For all my obscure scifi lovers out there!

[Congratulations]

I found a very nice website! It might be common knowledge and I just don't know it, but it's new to me. They sell all kinds of good scifi that I haven't heard of or can't find on amazon. And the prices are fair. I'll never be without a book again.



For those keeping score, I'm reading The Number of the Beast. I've been on a Heinlein kick lately, and I've decided his later writing is his best. I love The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. And this one is shaping up to be nearly as good.

[harpmaker]

Nice website.

I've been through most of Henleins books at one time or another. His last few didn't do too mch for me as he seemed to just be combining all the characters from every novel he wrote into one book.

Have you read the Lives of Lazurus Long yet?

[Joseph E. Smith]

I've been on a Heinlein kick lately, and I've decided his later writing is his best.

I am assuming you have read Stranger in a Strange Land. If not, I suggest you do... one of his best IMHO.

[beowulf573]

I too like his later stuff and was surprised to find out some folks only like his early novels. "Number of the Beast" did fall apart towards the end, apparently he had a stroke while writing it. "Time Enough for Love" is probably my favorite.

Recently I put "For Us, the Living" on my stack to read, it's his first novel that wasn't unpublished until recently. I've heard it's not that good but worth reading for Heinlein fans to see how his writing and ideas evolved.

I liked "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" but the ending annoyed me, I was worried he wouldn't live long enough to write one more novel.

"If they come back, I'm going to get me a Baker's dozen...." I think was the last line.

[Tyler]

I've been on a Heinlein kick lately, and I've decided his later writing is his best.

I am assuming you have read Stranger in a Strange Land. If not, I suggest you do... one of his best IMHO.

Oh yeah, if you've not read that, you really ought to, Congrats....very very good book.
(ebert&roper seal of approval )

[Congratulations]

OF COURSE I've read Stranger In A Strange Land! That was my first Heinlein book, and it's incomparable. I'm sad to hear that Number of the Beast doesn't hold together at the end. It seems so promising.

I had trouble with the ending of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, but after I sat on it for a week, I decided it was a good ending. I dunno. I liked the ending of The Grapes of Wrath, too.

[feadogin]

Sorry to be contrary but I read Stranger in a Strange Land in hs and I have to say I did not get it at all. The only thing I remember was that the woman loved being a stripper cause it made her feel all liberated or something. C'mon now! Can you say "Unrealistic male fantasy?"

I love the website, though, Congrats; I love old scifi in general. There is a used bookstore near me where they specialize in old scifi novels & I spend a lot of time shopping there.

J.

[FJohnSharp]

For anyone interested in speculative fiction, there is a new journal called GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator. You can buy the magazine for $9.00 or you can buy a PDF download for $3.50.


www.gudmagazine.com



There is a review of it here http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php? ... Itemid=325


It's a mix of spec fic and some mild lit fic. Some sort short stories and some longer ones and a little poetry that I promise doesn't bite. For $3.50 it's a good deal.

[CountryKitty]

I actually don't care for Heinlein's later books.

Loved The Puppet Master (never could bring myself to watch the recent movie version--books are usually butchered while becomeing movies). Saw and liked a version of Red Planet.

But I actually was disgusted by To Sail Beyond the Sunset--40 pages of odd plot and 400 more about wife-swapping and tons of incest and the theory that the main character slept with a timetraveler who was not only her son, but perhaps also her father. Ended with her going to the future to be one of his wives. OK, plural spouses I can handle....frankly, as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult I don't think it ought to be illegal--but sexual relations between Dad and daughters with Mom in the same bed cheering them on? That was the only book I ever threw in the trash rather than give to someone else.

[Lambchop]

Eww . . . that sounds a tad unwholesome . . .

. . . carefully erases from Amazon wish list . . .

[Congratulations]

But I actually was disgusted by To Sail Beyond the Sunset--40 pages of odd plot and 400 more about wife-swapping and tons of incest and the theory that the main character slept with a timetraveler who was not only her son, but perhaps also her father. Ended with her going to the future to be one of his wives. OK, plural spouses I can handle....frankly, as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult I don't think it ought to be illegal--but sexual relations between Dad and daughters with Mom in the same bed cheering them on? That was the only book I ever threw in the trash rather than give to someone else.

I've never read To Sail Beyond the Sunset, but on the topic of time travel and giving birth to yourself, Heinlein has a lovely short story called " 'All You Zombies--' " or something similar that is just wonderful. It's a really well-done piece of writing.

edit: I just noticed that my sig contains a quote from that particular story. There you have it.

[TonyHiggins]

I finally got around to Jack Vance's Tales of Dying Earth, written in 1950, after seeing it on the store bookshelves all my life. I bought it at a second hand store and left it fallow on my shelf for a couple more years. I read it a few weeks ago and it blew me out of the water. It turned out to not be sci-fi, but rather a fantasy that takes place when the sun is a red giant and threatening to fizzle out any time, according to the people living. Vance's writing is poetry. His characters are all scoundrels and his humor is absolutely wicked. I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciates good writing, whether they like fantasy, sci-fi, whatever, or not.

I got in bed one night after reading through the day, turned the light out, and kept snickering until my wife told me to shut up and go to sleep. I tried, but couldn't.
Tony

[KateG]

I enjoyed Heinlein as a youngster, but gradually went off of him as I began to twig to his attitude towards women and people of color. In his book, fulfillment for women consists of having babies -- Podkayne of Mars decides that motherhood trumps spaceship engineering, and it goes downhill from there, adding sex with anyone and everyone as the only proper activity for women. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Farnham's Freehold and others of that era the dirty old man gets the girl. And in Farnham's Freehold the poplution encountered by the protagonists are dark-skinned cannibals! Talk about non-PC!!! One of his earlier young adult books had a male protagonist who couldn't marry the young women he was close to because she was black. Huh? He was a good storyteller, but once he got onto his free love kick, packaging adolescent fantasies in psedo-modern garb I totally lost interest.

[Chiffed]

I enjoyed Heinlein as a youngster, but gradually went off of him as I began to twig to his attitude towards women and people of color. In his book, fulfillment for women consists of having babies -- Podkayne of Mars decides that motherhood trumps spaceship engineering, and it goes downhill from there, adding sex with anyone and everyone as the only proper activity for women. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Farnham's Freehold and others of that era the dirty old man gets the girl. And in Farnham's Freehold the poplution encountered by the protagonists are dark-skinned cannibals! Talk about non-PC!!! One of his earlier young adult books had a male protagonist who couldn't marry the young women he was close to because she was black. Huh? He was a good storyteller, but once he got onto his free love kick, packaging adolescent fantasies in psedo-modern garb I totally lost interest.

How does Friday fit in?

Regardless, I agree: he was a dirty old bugger. I'm pretty sure I've read every published word, though.

[djm]

Its a bit silly to read Heinlein out of context. He wrote cheap pulp that would sell for his time. He did not introduce too many novel concepts at one time. He did not challenge the perceived social order of his day. He made a buck and moved on.

Like other writers of the same ilk, you could easily rip them apart for not meeting current standards of political correctness. Look at how people jump all over Hemingway!

djm