Heinlein's juveniles

[Connavar]

Thanks guys just what i wanted to know.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress i can read while i wait for my juvies.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG

PS...I can be quite dense it seems. I didn't even notice how old this thread was...just reviewed the post dates now.

Don't worry about it, TT: there are a lot of threads in the archives that would bear reviving, for this new generation of Chrons members!

[Connavar]

I am reading Starship Troopers which is my first taste of Heinlein and i like it alot.


The man knows how to make what i thought a "simple" military action to a interesting story.

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Glad to hear you are liking it. Troopers is a good read, but if you are liking it, I guarantee you will enjoy others even more! What do you think of the detail in the jump armour? Did training bore you or did you find the detail engaging and interesting? Damn...I have a lot of questions about what you are thinking as you read your first Heinlein, but I'll try to leave you alone and just let you enjoy it.

[Connavar]

So far i have only read 80 something pages. So he hasnt finished the training yet. I am there when he realize he has passed the hump.


The jump armour was something special when i saw it on the first mission. I cant believe how detailed it is for a book that is written in 50's.

I liked the training cause you get to know more of Johnnie and also more about Zim and the rest of MI. How the military work with thier laws and codes.

Most of all i like how he makes first person view interesting normally i dont like stories told from that view.

Now i am gonna go and finish it and we can talk more about it later.


I think after this i am gonna go and get a collection of his or just that Stranger in strange place or something. I read about it in amazon and wanted it.

[j. d. worthington]

Stranger in a Strange Land... after Starship Troopers, eh? Well, be prepared for a major gear shift on that... and look for the uncut version, by the way... flows much more smoothly....

[Connavar]

I know what its about which is why i wanna read it.


I like how he tells his views in Troopers about several things like when he talks about why some systems of goverment works and some didnt work.

I like to try his nun Juvies to see how diffrent they are and his writing are.


Anyway i can see why he is mentioned a SF master, he is great storyteller that hooks you in from the start and makes you think about diffrent stuff.

Like when he is talking about juvenil criminals and why there is no such thing. Heck loved it when he compared them to puppies that must be thaught how to behave. Funny how stuff like that from an old book can be so current.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Stranger in a Strange Land... after Starship Troopers, eh? Well, be prepared for a major gear shift on that...

"Major" is putting it mildly, CoR - if I was in the habit of giving strong advice, and if Starship Troopers was the first RAH that you've read (which I think you said somewhere), I would say leave Stranger for a little while and try The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, or Tunnel in the Sky, or something a wee bit less...ummm.... unique than that one.

(Edit) Crossing posts, CoR - but I'd still stand by my advice. TMIAHM is not really a juvenile, in my opinion, and carries on a lot of RAH's views on politics from ST.

[Connavar]

Now you are scaring me about Stranger


Whats so diffrent about comparing to his other work? Without spoilers.


I liked the idea of the story which is why i wanted to read it.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress i can read next since its not a juvie and i wanna see right now his nun juvie before reading more of the juvies.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

Whats so diffrent about comparing to his other work? Without spoilers.

There's nothing actually wrong with it, CoR, but it has been known to put people off RAH, at least temporarilly.
It's a very talky book, for a start, with a lot of discussion about religion, sexual mores, tolerance, and the views of RAH on organised religion come through it very strongly.
It's also a very long book, with noticable slow points in the story, and this has also been mentioned as a reason for people giving up on it. It's also been noted as consisting of two definite halves - the first being a typical RAH adventure story, but the second being almost exclusively devoted to the human need for religion amd social bonding, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Please, please, though, don't be put off reading it - it's one of the best books he ever wrote - but in my opinion, and I must stress that, it is not the best one to read if you've only just discovered RAH.

[Connavar]

Its his most famous so i will read for sure!

Im gonna read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress,Tunnel in the Sky,Red Planet,Citizen of the Galaxy before Stranger just to get know him better before reading hist most famous work.


I dont mind talky as long as its good. Even in Troopers sometimes you see him talk about his political views alot. I like when a writer tells you in a good what he feels about something.

[pyan]

Hope that was helpful - I don't often give such strong advice - my usual view is that people that are interested enough to post here are quite capable of making their own minds up, but this is an exception, backed-up by both personal experience, and what others have said on the subject.

[Connavar]

Also it would not be fair to Heinlein to read his most famous work before knowing him better. Might not understand as well Stranger if i read it too early.


Yeah it was very helpful thanks.

[j. d. worthington]

I'll add a couple of thoughts here on this one... I'd only read a collection of his short stories (The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, the ACE pb. edition from the 1960s) and a couple of other stories ("Waldo" and "The Man Who Sold the Moon") in an anthology, when I tackled Stranger in a Strange Land. Of course, I was 12 at the time, and it blew my little mind away.... not to mention I followed it up with I Will Fear No Evil, which was... ummmm..... very strange for a boy that age. Then I went back and read his juveniles, and on to read his other work. So I'm not sure it would necessarily put someone off... but it does seem to work that way a lot of the time.

However, the caution about this one is not that it is a bad book... or even that it is talky (quite a few of his books are that -- even his older work has a fair amount of that, if you really take note, especially things like "The Man Who Sold the Moon", and large chunks of "Waldo"); rather, it is that the philosophy that most people come away with from that particular book seems so at odds with Heinlein in general (it isn't, really; he's just going about things in a different way), which can be a bit of a jolt if you've not read more of his work and realized that he does approach things from different angles in his work a lot of the time. (Of course, I've also seen people who read Stranger first, and loved it... and then hit Starship Troopers next, and were appalled! These are the ones who tend to label Heinlein "fascist", in most cases.)

But by no means be scared of Stranger -- it's a challenging book, but I think a very good book; thought-provoking (as well as outright provoking at times! ), carrying a full range of the emotional spectrum, and does combine an adventure story with a dialectical, even didactic approach. Though some are put off on it, and it certainly has its flaws, it is a true virtuoso performance, well worth reading... but I do think that, for most, it might be better to tackle it a bit further on rather than right off.

[Connavar]

The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein? Are there good stories there? Also are there another good collection for short stories?

Does he have a series? I dont think i have seent that when i read about him in wiki. I know though that there is a character of his that appear in several books. I think he is called Lazarus.

I feel like i must read him more of him as soon as possible, he is a like a drug to me