best heinlein story . . . ?

[Connavar]

Good to know about those stories in that collection. RAH

Flaws in science have never been my problem i'm all about the story. Thats why i read RAH hard sf sure but with alot of story,ideas in it. Some authors of that type tend to forget the story,ideas that arent science oriented. They try to impress with the newest science but the other important elements.

I will stay away from the future history stories in the Expanded Universe and enjoy reading RAH short stories for the first time. After that i plan to get the first few Future history novels,collections anyway.

[revelshade]

If I was introducing someone to Heinlein now I would definitely start with Hoag just because fantasy (or science fantasy) doesn't date the way sf does.

Personal favorites?

Our Fair City - wisecracking reporters versus corrupt politicians, assisted by Kitten (not a cat), my second favorite non-human Heinlein character. Why has this never been adapted for TV?

Lost Legacy - kind of a guilty pleasure, because the whole thing is purest wish-fulfillment, but I love how the story starts with a small discovery and then grows as the implications are explored, ultimately reaching backward into prehistory and forward to a transcendent climax and a haunting, elegaic coda.

Lifeline - this is a first published story? Incredible. Great last line (Heinlein was a master of last lines) and Pinero's layman's explanation of how his machine works, using an analogy from electrical engineering, is a textbook example of great sf writing, effortlessly making an outrageous idea seem utterly plausible. And seriously, first published story?

Ordeal in Space - great misleading title: the only outer space action is in flashback. A man faces his fear trying to perform a simple, unobserved heroic act. Extra points if you are, like Heinlein, a cat lover.

The Long Watch - the best and simplest statement of Heinlein's philosophy, and another amazing story I can't believe has never been adapted. The hook is irresistible: a man sits on the floor, back to the wall, in a dark room. He is smoking a cigarette. Beside him on the floor a geiger counter chatters to itself. He idly exhales smoke in its direction...

By His Bootstraps - my favorite example of what I've always called the fair-play time travel story (sometimes called fatalistic time travel): there are no paradoxes or alternate timelines. You are free to travel into your past because anything you choose to do there has always been a part of history, you just didn't know it. Another great closing line and a story that fits together like a four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Examples could be multiplied, as the saying goes. Anyone?

[Urlik]

Originally Posted by revelshade

Pinero's layman's explanation of how his machine works, using an analogy from electrical engineering, is a textbook example of great sf writing, effortlessly making an outrageous idea seem utterly plausible.

Heinlein was a master of this.
I love the explanation of how a forcefield works in Glory Road using the analogy that radio is like a telegraph without the wires to explain how a forcefield is an electric fence without the wires

[revelshade]

Originally Posted by Urlik

Heinlein was a master of this.
I love the explanation of how a forcefield works in Glory Road using the analogy that radio is like a telegraph without the wires to explain how a forcefield is an electric fence without the wires

That's a good one. For sheer chutzpah you can't beat the "explanation" of the principle behind Jacob Burroughs' dimensional doohickey in Number of the Beast. I wish I had the book handy - it's something about how if you shove a gyroscope it moves at right angles to the push. As I recall Deety explains that if you apply force from six orthogonal directions at once a gyroscope will disappear, flying off at right angles to our universe! I imagine Heinlein grinning wickedly as he typed that little bit of hocus pocus.

[manephelien]

By His Bootstraps is definitely my favorite Heinlein short, and one of the few time travel yarns that I've actually enjoyed in recent years.