Something about the master- Heinlein, Robinson, Niven, et al.

In My Humble Opinion
61

Apparently, the woman was an armchair Freudian, and everything had sexual connotations.

Heinlein didn’t publish the letter the editor (Alice Dagliesh) wrote where she describes him as such, but in a letter from Heinlein to his agent, he discusses it (Grumbles from the Grave) and goes on to tell his agent that they may have to look for a new publisher, since Heinlein, upset by this, apparently responded to Dagliesh’s criticisms by writing back subjecting one the ‘girl-and-her-horsie’ books that Dagliesh wrote with the same “Freudian” analysis. I’d pay major bucks to see that letter. :slight_smile:

As far as I’ve figured, Dagliesh was refering to Willis’s extensible eye stalks. Maybe. But anyone who objected strongly (and she did) to flat-cat’s “pulsating love habits” (approx. quote: I don’t have Grumbles handy) isn’t someone who’s opinion I trust.

Another notorious incident, a library journal (I believe) published an article or a letter which was all huffy about the lack of lit’rary virtue and purity in that rocket-ship stuff that Heinlein wrote. Dagleish wrote to the journal to conceed all the writer’s points! We’d probably have more Juvies if the publisher had given Heinlein an editor he could work with.

**

Clean living, hard work and our strength is that of 10 men because our hearts are pure! :smiley:

Fenris

62

I love Niven’s earlier work, Protector being one of my favorites, but his most of his collaborations and newer stuff don’t have the same…energy? to me. But Niven’s earlier Known Space books overflowed with fantastic ideas: boosterspice, Slaver Stasis Boxes, Sunflowers, Bandersnatch, variable swords, General Product Hulls, bodylegging, ramscoops, stage trees, the whole “slaver war” concept…<sigh> Greg Egan comes close, but no-one, not even Niven himself, anymore, can compare with Young Niven.

Fenris

63

Damn. Looks like I got trumped on some of the biggies: LeGuin, Brin, Vinge, Zelazny, etc.

I’d also like to add Walter Jon Williams and E. E. “Doc” Smith to the list. WJW because he writes incredibly tight, well-researched fiction (Hardwired, Aristoi, Voice of the Whirlwind, Facets), and Doc because, well, he’s Doc. If you want to read good pulp (a contradiction?), he’s the Man.

Either way, I’ve never read anything by either that I didn’t immediately love (well, Doc’s Triplanetary started a bit slow…).

A bit surprised that so many people have read Cordwainer Smith. Doesn’t get much publicity.

64

I would add Pam Sargent to the names previously mentioned. I’ve been reading male dominated sci-fi for 25 years, so it was nice to read some stuff with a little different perspective. “The Shore Of Women” is very good.

65

I completely concur on Piper, Vinge, and Pangborn. Sad story: Piper was badly in debt and thinking his writing career was a failure, and suicided. At the precise time that his agent was trying to locate him with a quite lucrative contract for more of his books.

My wife is absurdly in love with little Fuzzies.

Vinge is simply amazing. What he’s done with the universe has to be read to be believed.

I have to differ with Lynn, though, on Miles. The character development in that series is something that few writers in any genre are capable of – and much of her recent work has been from different POV’s: Mirror Dance was told largely from Mark’s, and some of Komarr and much of A Civil Campaign was from Ekaterin’s. Plus she has been working on rounding out the characters of Simon Illyan, Alys and Ivan Vorpatril, etc., and using the later-life Aral and Cordelia as active participants in plotlines. According to threads devoted to her over at the Baen Books site’s bulletin board, in which she participates, she’s taking a break from the Vorkosigan series to write another fantasy, and her next book will take place after Miles and Ekaterin’s wedding. Although I doubt strongly, with those two characters, if you’ll see any “domesticity” to speak of.

Although, as an Analog subscriber, I do see your point – though the last couple of books were not serialized.

I’ve always felt that Have Space Suit – Will Travel is almost the ideal introduction to SF for a non-fan. You start out with the equivalent of a 1950 Middle America setting, and by slow and easy steps end up with a mind-stretching universe. If that doesn’t addict someone to SF, they’re either dead or brain dead.

Spider will not be interested in getting into SD. He’s quite well aware of alt.callahans newsgroup, and refuses to go there. It’s an issue of self-preservation: Can you imagine (a) what the creator of the series would encounter in the line of E-mails, threads with questions, and such, and (b) what a temptation it would be for him, of all people, to mire himself there 24-7 and never write paying copy again? BTW, I wonder what he can possibly do after Callahan’s Key. “When you’ve destroyed the universe, what’s left for a challenge?” :wink:

66

Poly, sad to say, it’s even worse than that: My understanding is that, to pay off debts, Piper’s family sold or gave up the story rights to <whichever state he was living in>. Now the state won’t sell the rights, or let the books be reprinted. I’m garbling the heck out of the details, but the gist is correct.

Fenris

67

Centre County, Pennsylvania, was where he lived. Why d’you think Hos-Hostigos is located there?! (BTW, I have no proof, but I understand there was a real Officer Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania Highway Patrol, after whom Lord K. was named.)

68

Actually all of Piper’s works were last reprinted in the late 70s by Ace. That was the same time that they found the unfinished manuscript for Fuzzies and Other People and first published it. There is presently a trade paperback The Complete Fuzzy out from Ace and The Complete Paratime is coming out soon. If both of them do well, it may be possible for more of his stuff to be reprinted again. The only thing that keeps Piper from being reprinted is that Ace does not think it will sell.

And for new stuff, Jerry Pournelle is legally able to write new stories set in Piper’s universes any time he wants.

69

It just dawned on me…I cannot let an SF thread pass without shamelessly plugging E. Everett Evans’ god-awful, gotta love it, late-50s novel “Man of Many Minds.” It’s got Federation Cadets with psi-powers taking on the mission of saving the galaxy where all adults have failed, bugs, space pirates, and probably a virgin heroine or two. In short, what’s not to love.

Read it if you’re in a 10-12-year-old frame of mind.

Sir

70

I’ve read it and love it. It’s horribly dated and cliched, but Evans is a decent writer, which makes it a facinating read.

Fenris

71

[slight hijack]
Forgot earlier to brag that one of my most precious possessions is a chit good for a free drink at Callahan’s Place signed by both Spider and Jeanne, a result of a contest Spider ran in Analog back in the 80s sometime.
[/slight hijack]

Must add to the list, the wonderful ** Lord D’Arcy ** stories by ** Randall Garrett ** in a universe where magic works, physical science is roughly that of Victorian England, the Plantagenets are still firmly on the throne in England & France and Lord D’Arcy, whose character is similar to that of Sherlock Holmes, is ably assisted not by a doctor, but by a tubby master sorcerer by the name of Sean O’Lochlann (sp?). After Garrett’s death, Michael Kurland added two more novels to the canon, and IMHO did a fine job with them.

72

Seventy posts and no one has mentioned the real master, Gene Wolfe?

Simply put, he is one of the greatest stylists writing in English today. His characterizations are brilliant, his narratives luminous, and his imagery is spellbinding. I am slowly but surely reading every word the man ever wrote.

For the new Wolfe reader, I would suggest starting with his most monumental work, The Book of the New Sun, divided into two volumes: Shadow of the Torturer/Claw of the Conciliator and Sword of the Lictor/Citadel of the Autarch.

I don’t even know how to introduce such a masterpiece.

MR

73

You don’t need to. GW is the man.

As long as we’re talking about more obscure writers, I recommend picking up this lifetime anthology of Jack Williamson short stories. Can’t remember the name offhand but it has representative fiction from his entire lifespan, ranging from the first story he wrote at age 16, all the way up his recent stuff.

It’s amazing watching the evolution of a writer over 6 or 7 decades.

74

My nod goes to the short stories of C. M. Kornbluth, and in particular “The Marching Morons.” Kornbluth was a master of cynicism and moral conflict, with a sense of humor so black that it borders on the pathological.

I don’t know how it happened, but somehow a Kornbluth joke weaseled its way (adjusted for inflation) into the Schwartzenegger film The Running Man. In the film, a man hosting a television game show lustily says, “I’d buy that for a dollar!” The TV crowd laughs, and the several times I saw it in the theater (don’t ask) the audience got a good laugh out of it as well, even though the phrase is never explained.

Kornbluth’s ghost must have laughed, too. In “The Marching Morons,” the phrase “would you buy it for a quarter?” triggers a conditioned laugh reflex among a low-I.Q. population. Some scriptwriter in Hollywood must still be chuckling about the one clever line he got past the execs while working on that film (“he had to split” excepted).

75

My faves for RAH:

  1. The moon is a harsh mistress
  2. Stranger in a strange land
  3. Glory Road

Can’t believe that no-one mentioned the last one yet (or did I miss it?).

76

I have to agree about Glen Cook and Passage At Arms. It was fantastic, also in the same “Cook” universe is The Starfisher’s Trilogy. Also very good.

77

For years, having beeing exposed to the “Foundation IS SF” mindset, I avoided the genre like the plague. Then a friend introduced me to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. RAH and I have been friends ever since (with me, of course, getting much more out of the relationship than he).

What I most like about RAH is his humanity. Not the humanity of his characters or his stories (even though they excel) but in his humanity as an author. Some of his pieces dance in the heavens; some of them are just purely smelly and others fall in between. This is true of anyone who puts out a great volume ov work, but RAH seems the most consistently, well, unapologetically human about it.

While I adore Harsh Mistress, it actually gets a tie for me with Glory Road. Little philosophy, but one of the most FUN stories I’ve read. Those two taken together show the serious thinker and just good old storyteller that we were lucky enough to have live in the person of RAH.

Since discovering Heinlein and the realization that not all SF needs to suck, I’ve become a big BIG fan of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson as well.

78

As I’ve posted elsewhere, the thing that got me to sign up for the SDMB was seeing the outpouring of grief, affection and support at the passing of WallyM7.

As I read those pages upon pages of recollections, cherished memories and fond farewells, I remember thinking through my tears at the passing of this complete stranger (an occasion about as rare as the sun rising from the south), that this was a place Jake Stonebender and Lady Sally would feel right at home in.

Glad I’m not the only one that has seen the resemblance.