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

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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Actually, I haven't read that one. I have this irrational aversion to buying Philip K. Dick in trade paperback form, and trade paperbacks are pretty much the only things in print right now. Same thing with Kurt Vonnegut. Hopefully they'll put out a mass market movie tie-in for the release. :thumbup:

As for Keanu... sounds like he's been working to get rid of his trademark accent. I listened to the previews for the movie and wasn't able to immediately say, "Oh no, it's Keanu Reeves trying to play a serious role, the horror". I'm therefore remaining cautiously optimistic that it won't be another "Much Ado About Nothing"... :)
 
He was decent enough in Constantine I guess. I don't wanna get my hopes up though. And I can't stand the cover art on the TPB's, let alone the price. Almost all of mine are older editions.
 
I was friends with them all, but don't recall reading any by Dick and it sounds as if I need to rectify that.
I'm finsoishing up a serial in Analog right now called the Stonehenge Gates that would've made one helluva novel!
It portrays similar gates in the desert as a gateway to other worlds and of course one of the party has a birthmark designating him as one of the Gods of these strange lands. Pretty interesting reading.:thumbup: :D

I've also properly broken in a new hard cover called 1491 that I'm anxious to start. It goes along with the theory that the ndns were actually caretakers of this land and that the land benefited from that and more.
I'm also anxious to get started reading it as I go along with the stories of my people and that we have always been here, not some foriegners that crossed the Bering land bridge.
 
I'm gonna go a bit OT here.

I can recommend one comic to read that goes well if you like the occult and demons:Hellboy-trust me pick up a Graphic Novel and zip through it.;)
 
Josh Feltman said:
And I can't stand the cover art on the TPB's, let alone the price. Almost all of mine are older editions.
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I kind of like the cover art on the bloated new trade paperbacks. I just have a problem with the fact that they're four times the size of the original editions (at thirty times the price). Not to worry, as I have a pretty good knack for picking up used PKD mass markets. Just snagged a 1977 copy of A Scanner Darkly for a buck. Can't beat that with a stick. :D
 
RAH is still my favorite of all time, by a long shot. Though, just started rereading CS Lews' Space Trilogy, and after that, think I'll pick up a coupla of HG Well's books again.
 
I first read Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galaxy" (first published in 1957) when I was about 12. It's of course one of Heinlein's early works, quite appropriate for juveniles, but great for readers of all ages. I reread it every few years and enjoy it more than any other of Heinlein's books. Looking back after some 40 years, I think I can say it was one of my favorite books while growing up...although many of Andre Norton's early books (before she got into fantasy with mainly female lead characters) are in the running.

Regards,
Bill
 
I have to admit I,ve only read one of his books . Most of my literary adventures have been a little closer to home . I never realised he had written so much .
I have written a few short stories and like most writers I have a great book I would like to complete .
Even if his writing came a little easier to him than it does to me his thoughts must have been beyond the stars 24 hours a day . I wonder if he was so preoccuoied as to seem absent minded ?
 
It could be, but I doubt it Kevin. he was very much grounded in the real world too, and in helping make it a better place. He spoke before congressional committees many times. Some on the subject of the space program of course, but also was a hugely outspoken about veterans rights, as he himself was a veteran out with a medical discharge. He helped push the work of a group(who's name slips my mind), dedicated to those with rare blood types, and helping them get blood(not surprisingly, he was a rare blood type, and during one of his bouts with medical problems, members of said group probably saved his life). He wrote several shorts of concern during the cold war. On COmmunism, on life in russia, on how to survive/prepare for a nuclear attack, etc. Wrote shorts(fiction and nonfiction) on Patriotism, on politics, and then on hard physics, all put together in same book(Expanded Universe in particular, but he has had other collections with similar breadth). He was a hard-rock miner, off and on, for 40 years(his words). I think that in scifi, like in any field of writing,t he best authors are those who've experienced life, even where it's not directly related to their "genre", because every genre deals with life, and only those who've experienced it can truly write about it.

Of course, I'm very biased when it comes to mr Heinlein. :)
 
Heinlein opened my eyes to SF. I loved him, internalized much, and moved on. A lot of his stuff is sappy- That does not mean I don't admire and love his work, but I don't care for much of it, though I've probably read everything or nearly everything, often several times.

I like, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It is a wonderful tale and avoids many of the patented RAH miscues.


munk
 
Also a big of of RAH since first reading Rocket Ship Galileo in the early 60s and proceeded to read all he ever published [Favorite character is Lazarus Long]. I still have my copy of The Notebooks Of Lazarus Long which I bought in the late 70s.

Another of my all time favorites was Roger J. Zelazny with Lord Of Light, Creatures of Light And Darkness and Call Me Conrad, being my favorites.

https://www.facebook.com/heinleiners/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Heinlein-Society-140041782704862/
http://thepandorasociety.com/a-choice-of-evils-how-roger-zelazny-created-a-heroic-jack-the-ripper/
 
Ten year old thread but RAH still hasn't been bested. I'd add Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide) and Tom Robbins (Another Roadside Attraction) as perusal worthy. Dave Turner (How to be Dead) looks to become a successor in the Adams, (Spider) Robinson genre of punny sci-fi.
 
How to be resurrected from the Dead is sort of what this thread is all about now eh? :D LOL. But also a BIG RAH fan, my brother got most of his books for brithday gifts at one time of another...I think I snagged them the next day :D He wasn't a big SF reader, but I loved RAH and EE "Doc" Smith (Lensman series) as well as the ones mentioned in this thread.
 
Count me among the fans of RAH. A bit of trivia; he was part of a think tank of Sci-fi authors, engineers & scientists during WWII who analyzed what the Axis was capable of.

Uplander
 
Uplander said:
Count me among the fans of RAH. A bit of trivia; he was part of a think tank of Sci-fi authors, engineers & scientists during WWII who analyzed what the Axis was capable of.

Uplander
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I was trying to remember who the four authors who went on to fame (or infamy) from that group. RAH, L. Ron Hubbard: Who else? My Google-fu wasn't working.
 
cardo said:
I was trying to remember who the four authors who went on to fame (or infamy) from that group. RAH, L. Ron Hubbard: Who else? My Google-fu wasn't working.
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Don't know about that exactly, but a lot of interesting authors came out of Allied intelligence services and WWII. Aldous Huxley was British Intel, Roald Dahl was a British spy that gauged attitudes among the American elite, Ian Fleming was a spy of course. Apparently there was a spymaster somewhere in the service who encouraged a lot of his subordinates to become authors after the war.
 
Cardo,

Issac Asimov, physicist, and Poul Anderson, biologist. RAH had a degree in mechanical engineering.

Uplander
 
I always felt that RAH was extremely disappointed by his discharge from the Navy. From what I have read in various places he fully intended to make it a career and was sort of left adrift when he was medically discharged. Writing was not his primary interest, fortunately for us fans, he needed to eat and feed his family :D I think one of the other writers that was extremely important to the war effort was L. Sprague deCamp. Not sure if he was involved in that particular think tank, but I know he worked with RAH and Isaac Asimov on other projects for the Navy.
 
IF you are looking for a modern Heinlein type author, check out David Weber he has been compared to Heinlein for decades now. And favorably so
 
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