How many have read any of Robert Heinlein's work?

I have seen frequent references to R. Heinlein. I will admit I read most, if not all, of his work. How many have attitudes, opinions, and philosophies shaped by him?

 

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was good... as was his Stranger in a Strange Land...

can't say I agreed with everything he wrote...

and his very last book Mark if the Beast... was way out there IMHO...

and Starship Troopers was so different from the movie it's ridicules... best read the book if ya want to understand...

someone I have recently read and enjoyed was L. Neil Smith... a lot of what appears to be Libertarian SciFi...

his book... Pallas was pretty good... something I recall from the book went something like this...

look in the mirror grin or smile big... now start in the center upper or lower... don't matter...

move either direction counting to 3...

what do you see... a canine tooth... a predators tooth... so think about it... we are predators... ???

L. Neil Smith's Books

L. Neil Smith‘s The Libertarian Enterprise: working to fulfill the promise of the American Revolution since 1995

L. Neil Smith's Webley Page

 

The one and only book that I read of Heinlein's work is Starship Troopers. We did that book for our book club.
SM Book Club- Starship Trooper- DISCUSSION I have found that many things Mr Heinlein wrote about see to be fact now. It was a really good book.

 

almost... prophetic... huh?

some other writes I have found good were future histories series... psychology group think stuff gets going in these...

there is a whole series connected with the following... these 2 writers IIRC also wrote Lucifer's Hammer?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/067172018X/?tag=survivalmonke-20

 

I enjoyed Heinlen as kid...and still enjoy his books now.
Many of his "Juvenile books" are just as good for adults , 'cause he never dumbed things down or talked down to kids.
Is he dated...perhaps...but he will give you pause for thought and a chance to question , just why things are , with every book...that is good enough for me.
Andy

 

While you may disagree with Heinlein, he was a shrewd observer of human nature and while I think he was a little hung up on sex, he seems to have hit how society was moving quite well. He graduated from Annapolis, served on one of the early carriers, got TB and was basically sent home to die in 1934. At that time the odds were very high that he would be dead in a few years. Instead new drugs, treatment, etc kept him alive and he died in 1988. Here is a man who expected to be a military officer, born at a time when radio, airplanes, electricity, automobiles, etc, were just coming into common use, watching it all develop, expecting to die at almost any time, and having enough money and such that he had time to do what he wanted. It isn't as much how well he did as amazement at how much he did. The concepts of Stranger in a Strange Land are enough to make a place in history for him, and it is only one of 32 novels he wrote. My favorite is the Moon is a Harsh Mistress and its concept of sensible anarchy as a form of government.

 

I strongly suspect that was a trick to ensure continued sales. Ayn Rand used the same trick a couple times.

 

I've been a fan for a very long time. I've read much of his work and I'm constantly on the lookout for his less popular titles to complete my list. He's right up there with Verne on my list of futurists.

 

The book linked is not the same author as Lucifer’s Hammer. LH is one of my favorite books

 

I have read most of his books, and enjoyed them. His juvenile fiction was some of the earliest books I remember. I also have read or own most of Jerry Pournelle's books, .. Great reading...

 

RAH was called the Dean of Science Fiction for a very good reason. His work was prophetic in many ways,vastly educational and endlessly entertaining at the same time.

Start with his earliest works, and read them all. You will not be disappointed nor begrudge the time spent.

His juvenile series, what we would call YA science fiction now, broke new ground and pushed the limits of what was acceptable in many ways. He even had space-faring heroes that were girls!

Back when just mentioning a girl's bra strap in public was a violation of all that was Pure and Decent, RAH actually got away with creating a situation where humans were stranded on Venus (where there is always a beautiful alien queen) and one character suggests that the best way to get back to Earth is for another to "Make love to the old girl..."

Yee, haw! And the Purity Police didn't even lynch him!

His book "The Door Into Summer" has an interesting story attached. He and Virginia (his wife) were washing the dishes one day and the cat wanted out. As cats often do, he took one look at the snow outside the front door and decided he didn't want to go outside into that stuff. So he went to the back door.

Virginia commented that he was looking for the door into summer. Robert put the dish cloth down and said "Don't say another word." Then he went into his study and in a single 10-day session wrote the book that is widely regarded as one of the best time-travel stories of all time.

In "Glory Road" he....well, read it and see for yourself. Put Heroing back on the map, he did.

Not everything he wrote was fiction. Read "Take Back Your Government" sometime.

I'll let you in on an interesting thing I've noticed. You can go to flea markets and used book stores and easily find almost any used book you want--except a Heinlein. Even the ratty old paperbacks are simply not there. That's because people keep them after they've read them. So they can read them again.

I still have a few that I bought new--more than fifty years ago.

 

A cult classic. Reprinted many times with different cover art - a rarity.

 

Read "Stranger in a Strange Land" for middle school English class. It was interesting but that was one helluva long time ago, so don't remember much about it. It did hold my interest until I finished the book. That's quite an accomplishment for any book. Usually I get bored in the first couple of chapters and put it down.

The only other book that I've read that held my interest was "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross. Read it about 20 years ago.

 

I've read a lot of his stuff. Liked most of it but not all.

 

I retract this statement. I guess Jerry was the second/co-author. I always think Niven.

 

I think I have read everything he has written. Starting with hand-me-down paperbacks from my father. I "think" the first novel I got was Beyond This Horizon, although I was such a copious reader I'm not really certain. There was also Azimov, AC Clark, Bradury, Wells, Verne, Huxley, Vonnegut, others not at the top of my brain bubble.
And: I would say I was influenced quite a bit by some of his philosophical leanings... Turned me into a stubborn cuss. Or perhaps my parents had a hand in that as well...

 

Yup.
I still have RAH titles printed in the late 40s....
oops dating myself...