Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 – 1988) was one of the most famous American science-fiction author of the 20th century, often called the "dean of science fiction". He was multiple time Hugo Award winner and his work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre. Hugo 2020 nominee The Light Brigade is a polemic to Hugo-winning Starship Troopers.

Four of his novels won Hugo Awards. In addition, fifty years after publication, seven of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos"—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. He was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974 and possibly the title was introduced to honor him and then become annual.

Heinlein was the third of seven children. He spent his childhood in Kansas City, Missouri. Heinlein graduated from Central High School in Kansas City in 1924 and , he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1929 with the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering. After a short stay in Navy he was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis in 1934. During a lengthy hospitalization, and inspired by his own experience while bed-ridden, he developed a design for a waterbed.

His first short story Life Line was published in 1939. His 'war' period is mostly short stories and novellas. After the war he got a contract with the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company that went from 1947 through 1959 and published juvenile novels, at the rate of one book each autumn, in time for Christmas presents to teenagers. The final installment ought to be Starship Troopers but the publisher assumed it too radical.

The 1960s was the Golden age for Heinlein, with his most famous works, including Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land.

In the 1970s he has health problems (and that of his wife) and almost stopped writing. All his later works are much more rumbling and philosophizing.

In 2020 the previously unpublished novel The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes (1977) was published

Awesome, thanks Oleksandr. I had no idea about the 2020 title.

thanks for doin this Z

Asimov and Heinlein dominated my youth reading and caused my lifelong affinity to the genre.

TomK2 wrote: "Asimov and Heinlein dominated my youth reading and caused my lifelong affinity to the genre."

Echo this. I rate RAH as the best ever still, have all of paperbacks I collected over the years and periodically re-read. Asimov besides his own novels, gave me Hugo anthologies that opened all the rest of Sci/Fi and later fantasy. Early Stephen King is to blame for my foray into that other genre.

TomK2 wrote: "Asimov and Heinlein dominated my youth reading and caused my lifelong affinity to the genre."

Every once in a while, when I am really stressed, I will read one of Heinlein's juveniles. It was a happier time. I get really tired of all the doom and gloom books that are so popular now.

if this is the wrong thread let me know but just finished D.A. by Connie Willis a short novella which is a nod to Heinlein's juveniles and worth the time. The spaceship academy is called the RAH.

John wrote: "if this is the wrong thread let me know but just finished D.A. by Connie Willis a short novella which is a nod to Heinlein's juveniles and worth the time. The spaceship..."

Thanks for the info!

I, too, was totally marinated in Heinlein novels as kid, reading many of novels 10 times or more. Even now, decades later, I find him a compelling storyteller with a prodigious imagination. I will say that some of his peculiarities became more apparent to me as I got older: a survivalist libertarian (common phenotype in sci-fi) and perhaps a thread of trans tendencies. I continue to recommend his novels to anyone who seems receptive and I am happy for their influence on me.

I avoided Heinlein for many years because I had a mistaken assumption that his work would be too pulpy and boring. I was wrong. I really loved most of The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein, and will try to read more from him in the future.

I read several Heinlein novels in my teens but oddly I never read the juveniles. I’ve read a couple of them now and they come off pretty cheesy to me. But I’ll pick away at them when I can use something light.

Man, am I glad that the notifications are back. Following any thread on my phone without them was a hassle.

Just as Allan, I've only read the note serious works by Heinlein and I was actually surprised to learn that he's written so many of juveniles.

I just read The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas M. Disch. One of the most interesting things I learned was that Heinlein's politics were originally more left-leaning than I'd ever known. He ran for office in the "EPIC" party and may have started his writing career to pay of the campaign debts.

"EPIC" was trying to "End Poverty in California" though government programs, including government seizure of businesses. That was seen as socialist by many, though the actual Socialist party kicked out anyone who joined EPIC. Disch says that it was this stain of socialism that kept him from being able to work for the military in WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_Pov...

Ed wrote: "Heinlein's politics were originally more left-leaning."

His biography The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein talks about it too. In my view there is a problem that due to the voting system in the US only to big parties can exist and people think left-right as reps-dems. Heinlein was libertarian and there are libertarian with socialist steak if this is to local, not central government

The concepts of Left and Right definitely don't begin to cover all the possible political systems, and Libertarians are sometimes seen as one and sometimes the other.

But, still, the EPIC party seems way out of line with what Heinlein advocated later. The part about "self-sufficient, worker-run co-ops" fits in. But the part about "seizure of idle factories and farm land," and government hiring the unemployed, and creating an income tax where there hadn't been one before are not ideas I would expect Heinlein to ever endorse.

Ed wrote: "the part about "seizure of idle factories and farm land," and government hiring the unemployed, and creating an income tax where there hadn't been one before are not ideas I would expect Heinlein to ever endorse."

I agree. At the same time is even early stories he mocks the current copyright system and monopolies linked to it, so he so so holders as monopolists... even so, he definitely moved to the (US) right in the 50s, because he saw the USSR as the biggest threat