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Topic: Other Robert A. Heinlein books

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Subject: Other Robert A. Heinlein books
Date Posted: 2/1/2009 2:34 PM ET
Member Since: 7/25/2008
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I just read "Time Enough for Love".  I loved the book and would like to read more of his works. I also see that he has writen many books. What are some of his best works?

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Date Posted: 2/1/2009 3:35 PM ET
Member Since: 2/19/2008
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I don't think there is such a thing as a "bad" Heinlein book.  :)

If you read Time Enough For Love you'd probably enjoy "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" (which I saw being posted just last night) and probably also "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"

One of my favorite books of all time, #2 or 3 on my "life list" has to be "The Door Into Summer"  It's a love story, with some fantastic characters, and now I know why my cats always wanted to try other doors.

 

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Matt C. (mattc) - ,
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Date Posted: 2/1/2009 3:48 PM ET
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Robert A. Heinelin is probably my favorite author.  I grew up reading his young adul books, which I still think are great.  My favorite of those is probably Have Space Suit - Will Travel.  I think my favorite adult book is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  My least favorite book is definitely I Will Fear No Evil but I even enjoyed that one in a way.  I have heard other people say they disliked The Number of the Beast, and I agree it's weird, but it makes more sense if you are familiar with early science fiction such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Doc Smith's stories.

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Date Posted: 2/1/2009 4:48 PM ET
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"Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is indeed excellent.  Another good one is "Revolt in 2100", which adds to the Lazarus Long stories.  I also quite enjoyed "Friday", and that would be high on my list of "life books".

 

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Linda S. (thk) - ,
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Date Posted: 2/1/2009 10:14 PM ET
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ALL of them.  His books cover a very wide range, and some will probably not please everyone.  In his later years and after his death, several volumes of essays, non-SF stories, travel writing, etc, were published.  Grumbles from the Grave is one.

I would have to admit, though, that Job is probably my least favorite.

Not many years ago, someone republished Stranger in a Strange Land in his original version.  The one published in the 60s apparently was pretty severely edited.

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Linda S. (thk) - ,
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Date Posted: 2/2/2009 6:50 PM ET
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Someone asked me about the original/uncut version of Stranger in a Strange Land, and I collected some info from Wikipedia and Amazon.  After sending it to the requester, I thought others might be interested also.  So copied below:

First surprise--the full version was published much earlier than I thought. I just did not hear about it till much later. A few notes from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

Several later editions of the book have promoted it as "The most famous Science Fiction Novel ever written."[2]

After Heinlein's death in 1988, his wife Virginia arranged to have the original uncut version of the manuscript published in 1991 by Ace/Putnam.

These are listed as uncut:
# January 1991, uncut edition, Ace/Putnam, hardcover, ISBN 0-399-13586-3
# May 3, 1992, original uncut edition, Hodder and Stoughton, mass market paperback, 655 pages, ISBN 0-450-54742-6
# October 1, 1991, uncut edition, Ace Books, paperback, 528 pages, ISBN 0-441-78838-6

This is the most recent publication I found, does not mention whether uncut:
# March 14, 2005, Hodder and Stoughton, paperback, 655 pages, ISBN 0-340-83795-0 (Looking at Amazon, I did not see a statement whether this is the uncut.) The most helpful review says it is. That review ends with a statement I like:
Anyone wanting to understand and get a true appreciation of the genius of Robert Heinlein really must read Stranger, but I would not recommend picking this book up before you have sampled some of Heinlein's other wares. It would be a real shame to let any adverse emotional reaction to the themes of this novel deprive you of the joy and wonder to be found in countless other Heinlein stories and novels.

 

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Date Posted: 2/2/2009 7:44 PM ET
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Last Edited on: 2/1/15 2:46 PM ET - Total times edited: 3
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Date Posted: 2/3/2009 5:06 PM ET
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When I was a young teen, I read all things Heinlein - my mother, of course, had no idea about all the SEX in those books!  My favorites were Stranger in a Strang Land, of course, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (I think I read this one until it only had about 50 pages still glued together), Farnham's Freehold and Tunnel in the Sky.  Oh the days when every novel was like a little bit of erotica!  I still have my first copy of Strange..It cost me 95 cents.

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Subject: Hard to decide...
Date Posted: 2/9/2009 12:09 PM ET
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'The Puppet Masters' was the first grownup book I read and understood most of (I'd tried 'Brave New World' and a lot of it was fairly puzzling) so it's still one of my favorites. I couldn't bear to see the movie. 'Glory Road' is also great, and 'The Door into Summer' and 'Beyond This Horizon'.... And I read 'Stranger in a Strange Land' (the truncated version) while I was in the Peace Corps in Peru and was seeming pretty alien to the Peruvians, so I remember it kindly. I like 'Red Planet' and 'Starman Jones' best of the juveniles. Sometime in the 1980s, there was a two or three-part version of 'Red Planet' on during the Saturday morning kids' shows, but I think they'd changed one of the boys to a girl - excessive PC-ness at work. 'Farnham's Freehold' is my least favorite.
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Date Posted: 2/9/2009 2:09 PM ET
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'Farnham's Freehold' is my least favorite.   I can understand this statement.  I was kind of horrified by it and still could see, even at a tender age, what RAH was trying to talk about.   Rereading it as an adult, I could appreciate how RAH tackled some tough subjects for the times.

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Date Posted: 2/9/2009 10:30 PM ET
Member Since: 1/17/2009
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The first scifi my dad ever let me read was Heinlein's PODKAYNE OF MARS.  I loved it.  And 40 years later I still read scifi!  A must read and the other that was suggested is THE CAT WHO WALKED THRU WALLS, that one is fantastic too.

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Date Posted: 2/11/2009 8:30 PM ET
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Glad to see someone mention Have Spacesuit Will Travel. I read it years ago and loved it.

 

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Date Posted: 2/16/2009 1:06 AM ET
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Stranger in a Strange Land is probably his most famous -- but the first half of the book and the second half are almost two separate books, they're so different.  Back in the 70s, Paramount hired me to write the "bible" (breakdown) of the book for a mini-series (that was never made).  It was a rough job.

I think my favorite Heinlein book is Glory Road.