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24 comments:
My favs:
Glory Road
Farnham's Freehold
Job - A Comedy of Justice
And I'll throw in Tunnel in the Sky, which is one of his "juveniles" but still a damned good read.
Stranger In A Strange Land, Time Enough For Love, Friday
Door Into Summer
If This Goes On-
Beyond The Horizon
I agree with Farnham's Freehold.
Farnham's Freehold, Stranger in a strange Land, Time Enough for Love.
I've picked up every single one of "juveniles" at either a used book store or used at Amazon, so if you want to read Heinlein, there's no need at all to pay full price. I've also gotten almost every other book (except his "lost manuscript" at greater that 50% off.
I'll agree w/ Paladin about "Tunnel in the Sky" being his second best "Juvee" (after Troopers)
I wasn't too wild about "Glory Road" and "Sixth Column" seemed pretty xenophobic.
I'll second "Farnham's Freehold" and "Job - A Comedy of Justice"
Be aware that he had a "fuck his mother" stage there at the very end, and you can google up the inside jokes he made in "Number of the Beast", which, if you just read it, comes off as an awful book.
most of his paperback books (at least the more popular ones) are totally do-able at 50 cents, $1, or $2 at the used bookstore that's tucked in the basement at the local public library.
I looked a long time to find a copy of "the Rolling Stones", finally got it off of Amazon.
"Citizen of the Galaxy" was another good juvenile read.
The Past Through Tomorrow -- it's the collection of his Future History stories from the pulps (including Methuselah's Children - the introduction of Lazarus Long - and If This Goes On).
Expanded Universe. Includes nonfiction, non-science fiction, and commentary by Heinlein.
The third is a tie, in my view. Tunnel in the Sky is excellent, Requiem is excellent (like Expanded Univers, but posthumous), but I somewhat favor Citizen of the Galaxy.
Some would call for Stranger in a Strange Land as teh "key" Heinlein novel, and I agree it is a significant one. But not one I would recommend for a new Heinlein reader, necessarily.
Time enough for love, Stranger in a Strange Land, Revolt in 2100, Methusalahs Children, The Cat who Walks Through Walls,
Farnham's Freehold
Time Enough for Love
Stranger in a strange Land
Al of the above. There's some Heinlein that's not as good as others, but none of it is bad. Especially compared to most other SF.
Roberta's correct, of course, but you did ask for just three, so my recommendations are:
1. Tunnel In The Sky. One of the juveniles, but I'd say that the juveniles are Heinlein's most accessible works. This one is a story of high school kids taking an advanced survival course test, and having to survive for an extended period when the test goes horribly wrong...
2. Have Space-Suit, Will Travel. Another juvenile, this one also deals with survival; survival in harsh environments, survival against predatory aliens, and, ultimately, survival of the human race. Along the way you learn why you as a parent should take control of your child's school curriculum, up to and including home schooling.
3. Expanded Universe. I'd call this an introduction to Heinlein themes; it includes stories, bits of biography, polemical writings, and fascinating discussions of predictions that Heinlein made in his early writings that did/did not come true in the real world, along with new predictions. Not to be missed is "The Pragmatics of Patriotism," an essay on Heinlein's own philosophy regarding love of country.
JT: All of them.
Get in good with the lending library and read them all.
That said, Farnhams Freehold, Friday, Glory Road, Tunnel in the Sky, and Starship Troopers have all been read more than thrice by me. I have read everything by him at least twice.
One of the YAs from this list -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein_bibliography#Early_Heinlein_novels - pick one, they're all good, they're all roughly on the same theme. Eventually read them all, though I recommend interspersing them with something else. (Non-YA from that list would be Double Star, Sixth Column, Methuselah's children, Starship Troopers, Puppet Masters. YMMV - they could all be considered YA, I suppose, but the heroes aren't youths. My personal favorites are Rolling Stones, Starman Jones, and a toss-up between Citizen of the Galaxy and Have Spacesuit)
Double Star
Glory Road
Then:
Stranger in a Strange Land (the original version, not the re-issue with stuff the editor pulled out put back in; I have both editions and quite frankly the editor knew what he was doing).
Job, A comedy of Justice
Check out Baen's ebooks (www.webscription.net) - You can get Expanded Universe, Farnam's Freehold, and a couple of the YA books there.
Stranger In A Strange Land
Starman Jones
Glory Road
Farnham's Freehold hasn't held up as well as other works.
Friday, Friday, and Friday.
I keep multiple copies of Friday on hand to distribute to those who haven't read it yet. Email me your address and one will be on its way to you overnight.
Oh, and if that ain't enough to convince you, there's this:
http://www.softgreenglow.com/wp/?p=4604
I'm with Mark@C over there - you poke Tam in the belly button - I'll stand behind this lead shield...
I dunno if I'd recommend Friday to a neophyte Heinlein connoisseur, though.
WV: wader - probably indicative of something, damfino what
No need, DavidWhiteWolf. Amazon is sending it right over already.
Argent: NJT's a big boy, I think he can handle it.
Friday was the first Heinlein I read, at age twelve or so. (I'm not counting the Boys' Life comic-book adaptations of the juveniles.) I survived; he will too. :)
I read Friday WAYYY earlier than I was equipped to understand it, and consequently have a bit of an odd relationship with it.
I just find it a little dense of idea, I guess. It's not as out-there as, say, I Will Fear No Evil.
the best of the best, Time enough for love, Glory Road, and Farnham's Freehold. On these depend all the laws and the prophets ( or something like them).
Why would we want to offend hippies- they now run the house, senate, and the federal government.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and the beards have all grown longer over night.
I'd avoid Glory Road (my least favorite)
If I were to recommend three others:
- Time for the Stars
- Green Hills of Earth (collection of shorts)
- Unusual Profession of Jonathan Hoague (and other works - another collection of shorts)
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