heinleinblog

You can’t mention  Arthur C. Clark without mentioning Heinlein (and some other dude who’s a tad overrated in IMHO)

British sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke turns 90 on Dec. 16. Clarke penned the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was adapted into Stanley Kubrick’s big-screen freaky fav.

Clarke is also the last surviving member of the “Big Three” of science fiction authors (the other two members of the geeky coterie were Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein).

Jeff Soyer of Alphecca fame has created an online novel called Colony. I’m just now starting to give it a read. It looks to be packed with stuff.

[tags]Alphecca,Colony,Heinlein[/tags]

This writer I think overstates Stanislaw Lem’s influence on R.A.H.:

Funny thing, then, that the best science fiction writer in the world, the least predictable and most innovative, the writer who is to Robert Heinlein and Roger Zelazny what Shakespeare is to, say, Stephen King and Rod McKuen, was Polish. He’s never been particularly popular in America, but much of the world, especially Europe and his native Poland, knows Stanislaw Lem as the genius his work so clearly proclaims. He was often curmudgeonly in his openly disdainful opinions of his peers, but his work reveals many more sides of a mind that explored science, philosophy and fairy tales with equal abandon.

Phobos Books has posted a list: 100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have To Read.

I find the list short on any real insight into why these paritcular books were chosen or why they are ranked as they were.

[tag]Robert A. Heinlein[/tag] made the list three times. Peoria native [tag]Philip Jose Farmer[/tag] made it twice.

As I read the list, I was as first struck by how many of these books I’ve read. But then I realized that some of them I haven’t, but simply say too many movies based on them.

NOTE: An interesting discussion just getting underway on this topic on alt.fan.heinlein.

SyFy Portal has a decent interview with George Lefferts, a Hollywood writer and producer who once worked on Dimension X radio program:

Between them, [Ernest] Kinoy and Lefferts wrote over 40 scripts for “Dimension X.” Many were adapted from works by well-known science fiction writers, including Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut. Lefferts made a point of calling the authors to get their feedback. He also tried to stick as closely as possible to their original work.

Hmmm … can anyone tell me which Heinlein work was adapted to radio on “Dimension X?”

And isn’t it a shame someone like this guy wasn’t put in charge of “Stormship Troopers?”

[tags]George Lefferts,Dimension X,Ray Bradbury,Robert Heinlein,Isaac Asimov,Kurt Vonnegut[/tags]

No, no, no. No one found a forgotten manuscript or outline (except the one Spider turned into a book).

But Entertainment Weekly is discussing a link between Heinlein and the hit television show Lost:

What we know about Dharma is incomplete at best, utterly bogus at worst. According to a choppy ”orientation film” found in the hatch, Dharma founders Gerald and Karen DeGroot established a research facility on the island in the 1970s to conduct experiments in meteorology, zoology, electromagnetism, psychology, and parapsychology — a dubious science that believes the brain houses mind-over-matter powers. (Think X-Men, Jedi Knights, and sci-fi author Robert Heinlein, whose 1941 short story Lost Legacy is about kids realizing their psychic potential under the tutelage of — COINCIDENCE ALERT! — Ambrose Bierce.) Our theory is that intentionally or not, the Dharma team pulled loose psychic powers from one of its test subjects — skip to No. 5 for the answer about who that might be — with disastrous results. How? With fear. Where? Where else, down in…

Hmmm … I’m going to have to reread LL tonight.

Hat tip: Michael Cassutt at alt.fan.heinlein.

[tags]lost,lost legacy,Ambrose Bierce[/tags]

While there is precious little unpublished Heinlein material out there — Spider Robinson is fleshing out an extensive outline for a book RAH never started — I am comforted that many of Heinlein’s Children are not only still writing, they have a ton of already published work that I haven’t gotten around to reading.

I just finished reading Spider’s “Time Pressure” last night.

It was a fine read. It started out as typical Spider — all folksy and a little scattered. The book is mostly about relationships and the basic decency of most people (I know people exactly like the Bents). It has a lot of sex, some of it a little graphic.

Of course, there are Heinlein references sprinkled throughout the book. Although it may be hard for people grasp, Heinlein and Robinson come from the same intellactual and philosophical DNA, and it’s apparent in this book.

I especially appreciated Spider’s observation that reading science fiction is essentially a way to prepare for time travel. Cool.

Then about three fourths of the way through, the novel turns into a sequel to a Spider book I hadn’t read called “Mindkillers.”

I’ve read sequels before I’ve read the original. But I usually do it knowing it’s a sequel. There wasn’t any warning on the cover.

So this is going to make it hard for me to pick up and read “Mindkiller,” now that I know how it ends.

But as they say, the journey is at least as important as the destination. Spider is usually a real hoot to read and I’m sure that even though I know the plot to “Mindkiller,” Spider is sure to go many entertaining tangents.

[tags]Spider Robinson,Time Pressure,Robert Heinlein[/tags]

There’s the beginnings of a good discussion on that question in alt.fan.heinlein.

Commenters insist the book is shock full of examples of characters in the Federal Service without being in the military. However, James Giford writes (PDF format) that there is no specific example of someone being able to earn Citizenship except through uniform-wearing military service. Gifford cites examples of clerks, technicians, scientists who clearly were “civilians” even though they worked for the military. And the novel clearly states that civilians did not earn the right to vote.

I am going to have to re-read the book and keep a highlighting pen handy. But Gifford seems to make a few good points here. It seems to be that there are examples of people who could not serve as fighting soliders who were instead given jobs within the military. That doesn’t imply they didn’t get uniforms or weren’t made subject to military discipline. Again, a critical reread on my part is necessary.

It’s an ipmporant question because the premise of the book is that only veterans were allowed to vote. It’s this premise that leads critics to incorrectly conclude that Heinlein was a “fascist.” It’s important to remember that Heinlein wasn’t necessarily advocating anything other than government comprised of people who understood and were accustomed to taking responsibility. Heinlein saw that personality trait among those who proudly served their country in war. There’s nothing fascist about that.

This charge was made in the 1960s, when anything to the right of center was dismissed as reactionary and being in the military meant you were a baby burner. Political opinions forged in that crucible do not die easilly. That is why this specific slur against Heinlein refuses to die.

NOTE: Of course, I might have to wait until I finish up Charles Sheffield’s “The Nimrod Hunt.” I haven’t figured out who the heros and villains are yet. And I have been wanting to delve into Spider’s “Time Pressue,” which I found in a box after I moved.

NOTE 2: I read the book again tonight. It’s still moving and thought provoking. And I used a highligher to mark every single passage in which the nature of Federal Service is discussed. While enlistees often though non-combat jobs, and enlistees who wanted to fight often found themselves serving in non-combat roles, there is NO PASSAGE anywhere that says you could enlist in Federal Service and be considered anything other than military.

So, I think we can put to bed the myth that it’s a myth that only military veterans had the right to vote in “Starship Troopers.”

Via Sci-Fi.com: Babylon 5’s Katsulas Dies

Andreas Katsulas, the character actor known to SF fans as G’Kar on Babylon 5 and a familiar face from Star Trek and other SF&F TV shows, died Feb. 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, his agent, Donna Massetti, confirmed to SCI FI Wire. He was 59.

Katsulas, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, played the Narn ambassador G’Kar for five years in the syndicated cult TV series Babylon 5, starting in 1993. He reprised the role in subsequent Babylon 5 telefilms.

Katsulas was also no stranger to Trek fans, playing Romulan Cmdr. Tomalak in Star Trek: The Next Generation. His last appearance in a Trek series was as a Vissian captain on an episode of Enterprise.

He also was the one-armed killer of Richard Kimball’s wife in the Harrison Form movie version of The Fugitive.”

He was a damn fine actor … the best on the set of B5.

That’s J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the excellent “Balylon 5″ series. He is making a big push to be the guy to reboot ‘Star Trek.’

So here’s the deal, folks. If you want to see a new Trek series that’s true to Gene’s original creation, helmed by myself and Bryce [Zabel, "Dark Skies" crator], with challenging stories, contemporary themes, solid extrapolation, and the infusion of some of our best and brightest SF prose writers, then you need to let the folks at Paramount know that. If the 48% of the 18,000 folks who voted at scifi.com sent those sentiments to Paramount … there’d be a new series in the works tomorrow.

I’ve blogged about this before. I didn’t get much support. I still think it’s a great idea.