, Spider Robinson, Ray Bradbury, and a host of others I can't pull off the top of my head at the moment.
I've got a lot of catching up to do ainnit?:rolleyes: :D
Click to expand...


I do not believe this Yvsa! I had no idea we had this in common. :thumbup:

I recall the other day your mentioning that you were an SF fan, but didn't know you particularly liked RAH. You can still get all his books in print, but unless you're loaded forget the hardcovers. I have been searching for Heinlein hardcovers for 10 years and they are damned scarce and super pricy. I have all his hardcovers since "Friday", and also have "The Number of The Beast" in a limited embossed trade paperback version, but only one early first edition hardcover (Methuselah's Children.) Some of the older books are now only in compilations. For instance "6 X Heinlein", and "Revolt in 2100", which is very hard to find in any format. Those stories were included in "The Past Through Tomorrow." Other collectibles include the early "Sixth Column", before it was renamed to "The Day After Tomorrow."

"Sail" was the last major novel he wrote in 1985, so you may have missed it. The hardcovers are regularly unavailable, and I use ABE Books and other search engines to search thousands of bookstores. If they are available, Firsts will run about $450-$500 anyway and go quickly, but even the subsequent edition hardcovers seem impossible to find.

"Tramp Royale" was published after his death, as of course were "Grumbles from the Grave" and "Requiem," which also contains works and reminiscences of other authors. Also, there is a "lost" first novel from 1939 that was published last year called "For Us The Living" (see the Ayn Rand similarity there to her "We The Living") that is actually very good, and has an intro by Spider Robinson.

If you would like a great companion novel to you Heinlein collection, I can highly recommend "Robert A. Heinlein, A Reader's Companion" by James Gifford. It is an outstanding reference and has all of his stuff listed, with the exception of "For Us The Living," with plenty of background.

Two other references, if you don't have them already: He wrote the story "Destination Moon", and did the screenplay for the film in 1949. George Pal did the special effects. It is fun to see Heinlein's first story that went to film, and you can still find it on video if you look.

Also, J. Neil Schulman wrote "The Robert Heinlien Interview" in 1990, and frankly I don't recommend it too much. He was a young guy when he wrote it, and focused so much on Ayn Rand and Heinleins feelings about her work and missed about a thousand great questions. He was a star-struck young fan and it shows. I met Mr. Schulman in 1993 at a gun rights demonstration in Sacramento, where he was signing his book "Stopping Power", and he is a great guy but this particular effort misses the mark IMO. Too bad as it was a rare opportunity.

FYI, when I moved to Santa Cruz in 1992 the first thing I did was to drive out to Bonny Doon and find Heinleins old house out there, bought before they moved to Colorado. That is the one he references as having a fallout shelter, etc., that he put so much effort into. Wish I had been there 20 years earlier and could have met him.

For Asimov, don't get me started, but remember it's not just the trilogy anymore. It's faster just to list them in the order in which they should be read:

Prelude to Foundation (prequel)
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundations Edge (probably the one you were waiting for.)
Foundation and Earth
Forward the Foundation (published just before his death; the 7th and final volume.)

That last one I finally found as a first in a bookstore in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

Finally for Bradbury, you have to get your hands on "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" that came out a couple of years ago. It lists 100 of his best stories in one volume.

Looks like you're covered, but have the pleasure of finding and reading a couple you might have missed! I envy you the time to catch up on your reading.

Regards,

Norm
 
Esav Benyamin said:
And the song of the same title. I don't know where the connection comes from.
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The song writer liked the title and borrowed it, that's all:

"In 1974 the songwriter Jimmy Webb used the phrase as a song title although its lyric eschewed the sociological aspects of the novel. It was subsequently recorded by Joan Baez, Glen Campbell, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt and many others including the songwriter himself."

Norm
 
I've been a big fan of Heinlein since junior high-in fact that escape is what got me through that living hell. I liked them all, but Grumbles from the Grave is the one that let me get to know the man himself.

john k
 
Artfully Martial said:
I love Heinlein...the moon is a harsh mistress is one of my favorite books.
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That one is immortal... TANSTAAFL.

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" and "To Sail Beyond The Sunset" are such a great brush-up read, as he brings to life all of his favorite characters for an encore performance... RAH must have had a fun time writing these (at the end of his career, no?)... there is so much we can learn from his writing style.

Norm, if you're up on RAH trivia, I read a short non-fiction of his where he and his wife visited the Soviet Union, had to be in the 70's... he had a crappy time and was pretty scathing about it... what was that called?

Had to go re-check the list for "Rocket Ship Galileo" - fighting with Garands on the Moon- how cool is that. "Have Space Suit" - crushing Wormface's head with a crunch "like stepping on a strawberry box". And the value of a spare knife in "Tunnel In The Sky".

Wish I could re-read some- my suriving books are still in storage. :mad:


Mike
 
I'd have to say-because of Bladerunner one author I need to look into is Philip K. Dick ;)

And I am going to the bookstore today too :D
 
Ad Astra said:
Norm, if you're up on RAH trivia, I read a short non-fiction of his where he and his wife visited the Soviet Union, had to be in the 70's... he had a crappy time and was pretty scathing about it... what was that called?
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Mike, going from memory I believe that it was called "Inside Intourist" and is a great read. He really does a number on the Soviets. It is found inside the "Expanded Universe" collection, which I believe is an update of "The Worlds of RAH." He is a great non-fiction writer as well, and this one shows it.

Regards,

Norm
 
Krull said:
I'd have to say-because of Bladerunner one author I need to look into is Philip K. Dick ;)

And I am going to the bookstore today too :D
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Dick is one of my favorite authors. I guess you could say I'm a huge Dick fan. Wait, that doesn't sound right.

Heinlein is great as well. I reread a bunch of his stuff a while back.
 
Wow, glad to see I'm not the only one who enjoys Heinlein. He's definitely one of the 'staples' in any SF collection. :thumbup: :D

Poul Anderson is also a classic, and don't miss out on Arthur C. Clarke! Larry Niven is also a good buy if you're in the used book store. Isaac Asimov is also a 'classic' but his works seemed a little bit on the dry side the last time I looked at them. It's been a few years, so maybe I should revisit Rama and the Foundation Series (I did read all of Foundation, and some of the sequels written after his death, though).

I remember reading an old disintegrating copy of Tunnel in the Sky while staying at my grandparents house as a very young child. I now have that very same copy, bound in duct tape, on my bookshelf. :)


PS - anyone who claims to be an SF fan should be ashamed of themselves if they haven't read Frank Herbert's Dune! I don't demand that you like it, only that you read it!
 
I've been meaning to read more Heinlein. Having a copy of Starship Troopers along on one particularly lame business trip made things much more bearable.

Hey Josh, I'm a Philip K. Dick fan also -- actually just finished reading the uncensored version of "The Unteleported Man". Several pages of the original manuscript were lost (near the end of the book, no less) before the reprint was done, making the trip just that much weirder. Not that it had been lacking in the "weird" department, of course, this being PKD. Good times. :)
 
Yvsa, I also love Heinlein! I read a lot of his when they came out in the 1950s and 1960s.

I believe that he said, "Not only is the Universe stranger than you think, it is stranger than you CAN think."

Have a 1898 First edition of John Jacob Astor's "A Journey in Other Worlds," the space suits were made of leather, glass and cork. Trippy!

HG Wells? YEAH!

Also liked Roger Zelazny. Some of his best known novels were based on mythology of various cultures. His "Lord of Light," 1967, was based on the Hindu pantheon. Egyptian gods and goddesses populated his "Creatures of Light and Darkness" in 1969, while his "Eye of Cat" in 1982 featured elements of Navajo religion and folklore.

Weirdness reigned in Harlan Ellison and reached new heights in Phillip K. Dick. He was uber-strange! I mean WAY out there. I love him!

And as someone else mentioned, CS Lewis. "The Hideous Strength", "Out of the Silent Planet", the "Chonicles of Narnia."

And his marvelous Christian works. "The Great Divorce." For sheer take-it-somewhere-else-weirdness, read "The Screwtape Letters" a senior demon in Hell's letters to his nephew.

And you can not read, "A Grief Observed'," without crying. Not the most macho guy on earth could. He wrote this after the love of his life, Joy, his wife, died slowly of cancer.

And I must mention the seminal Christian work, "Mere Christianity," Easy reading and a powerful argument for Christianity.

Oops, sort of drifted off the Science Fiction topic, just got to musing about important works in my life.

I was a sickly child (bronchial problems) and since I could not go out for sport, I spent a lot of time reading.
 
I believe that he said, "Not only is the Universe stranger than you think, it is stranger than you CAN think."
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" Not only is the universe stranger than you imagine, it is stranger than you can imagine." -- J. B. S. Haldane

In fact, J. B. S. Haldane himself was probably stranger than you can imagine. :)
 
Novadak said:
Hey Josh, I'm a Philip K. Dick fan also -- actually just finished reading the uncensored version of "The Unteleported Man". Several pages of the original manuscript were lost (near the end of the book, no less) before the reprint was done, making the trip just that much weirder. Not that it had been lacking in the "weird" department, of course, this being PKD. Good times. :)
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What are your thoughts on the animated adaptation of A Scanner Darkly? It's one of my favorite Dick novels, but I'm a bit worried about Keanu. "Duuuuuuuuude, my name's like Arctor and stuff. Bob Arctor. Whoa. But it's also like Agent Fred? Dude? Like, what's up with that?"
 
Josh Feltman said:
What are your thoughts on the animated adaptation of A Scanner Darkly? It's one of my favorite Dick novels, but I'm a bit worried about Keanu. "Duuuuuuuuude, my name's like Arctor and stuff. Bob Arctor. Whoa. But it's also like Agent Fred? Dude? Like, what's up with that?"
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I like Keanu Reeves myself,go rent "The Watcher" where he plays a real freaky killer! :eek:
 
"He's so dumb..."
"How dumb is he?"
"He thinks a Forward Mass Detector is refering to the direction..."
<laughter>
"Of the nearest cathedral."
<laughter>

Heinlien, Asimov, Dick, John D MacDonald, Rex Stout, Ellery Queen I sure miss them.

BTW, across from my hand doctor is the office of a urologist named Dr. Dick.
 
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