[B-Chan]

Given the tragedy that occurred at Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo facility in Mojave today, this column is particularly meaningful. Ad Astra Per Ardua isn't just a pretty saying.

[malamute]

tanstaafl

[clilly54]

We’ll get there, despite Islam...

[Pablo64]

Heinlein is my favorite sc-fi author. I am working to complete my collection of all his books and short stories.

I had forgotten that this is his centennial year.

[Mr. Mojo]

After Pearl Harbor, to his great disappointment, he was not called back into uniformed service. He ended the war at the Philadelphia Naval Aircraft Factory, working with fellow writers L. Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov.

I suspect those three threw around some mighty thought-provoking material in conversation.

In 1958, in response to what he saw as a liberal effort to weaken America's military.....

In '58? He's lucky he didn't live to see the mid-90s.

[RonDog]

From the article:

...In 1958, in response to what he saw as a liberal effort to weaken America's military, he set aside the "Sex and God" book on which he had been working and wrote "Starship Troopers."

This was probably his most controversial book. In it he imagines a future society in which the right to vote must be earned by volunteering for service, including service in the military.

In response to claims that the book glorifies the military, he wrote: "It does indeed..."

R.I.P. RAH!

[Spyder]

Just curious if the comment I made regarding Starship Troopers on an earlier thread had anything to do with your finding this? We've had Heinlein's stuff sitting on the shelf since the 70s but I'd never gotten into it until I read a review in National Review on Starship Troopers (just in the past issue or two). Anyhow, I picked up the book since we already had it and started reading. Talk about prescient. The guy is incredible! He knew today's whiny liberal in 1959.

[ElkGroveDan]

He was an anti-communist. I had a collection of social commentary essays he wrote in the 50s. Good stuff, had a sense of humor too.

[Dave Olson]

One of my favorite quotes: "A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!" Robert Heinlein, Stranger In A Strange Land

An apt description when it comes to government's funding of the NEA.

[higgmeister]

“Door into Summer” bump!

[higgmeister]

Tunnel in the Sky - bump

[joebuck]

Lazarus Long was one of the cooler characters in American fiction.

[irv]

Decent article, though it glossed over the greatness of much of his work, not just the couple most famous ones. I grew up loving books like Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky (read and re-read until it fell apart), The Door into Summer and one of my favorites (go ahead and snicker): Podkayne of Mars.

Nobody wrote them like Heinlein did. Even when the story was not his best (Time Enough for Love comes to mind), the writing kept you riveted.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I like his Coventry for thugs you don’t kill!

[philman_36]

Lazarus Long BUMP

[philman_36]

Quotes from the Notebooks of Lazarus LongWhen a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

[Bender2]

BUMP to read later when I awake from this buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

[Daaave]

Starman Jones

Between Planets

"Seems so real you almost catch yourself thinking you may take the next bus down to the spaceport." The New York Times review of Between Planets.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

I always thought RAH jumped the shark with STRANGER, but his “juveniles” shaped my political thinking, and will be strewn temptingly around our house when my children are of an age to read and get hooked on them!

[Darkwolf377]

I’ve found Heinlein’s “juveniles” to be better than most of the “adult” SF being published now. I hated Stranger in a Strange Land, though.

His short stories were also marvelous reading—lots of great exploration of ideas, where the juvies were great explorations of character.

[Darkwolf377]

Odd how his biggest defender is ultra-liberal Spider RObinson. I believe he reworked a Heinlein novel published this year, which includes an explicit anti-WOT paragraph.