The section I bolded is nonsensical. Are you trying to imply that some of Haldeman is less than brilliant?
You could take a look through this thread I started a while ago “Ask the guy who’s rereading all of Heinlein”:
I hope you mean Larry Niven!
I’ve always thought that Allen Steele’s writings were strongly influenced by Heinlein.
Add *Time enough for love *and Glory road, and you’re done.
Yep. :smack:
Early Niven. His output the last decade or so has been garbage at best. But definitely read Ringworld, all of the Known Space stories, all the Gil the ARM stories, and his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle.
Fair enough, but don’t dismiss his juveniles just because they’re “juvenile.” Some people think they’re among his best work. Starship Troopers was originally intended as a “juvenile.”
Just to add a bit of background on some of the books on your list:
“The Green Hills of Earth” is a collection of short stories. This forms the middle part of his “Future History” series… all the stories in that series take place within a single, unified vision of what would happen to the human race starting with what was then the present (i.e., mid-20th cent.) and going out a couple of hundred years. Many of his novels also fit, to a greater or lesser degree, within the “Future History.”
“The Menace from Earth” is also a collection of short stories, but very different. The title story is a featherweight, but the rest are uncharacteristically (for Heinlein) “New Wave”-ish… they’re kind of disturbing.
I agree with some other posters that “Mistress” and “Stranger” are his best, but there are a number of other works of his that I also like very much which are not on your list, such as “Orphans of the Sky” (really two novellas, “Universe” and “Commonsense”); “Have Space Suit - Will Travel” (my favorite of his juveniles); and the rest of the “Future History” series (anthologized as “The Man who Sold the Moon”, “Revolt in 2100”, and “Methusaleh’s Children”, IIRC). I also loved a couple of his other anthologies – “Assignment in Eternity”, which contained stories having to do with expansion of the potential of the human mind, and “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag”, which contained stories of science fantasy. (I bet the “hard science” types will be all over me for that.) And then there’s “By His Bootstraps”, possibly my favorite of his short stories. For libertarian themes, you might also check out “Farnham’s Freehold”.
Revolt In 2100 is a must-read. It’s really two novellas - “If This Goes On-” and “Coventry.” Both deal with libertarianism to one degree or another.
Wellllllll… yes. Yes, I’m afraid I am. I’m a big fan but not all of his stuff is good as his very best. Among his best, IMHO - and I think there’s no better SF writing out there - are The Forever War (itself a clever, Vietnam-tinged response/rebuttal to Starship Troopers), Tool of the Trade, The Hemingway Hoax, Worlds (but just the first one) and All My Sins Remembered, as well as as his astonishingly good short stories “Armajas Das,” “A Summer’s Lease,” “For White Hill” and “Seasons.” But he’s only human. He can’t always be brilliant. :eek:
This might interest you, BTW: Gizmodo | The Future Is Here
I will confess to enjoying Heinlein’s Sixth Column when I was a kid, although it wasn’t nearly as good when I re-read it a few years ago. Kind of an early SF precursor of Red Dawn.
That’s okay. I was just being snarky. 
I mean, the man wrote TWO Star Trek novels.
Either you take that back, or we duel. Bear in mind that I cheat in all monomachies as a matter of policy.
The above paragraph is less an actual threat than an excuse to use the word monomachy.
Fine. :rolleyes: Antimatter bombs at ten paces, then. Name your second.
Wait a second. What is this dual about? That Sixth Column is or is not good or the comparison to Red Dawn.
Haldeman doesn’t exactly brag about those Star Trek novels. (I love Haldeman, but The Coming and *Guardian *were pretty bad.)
Hold on, hold on. I’ve already gotten my anti-matter bomb primed & ready; I just have to finish booby-trapping yours so it electrocutes you, and hiring the snipers just in case you detect the booby-trap, and hiring mercenary ex-marines tasked to defend the snipers against the ninjas you will undoubtedly send to take out the snipers, and so forth. This plan has, like, 2686 steps.
I don’t remember what the duel was about. I’m not in charge of keeping track of that stuff.
Having mom rhapsodize about dad getting to have sex with their (adult) daughter in rather explicit terms squicked me out.
I hear that sort of thing from my patients waaay too often, thank you very much.
John Varley needs to knock it off with his sequels, but Red Thunder and Steel Beach are both homages to Heinlein and very much in the Master’s style.
If you’re looking for post-Heinlein recommendations, I’d suggest John Scalzi.