Do not read one page of Job. RAH's work changed drastically as he got older. Whether this was because of a health problem that required brain surgery or his simply becoming more eccentric with advanced age, I don't know. Here's his wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein_bibliography Everything after The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is just flat out weird and self indulgent. I'd also skip Farnham's Freehold for similar reasons. If you want to read RAH at his peak, I recommend Starship Troopers. In fact, any of his work before Starship Troopers is good old fashion science fiction pulp, with a hint of editorializing on issues such as self reliance, government bureaucracy, and responsibility. You see, his earlier work was published specifically for the youth market. After Starship Troopers, there's Podkayne of Mars, Orphans of the Sky, Glory Road, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Avoid everything else. My recommendation, Starship Troopers, Tunnel in the Sky, and Farmer in the Sky. Hope that helps. .
thats weird. all of the hugo award winning books i have read have been really good. i have not heard of this author though, i have heard of some of the titles of the books just not the author.
He's old school. He and Phillip K. Dick are the two godfathers of sci fi. I quite like Dick's short stories, and quite a few of them have been made into movies (Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, etc.).
Be careful of the spoilers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers It's considered the first military sci-fi novel. .
And let me add that the book is not even remotely like the crappy movie. The director took a subject that RAH was very serious about and turned it into a parody. I'd say the movie has about 10% in common with the book, so don't let that scare you away. .
While I agree that reading his works after The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress could only be fun for the most avid Heinlein fans (and I was/am one of them), I disagree about avoiding everything else. The problem many would have today, avoided by me because I read so many of them when they came out in the SF Bookclub editions, starting in the 1950's, is so much of his early work is dated by changes in technology. With that caveat, one might as well avoid Verne or Wells, which would be doing yourself a disservice. I'll give an example of what I mean. Dr. Heinlein's Time for the Stars is one of the first works to examine the possibility of traveling close to the speed of light to another star and how a person on that spacecraft would age at a rate perceived as radically different from those remaining on Earth. Heinlein very cleverly uses two identical twins. A discovery shows that some identical twins can be helped to develop telepathy, that telepathy (in his novel) is faster than light, so it lets the spaceship stay in touch with the home planet. One goes on the trip and one stays on Earth. That drives getting the twin the chance to go on the trip and the premise of the novel. In 1939, he wrote If This Goes On -, a novella he later expanded into a novel, that dealt with a future United States that had become a theocratic dictatorship, which could be considered prescient by those disturbed by current trends in American society. Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961, actually came from an idea his wife had for a story in 1949, becoming a work that Heinlein struggled with until the end of the 1950's, finishing a 220,000 word manuscript that Putnam insisted he cut down to 160,000 (after his death, his wife had the original published). I read it when it came out and it was very radical for the time. Polyamory and individual freedom (and much more) championed in the book helped drive the counter-culture of the 1960's. Grok
Much of 40s and 50s sci-fi is extremely dated, but that just makes it more fun to read. :grin: As for RAH, you start with Starship Troopers. Everything else is negotiable. .
(Amazon) The Terror by Dan Simmons In 1845, a captain leads two ships on a hunt through the Arctic for the fabled Northwest Passage. Both ships become icebound in the Victoria Strait, and all 128 men are lost. To add more spice to this survival nightmare, the author throws in a monster as well. Very haunting read despite being told through multiple characters. This theme of horror in the cold is one of my favorites, best seen in works such as Shelley's Frankenstein and John Carpenter classic, The Thing.
Another good one is Endurance. "In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world. Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through."
Just a head's up that Half Price Books is running a 20% off everything today through Tuesday. Not that I need to pick up more books I haven't read, but I'm going to knock some more titles off my buy list this weekend.
Cloud Atlas was an underwhelming book. It essentially takes 6 stories spread out from the early 1800's to post apocalyptic Hawaii a century in the future. It tells the first half of each story in sequential order then finishes them up in reverse order. All of the stories are told in first person, some in letter form. Sounded like a really cool premise, but unfortunately it just kind of fell apart. The stories really didn't tie together very well with a weak attempt to link them together. They read as 6 separate anthropological studies, which is fine but I wasn't expecting 6 separate novellas. The other problem was the dialect of the characters. The 1800's letter writer was tough reading, but the post apocalyptic redneck in Hawaii was torturous reading. At times I think the author was trying to show off instead of putting down a coherent story. The other problem with the plot device is by the time you came back to some characters you had forgotten who some of the secondary characters were. I didn't hate this book, but I'm failing to see the universal acclaim it's receiving. It has a 4.5 rating on Amazon, and I wouldn't expect it to be 2.5. On to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Steig Larsson. Been looking forward to this book.
For any RAH fans, here is a letter he wrote to Forrest J Ackerman, near the end of WW2. It's vintage RAH. His disdain for the lazy, the dumb, the disinterested, and those he felt weren't doing enough for the war effort. He also touches on racism and civil liberty. Essentially, a patriotic, free thinking, libertarian, call to arms. Enjoy. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/05/these-bastards-let-your-brother-die.html .
Rereading Wheel of Time series. Started with prequel, but... I most definitely do not recommend the prequel before the 1st book to anyone who hasn't read the series before. I haven't reread the series in... 15 years? (I forget, but it has been a while.)
I thought The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest was a delicious read. Like the second book, there are a large number of extra characters who are introduced. Actually quite a few more than even the second book. While I would have preferred more Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, their shadows hung over even the scenes featuring other characters. With Steig Larsson's death prematurely ending this series before it go the envisioned 10 book length, I had fears that this book would end with huge plot threads dangling and possibly a cliff hanger that would never get resolved. I was pleased that this book read like the final book of a trilogy. There are questions about what will happen with some characters down the line, but all the major issues were settled. So for those reluctant to read based on the author's premature demise, you can read this expecting a sense of completion. Don't read unless you've finished the book: Spoiler I was thrilled they wrapped up "When All the Evil Happened" by nailing or killing off every b*stard that put Salander in the hospital in the first place. Zalachenko and Niedermann both got their just rewards. I was a bit concerned that Niedermann would be left hanging, but they took care of it at the end. I normally hate big courtroom finales, but this one was handled perfectly. Teleborian getting his ass handed to him was sublime reading. I loved the way Blomqvist ran counter-recon on the government agents running recon on him. And as always Salanader is a bad ass you don't mess with. That courtroom scene was the logical playout to the awesome moves Blomqvist and Salander performed. As soon as Figuerola was introduced as a sexy, tall, blonde, muscular woman, I nodded and said "Blomqvist is going to tap that." Not since Bond have I read a character that has a natural way of seducing every woman he encounters. I'm sad we won't see how the relationship with Berger, Blomqvist, and Figuerola will play out. Maybe there would have been a threesome. While fitting that the book ended with Blomqvist and Salander resuming their friendship, I am sad we'll never find out their further adventures without all the legal swords hanging over Salander. So many law enforcement characters were built up, and Larsson had to have had a plan to use them in further adventures. Ditto for the money manager at the end of the story. What were the future plans for Salander's billions? I guess some of those questions always linger after finishing a series, but they seem more relevant with the series ending due to the author's death. Kudos Mr. Stieg Larsson for a very, very entertaining set of books that I have been recommending to nearly everyone I know. I'm reading Beach Music by Pat Conroy next. I've had it highly recommended by a few friends.
**** my dad says by Justin Halpern. Pretty funny book... based on the twitter count twitter.com/****mydadsays It's not much of a book but boy is it hilarious.
Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler [Jacket description]"Originally published in 1941, Arthur Koestler's modern masterpiece, Darkness At Noon, is a powerful and haunting portrait of a Communist revolutionary caught in the vicious fray of the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s. During Stalin's purges, Nicholas Rubashov, an aging revolutionary, is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the party he has devoted his life to. Under mounting pressure to confess to crimes he did not commit, Rubashov relives a career that embodies the ironies and betrayals of a revolutionary dictatorship that believes it is an instrument of liberation. It is a penetrating exploration of the moral danger inherent in a system that is willing to enforce its beliefs by any means necessary." Amazing book which used psychological and logical arguments to drive people crazy and question themselves. Showed us how individuals can be and have been murdered merely for their beliefs and their audacity to question authority. Considered one of the great literary works of the 20th c., this was very popular reading during the Cold War.
Beach Music was pretty good, but unfortunately fell short of being an absolute classic. Conroy has a very vivid writing style and paints lush details of a variety of landscapes. In particular, he writes quite a bit about food from different regions of the world, and at times I could smell and taste the aromas and flavors he was describing. The book covers qutie a bit of regional and historical material from various parts of WWII from the perspective of several European Jews to scenes in Italy and the South. Two things made this book come up short, however. The dialogue felt a bit forced, especially when the main character was talking to his siblings. The ending was also over the top and a bit too cliche. It did not come off as believable, and it kind of marred the rest of the reading experience. I still enjoyed this book quite a bit and am interested in reading more of Pat Conroy. I went in a competely different direction next and read The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb next. Even though it's 15 years old now, it still feels more like a modern fantasy novel that has strong characters and not as much of the stock Tolkein stuff that the genre bogged down in for so long. It had an interesting arc that took it far beyond where I thought it would go. The main character is a royal b*stard who is trained to be the court assassin, which was really well played. The magic system was interesting, especially the main character's ability to bond with animals. That bond was the best written example I've read of that particular type of ability. Hobbs has a pretty strong writing style and provided a wealth of detail while keeping the pace lively for a 2500 page trilogy. If you like well-written fantasy, this is probably a series worth checking out. She has another trilogy that picks up with the same characters 15 years down the road, but she lodged another trilogy about different characters set in the same world\history in the middle. As much as I'd like to get right back to that group of characters, I'm reading the The Liveship Traders trilogy next to read them in published and story chronological order. It's referred to quite a bit as Aubrey-Maturin meets fantasy and is pretty well reviewed. I've heard good things from a few people, so I'm pretty optimistic this might trump the Farseer trilogy.
