heinleinblog

Newly elected chairman/president David Silver reports that they signed up more than 50 new members at the Torcon 3, held Aug. 3-Sept. 1 in Toronto, Canada.

Also, science fiction author Michael Flynn and the late Virginia Heinlein were awarded the first Heinlein Awards at The Heinlein Society Dinner held during TorCon.

As a matter of fact, there’s a whole bunch of Heinlein news available at The Heinlein Society Website, which as been redesigned and looks just spiffy.

And the latest THS Newsletter will be in the mail this week.

From a press release:

Joe Haldeman has been elected by unanimous vote to the board of The Heinlein Society. He joins the other board members Bill Patterson (President
and Chairman), David M. Silver (Secretary-Treasurer), Charles N. Brown, Yoji Kondo, and Alan Milner.

The Heinlein Society, formed in 2000 under the auspices of Virginia Heinlein (1916 – 2003) is a non-profit corporation formed to advance the
fiction and pay forward ideals of Robert A. Heinlein (1907 – 1988), the leading Science Fiction writer of all time.

Joe Haldeman has been one of the leading SF writers for nearly 30 years. He is a multi-winner of all the leading SF awards, and has served as President
of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He is one of the writers most influenced by Heinlein, and was a personal friend. The Heinlein Society is honored to have him on its Board of Directors.

Haldeman is a Heinlein fan, to be sure, but most of the reviews I’ve read about the Hugo- and Nebula-award winning “The Forever War” describe it as a refutation of the politics in “Starship Troopers.” That’s inaccurate. In TFW, the military is comprised of draftees and in SST, all are volunteers. Heinlein was totally opposed to the draft because it props up the type of government that Haldeman writes about. I don’t think Heinlein would disagree with much on The Forever War.

But that’s my opinion.

The latest verson is available online here (Adobe Acrobat needed).

The Heinlein Society plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein’s birth with a variety of events, products, and programs. A special Web page has been set up to detail these events as they unfold.

The Heinlein Society announced that it is establishing the Heinlein Award, for outstanding published works in hard SF and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space, Locus magazine reported. The award is named for legendary SF author Robert A. Heinlein.

The award will be given periodically, but no more often than annually, and will consist of a certificate and a trophy, the magazine reported. The winner will be selected by an advisory board, currently consisting of Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Yoji Kondo, Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, Stanley Schmidt and Charles Sheffield, plus U.S. Naval Academy English professors Herb Gilliland and John Hill.