When I was in the ninth grade I joined the Science Fiction Book Club and got my first five books for a dollar. One of those books was called “A Heinlein Trio” and the first of the stories was “The Puppet Masters” by Robert Heinlein. It was the second Heinlein book I read (the first was “Between P...
I recently came across a trailer for a new movie from the Spierig brothers and decided to seek out the source story - to aid in my attempt to read more sci-fi in general and more classic sci-fi in particular. The movie is called Predestination and stars Ethan Hawke as "the Bartender" a time trave...
Before reading this, I didn't realize I hadn’t read a NON-juvenile Heinlein novel- I was beginning to think they all had spunky pre-teen protagonists thrown into gee-whiz scenarios where they nonetheless manage to outshine the adults. My previous two RAH novels, “Time for the Stars” and “Have Spa...
Oh, 1950s science fiction - is there nothing you can't do?One of the downsides to our modern information age is that we have so much information available to us. If I see a reference on a blog or in a book that I don't know, it's a quick hop over to Google or Wikipedia to find out what it is, and...
Hainlainu es esmu lasījis ļoti maz. Manā bērnībā viņu vēl netulkoja, jo autors neticēja komunisma un sociālisma uzvarai pasaulē. Vēl trakāk - viņa pasaules ir ar netradicionālu ievirzi. Skaidrs, ka ar tādām lietām pionieru prātus nav ko traumēt. Tādēļ labprāt tagad laiku pa laikam izlasu pa kādai...
Apparently a classic of the sci-fi cannon, I'd never heard of this book until it came up on a book club here. It took me a long time to read only because of lack of time, and a rather annoying trait the author has that I'll go into later.This is one of those books that tells us more about the per...
Starman Jones was copyrighted in 1953 by Robert A. Heinlein and published that same year by Charles Scribner’s Sons of New York. The sixth of the Heinlein Juveniles, it is the last one to be fully illustrated by Clifford Geary.It is also the first of his juveniles to postulate interstellar travel...
‘QUE VIVA TANTO COMO DESEE Y AME TANTO COMO VIVA’. CON ESTA MAGNÍFICA FRASE, QUE ES LA CLAVE DE LA EXISTENCIA DEL SER HUMANO, BIEN PUEDE RESUMIRSE UNA DE LAS NOVELAS MÁS SINGULARES DEL MAESTRO HEINLEIN, QUE HABLA DE LA VIDA Y LA MUERTE ;EL SIGNIFICADO DE AMBAS CON SUS VARIANTES. ‘TIEMPO PARA AMA...
This was the last book Heinlein wrote, and while it is by no means up with his real classics, such as "Time Enough for Love" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" it's a fitting enough finale for the great man. The work is essentially the autobiography of Maureen Long, mother (and wife, and lover - ye...
To start, it is the year 1994, and in Alexander Hergensheimer's world, there are no airplanes, television, computers or traffic lights. Their only form of aeronautic transportation comes in the form of dirigibles. The world is incredibly moralistic, with abortion now termed a capital offense. A "...
The first thing that you need to know would be that this book was written for children. I knew that before reading, but I still had high expectations for it. I was not that impressed with this one, and I can thank the last 1/3 of the book for that.The novel started out really strong. Anything spa...
Here’s the latest reread of Heinlein’s works, as I go through the Virginia Edition series.And this one is the most personal (so far) for me. Tunnel in the Sky was the first ‘proper’ SF book to grab my attention when I was about 8-9. It was this book that determined that I would spend the next for...
review of Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - January 7, 2015 Since I joined GoodReads in 2007 & decided to review every bk I read as a sort of intellectual exercise, I've had a rule to not let more of a backlog than 3 unreviewed bks accumulate. By the time I decided t...
For my entire adult life, and a bit back before becoming an adult, I have walked to the “Science Fiction” section of the book store and seen this book lurking there. The cover with the unzipped jumpsuit, “Ooh, silly me, is that my right breast?” has always vaguely piqued my attention, but never ...
This book is controversial. Says so right there on the cover - "The Controversial Classic of Military Adventure!" A quick look at its Wikipedia page seems to support this, claiming that the book has been criticized for its literary merit, its support of the military, up to and including fascism, ...
Is technological advancement social advancement?4 May 2014tI must say that when I read the first few pages of this book it had me in hysterics, particularly with the way Kip's father did his tax returns (by working it out in his head, then throwing a heap of money into an envelope and posting it ...
thots while reading:Holy cow, but the start of the second chapter is super-negative! Had forgotten that was the case. At the same time, it is almost hilariously funny how morbid it is. Heinlein introduces different scenarios that do not necessarily have anything to do with this story, and in ...
Here’s my latest re-read of Heinlein’s works. By 1952 we’re well into the so-called Heinlein juveniles – books published that were written by Heinlein predominantly for teenage Boy Scouts. After Between Planets, Heinlein was clearly on a roll, and in demand. The Introduction to this edition, writ...
My edition of this book is not one of the ones shown, but there's not much point in adding it. This is the 1981 edition of the Del Rey printing. It's neither a paperback nor a hardback--more of a hybrid bound paperback (maybe that's what people mean when they say 'library binding'. Actual libr...
Podkayne of Mars is not one of Heinlein's great novels, but it might be one of his most unique, with a particularly interesting backstory on its publication. And since Heinlein seems incapable of writing anything poor, it's still quite good. The book follows the title protagonist, Podkayne "Pod...
Just looking at some of the other reviews on this one before writing mine forces me to say.... A science fiction book should not get get five stars simply because it was written by Heinlein. I think this was a bad place for me to start on Heinlein's future history work. I hadn't done my homework ...
One of the things I enjoy about Heinlein is that he likes to play with Big Ideas. While he did dip into the well of action and adventure, especially for his juvenile stories, he treated his readers like they were only slightly intellectually inferior to him, and so explored concepts that required...
55. METHUSELAH’S CHILDREN. (1958). Robert A. Heinlein. ***.Back in the 1950s and 1960s I was a rabid reader of science fiction. I think part of the reason was that we were on the cusp a huge number of discoveries in the world of science that was addressed by SciFi writers. Heinlein, as I re...
I got this book the first time out of a box of books a teacher brought in to class--which, given the school, would've been when I was fifteen.Frankly, my interest in the 'adventures' was minimal at best. I was drawn from the start by the science--the descriptions of what I didn't know at the tim...
Slowly but surely, my obsession with young adult space stories will knock every Heinlein juvenile book off my to-read list. A month or two ago, I read Podkayne of Mars and while I did enjoy the audio format and the underlying world-building, the characters grated on me. I'd read and heard from se...
Beyond This Horizonby Robert A. Heinleinread by Peter GanimBeyond This Horizon is classic science fiction with social commentary thrown in as you may expect from Heinlein. Mankind has created a Utopian society where poverty and hunger are studied in school but don't actually happen anymore. Man...
With Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke I think their short stories are more impressive than their novels, and if I were to list my favorite short science fiction stories, Asimov and Clarke would crowd out almost everyone else in the top ten. With Heinlein I tend to think it's the reverse--that it...
I am always of two minds about Heinlein. He writes clear, easy to follow prose. And he is better at drawing an engaging character than his peers in the classic age of SF, like Asimov and Clarke; One need only think of Mycroft Holmes and Mannie from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to understand wha...
2.4 — 2.6 stars.If Major Ardmore, Robert Heinlein’s protagonist in his first published novel, Sixth Column, were to experience himself, as a reflection in a mirror, would he see and hear this?“Bark-bark-bark-bark-bark . . . . . . Bark-bark.""Bark . . . . . . Bark-bark-bark."". . . I think you hav...
29 short stories from 1933-1967 that left permanent significant impact on the three editors as teens.1 Rescue Party by Arthur C. Clarke (Astounding Science Fiction May'46)2 Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Aug'57)3 Code Three by Rick Raphael (An...
Fifty Exciting Experiences You visit a world where Robots strain to remember the existence of the Men who created them; hear the tantalizingly brief report of a man who returns from a trip to the future; see the snake-armed Thing that emerges from the minds of the people who conjure it. You meet ...
The Bangs & Whimpers by tons of authors such as Isaac Asinov , Arthur C. Clarke , Phillip K. Dick , Neil Gaiman ,Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Punt, Robert Silverberg, James Thurber, James Tiptree Jr, and Connie Willis is kind of weird book honestly. It is a book with all kind of different short s...
One of the things about being a book geek is that, sometimes, you enjoy getting together with other book geeks and, well, geeking out about books. Part of this is that you it makes you feel better to know others enjoy reading a particular type of novel or genre as much as you do and that while mo...
3.8 stars“Oh my gosh!”Although a conservative, staid, and constrictive tradition lies behind the 1950s, U.S. pop culture, an odd and innocent sense of fun seems to accompany it.“Gee!”After my immersion into Shirley Jackson’s dark and menacing world, Heinlein’s Red Planet, (1949), with this conser...
Here is a remarkable first-hand acount of Robert A. Heinlein's travels around the world, from the badwy sex shows of New Orleans, to the Panama Canal, the African veldt and beyond. A four-time winner of the Hugo Award for best novel, Heinlein put science fiction on the national bestseller lists a...
I don't search out author biographies but happened to pick this one up at a library sale. Heinlein has been my favorite author forever but this book was a big disappointment. It was edited by his wife after he was dead so I must assume that she is the one who messed it up. It is like he left a bo...
Compelling science fiction adventure from New York Times bestseller Robert A. Heinlein: two classic novellas and two short stories with speculation on what makes us human."Gulf": in which the greatest superspy of them all is revealed as the leader of a league of supermen and women who can't decid...
A never-before-published masterpiece from science fiction's greatest writer, rediscovered after more than half a century.When Joel Johnston first met Jinny Hamilton, it seemed like a dream come true. And when she finally agreed to marry him, he felt like the luckiest man in the universe.There was...
I woke up being slapped and was inside, lying down. The skinny one was slapping me-the man the fat one called “Tim.” I tried to fight back and found that I couldn’t. I was in a straitjacket thing that held me as snugly as a wrapped mummy. I let out a yelp.Skinny grabbed my hair, jerked my head up...
The reply came in scattered shouts that cut through the ominous, discontented murmur of the crowd.“We do!”—“We do!”—“Damn right!”“Who does the dirty work ‘down inside’—so that Joe Public can ride at his ease?”This time it was a single roar, “We do!” The speaker pressed his advantage, his words tu...
ALLAN McLEOD GRAY 1905-1975 “We need you to kill a man.” This stranger glanced nervously around us. I feel that a crowded restaurant is no place for such talk, as a high noise level gives only limited privacy. I shook my head. “I’m not an assassin. ...
I answered, "Very well, I'll write a story for girls. When do you want it?"She was simultaneously astonished, offended, and amused at the ridiculous and arrogant notion that a mere man could write stories for girls. So that's how Puddin' was born: I started writing first-person-female-adolescent ...
Heinlein. 2217 Time Zone V (EST) 7 Nov. 1970-NTC- "Pop's Place": I was polishing a brandy snifter when the Unmarried Mother came in. I noted the time-10: 17 P. M. zone five, or eastern time, November 7th, 1970. Temporal agents always notice time and date; we must. The Unmarried Mother w...
Our race has but two basic, innate fears; noise and the fear of falling. Those terrible heights—Why should any man in his right mind let himself be placed where he could fall…and fall…and fall—But all spacemen are crazy. Everybody knows that. The medicos had been very kind...
But he really was becoming inefficient as a beggar; a strong healthy youth does not draw the alms that a skinny child can. Often Baslim would have Thorby place him on his pitch, then send him on errands or tell him to go home and study. However, one or the other was always in the Plaza. Baslim so...
The Fairy Godmother Department watched over me across the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, and clear to Napoli. I lived a healthy life, exercising and getting tan every morning, sleeping afternoons, playing poker at night. There are many people who do not know the odds (poor, but computable) for imp...
EXECUTIVE BULLETIN NUMBER NINE — ROAD LAWS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED HAVE BEEN IGNORED IN MANY INSTANCES. PATROLS ARE ORDERED TO SHOOT WITHOUT WARNING AND PROVOST MARSHALS ABE DIRECTED TO USE DEATH PENALTY FOR UNAUTHORIZED POSSESSION OF GASOLINE. B.W. AND RADIATION QUARANTINE REGULATIONS PREVIOUSLY IS...