Heinlein Centennial

I’ve neglected to mention it’s Heinlein’s 100th birthday.

Paul Burgess has a good Heinlein post.

Dean Esmay points out this great piece.

Naturally there’s more at Heinleinblog.

I have by no means read all his stuff, and some of it is odd or could have used better editing.  That said, he’s one of my favorite authors and biggest influences.

I am especially fond of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  I love most of the stories contained in The Past Through Tomorrow, with a special place for The Man Who Sold The Moon.  That one startled me when I read it, from the perspective of decades previous thinking about and overlap with some of the same ideas I’d had, both on how one might start and finance a space flight business in reality, and on how one might write of a fictionalized version.  There was a period of time, circa my late teens and early twenties, when I wanted nothing more than to be the person behind, and failing that, involved in, a private launch business and preferably fast track to what lay beyond.  I figured real property has no inherent value without humans to improve it, desire it, and give it value, making Mars the biggest real estate zero to whatever boom ever, just waiting to happen.

I was also especially fond of The Menace From Earth, and you’ve seen me mention Nehemiah Scudder periodically, in reference to If This Goes On.

Farnham’s Freehold to me is fascinating for the way it veered completely away from anything I might have expected and then back again in the end.  Which is to say I expected more along the lines of survivalist fiction, but got time travel to a warped future for most of it instead.

It’s enough to make me want to go reread some Heinlein!  Or perhaps even read for the first time some of what I negelected.

Posted by on 07/07 at 05:09 PM

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