Blog Post Number 45 Written: 07-18-21 Uploaded: 01-27-2023
I was late to the party when it comes to Heinlein. I read Starship troopers as a teenager, and it was fantastic, (not the movie, the book you heathens The movie requires alcohol to be enjoyable.) Starship troopers (still the book) was some great science-heavy action for me as a teenager. But that was before I was a serious writer before I was carefully looking at the use and possibility of the sciences involved or the politics or, the character development so it arguably had much less influence on me than it should have other than a penchant for messy action and shoulder-mounted tactical nuke launchers. I spent my freshmen year of high school saying “on the bounce” like the cringe kid I was.
Later, after The Descendant was written, but before it was published, I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and The cat who walks through walls. Those are the three books by Heinlein I have read. I highly recommend them all, just like some of the other great authors and books 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 both readily come to mind. Anyway, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls was a little confusing and I was a little underwhelmed, but The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was fantastic. Both in its characters, its politics, its philosophy, and its science.
I don’t want to rant about it too long, But the main character, a seemingly average man doing an average job, was relatable, understandable, familiar. The politics of the people on the moon, and the politics of the people on the earth. The argument between them and the philosophy and ethics of the two different factions, I won’t get into that in detail, or my feelings on the subject, but they are significant and important to the story, but lastly, the science.
The science was good, the math, and the physics were superb. It was good enough that I had to re-evaluate my own, looking back through the completed books checking orbits. Trajectories, the math for those, and so on. Fortunately, the first book doesn’t involve spaceships or that kind of math and science. (spoilers)
Heinlein is fantastic, and from what I have read, I cannot recommend his writing enough. The action part, the science part, the technical, the ethical, the philosophical, and the political. It’s all good, each subject on its own could be good enough for its own book. But when you put them all into the same book. We’ll let’s just say the greats, are great for a reason, the classics are classic for a reason. I think that’s all the authors on my list, this should conclude my little series of talking about other authors who have more experience and success at this than I do/have.
P.S. Stranger in a strange Land is another good one, left me a little shook, highly recommend anything with this man’s name on the cover.
Chace Randolph 