Any Heinlein freaks here?

[voluptuary_manque]

Nah, the first Troopers movie was brilliant.

As for "Heinlein's philosophizing about society and what makes it work," I should probably reread the book...I tend to read surface level the first time around.

The movies may have been good flix but they weren't good Heinlein. All they kept was the title.

 

[Bebeslut]

I understand about I Will Fear No Evil, I still haven't been able to read it all the way through. Hope you didn't miss Friday and Job on account of it, though. Or even the later Lazarus Long tales.

Nowhere near as fond of Heinlein as I used to be. I didn't read any of his work after I Will Fear No Evil because that book was so silly it put me off Heinlein for ages.

Starship Troopers, the movie, blew great big chunks. The war against the Bugs was only incidental to the book, which was mostly Heinlein's philosophizing about society and what makes it work. I don't agree with some of it but the book still had enormous impact on my political thought.

 

[JackLuis]

I don't remember which book he wrote about "Waldo", sort of a rube Goldberg version of Computer Aided Graphics, long before there was a hope of building a computer powerful enough to do it.

I recognized the power of CAD, when it was offered to me at the place where I worked. It revolutionized the speed and precision of engineering and threw a lot of draftsmen out of work.

Heinelein was an engineer first.

 

[Bebeslut]

The movies may have been good flix but they weren't good Heinlein. All they kept was the title.

Johnny Rico's eulogy of Dizzy was pure RAH in spirit.

 

[Bebeslut]

I don't remember which book he wrote about "Waldo", sort of a rube Goldberg version of Computer Aided Graphics, long before there was a hope of building a computer powerful enough to do it.

I recognized the power of CAD, when it was offered to me at the place where I worked. It revolutionized the speed and precision of engineering and threw a lot of draftsmen out of work.

Heinelein was an engineer first.

The story was "Waldo," and waldoes were invented shortly after he described them in the story. I think they were originally developed to handle nuclear fuel in the lab. I think.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Very good! Yes, they were and they were called Waldos by the engineers who developed them. Whether the term is still being used, I don't know.

 

[jomar]

The movies may have been good flix but they weren't good Heinlein. All they kept was the title.

Disagree, at least on the first - And not the point per rg's comment and my response - the first ST movie was brilliant no matter that it didn't hove to the EXACT narrative of the book...which it didn't so much except on broad points, but still kept Heinlein ideas. The rest of of the Trooper movies were lousy.

Beyond that, I'm not so much a Heinlein scholar that I can argue with you over all else, but I suspect we'd have some good talks.

 

[TE999]

I don't remember which book he wrote about "Waldo", sort of a rube Goldberg version of Computer Aided Graphics, long before there was a hope of building a computer powerful enough to do it.

I recognized the power of CAD, when it was offered to me at the place where I worked. It revolutionized the speed and precision of engineering and threw a lot of draftsmen out of work.

Heinlein was an engineer first.

His wife was too...actually a chemist and a biochemist.

The CAD-like device appeared in the novel 'The Door Into Summer'...'Waldoes' (remote manipulators) appeared in the short story 'Waldo'.

 

[James G 5]

I'm a huge Heinlein freak, I'm kind of surprised no one's talking about his later works like "Friday."

 

[Bebeslut]

I'm a huge Heinlein freak, I'm kind of surprised no one's talking about his later works like "Friday."

As far as I'm concerned, Friday was the very best of the later works. I get something new out of it every time I read it, which I haven't in a while now.

 

[James G 5]

As far as I'm concerned, Friday was the very best of the later works. I get something new out of it every time I read it, which I haven't in a while now.

I re-read it once every couple of years for that very reason.

 

[Bebeslut]

I re-read it once every couple of years for that very reason.

There have been times in my life when I've been down, and I'll seek out what I call my "old friends" -- my Heinlein collection!

 

[Bebeslut]

Favorite characters diid't play out so much, so how about favorite RAH story?
Mine include The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (in so many ways, his best novel IMO) and The Man Who Sold The Moon.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Favorite characters diid't play out so much, so how about favorite RAH story?
Mine include The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (in so many ways, his best novel IMO) and The Man Who Sold The Moon.

Agreed and add Starship Troopers.

 

[TE999]

Agreed and add Starship Troopers.

I also agree and add 'Sixth Column' and 'The Roads Must Roll'.

 

[Weird Harold]

Favorite characters diid't play out so much, so how about favorite RAH story?
Mine include The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (in so many ways, his best novel IMO) and The Man Who Sold The Moon.

YA: Podkayne of Mars

Fantasy: Glory Road

Future History: I Wil Fear No Evil

Multiverse: Number Of The Beast.

 

[Bebeslut]

YA: Podkayne of Mars

Fantasy: Glory Road

Future History: I Wil Fear No Evil

Multiverse: Number Of The Beast.

Even though I didn't finish I Will Fear No Evil, I don't believe it tied into the Future History series.

 

[rgraham666]

Yeah, it did. Lazarus Long mentioned it in passing in Time Enough For Love.

 

[Volunteerlover]

Fave story? It's a toss up between Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. I love the flavor of the novels, and the overview they provide, while fleshing out main and secondary characters we haven't seen much of, except maybe being mentioned in passing in other books. Then there is Stranger in a Strange Land. Ooh, can't forget Friday, Job, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Number of the Beast, uh, ok, sorry, I got going for a minute...

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

Another big fan especially during my misspent youth. Loved Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and wore the cover off Glory Road. Stranger in a Strange Land was a tour-de-force, and at the tender age of 13 I Will Fear No Evil was soooo naughty I'd read it in the attic. An old man in a young, sexy woman's body. Wow! My first erotica.

When my teenage daughter said "I grok it, Dad" it almost brought tears to my eyes. Sharing the love of reading...

 

[Bebeslut]

I read Stranger once and then immediately re-read it. How's that for weird?

Another big fan especially during my misspent youth. Loved Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and wore the cover off Glory Road. Stranger in a Strange Land was a tour-de-force, and at the tender age of 13 I Will Fear No Evil was soooo naughty I'd read it in the attic. An old man in a young, sexy woman's body. Wow! My first erotica.

When my teenage daughter said "I grok it, Dad" it almost brought tears to my eyes. Sharing the love of reading...

 

[mynameisben]

I read Stranger once and then immediately re-read it. How's that for weird?

That's not so weird. I once read Heinlein 6 times in a row before it dawned on me that I was actually reading a beer label.

 

[Bebeslut]

That's not so weird. I once read Heinlein 6 times in a row before it dawned on me that I was actually reading a beer label.

That's a good one!

 

[MikeIvy]

Glory Road is one of my all time Sci-Fi favorites

 

[Zeb_Carter]

How do you pick one...

Number of the Beast
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Older favs...

The Roads Must Roll
Sixth Column
If This Goes On
Revolt in 2100
The Menace from Earth

God so many great reads...

Tunnel in the Sky
Star Beast
Between Planets

etc., etc.