Quote: (07-11-2013 12:18 PM)Sombro Wrote:
I love most of Heinlein's stuff but totally lost interest in Stranger in a Strange Land about 3/4 through it. It just "hippied" out and seemed to be written just to Shock the Squares.
Maybe I'll go back to it some other time.
Don't go back to it. I just tried to read it too, and I could only make it about 2/3 through. The story may have been remarkable back in the 60s, but I cannot relate to it now.
That being said, I have read three of Heinlein's other works and have loved them. They are as follows:
- Time Enough for Love
- Moon is a Harsh Mistress
- Starship Troopers
Out of the three "Time Enough for Love" has made the most lasting impact. The vignettes sprinkled throughout the story are excellent, and just the overall premise of how a man could survive for 2,000 years and keep himself sane is fascinating. The ending was kind of whacked out though, but I still don't think it detracted from the meat of the novel.
The other two novels also offer interesting premises. Moon poses the question on how a lunar penaly colony can actually secede from a much larger union. Starship is less battling aliens and more about how global citizenry will look in the future. Starship especially is a great, light read.
May I counter the above examples with a turd of a novel? Ender's Game. I thought the ending was completely predictable, the motivation of the characters questionable, and just the overall feel as being boring. Of course every super nerd on Reddit quotes this book as being the best ever, probably because they're projecting (they want to be the video-game-playing geek and save the empire, but not be called out on their Asperger's).
I decided to give Orson Scott Card another chance and read a second novel of his, Speaker of the Dead, and it was worse than Ender's Game. Characters are cardboard-esque, plot not interesting, etc.