Robert Heinlein
1907 - 1988
I discovered Robert Heinlein when I was in the eighth grade.
I would consume his books as fast as I could read them. Generally, I would find a library, check out a Robert Heinlein book, read it return, return the next week and repeat. I had the grade school library. The high school library, the Yuba City library and the Marysville library to choose from.
From reading the cover jackets, what i recall was that Robert Heinlein was in the navy. His books kind of reflected that. There was a lot of science (fiction) and future technology and I liked that. There was also a bit of social evolution but not covered very well.
There would be books about setting up farms on the moon, or becoming a space ship pilot. Lots of story’s to fuel the imagination.
Everything i read of his were all great reads.
He came out with something called a future history, which was a list of his books and the order to read then. Ideally it played out the future and each book (more or less… maybe way less :) built on them.
I started reading then in future history order. That was fun too. But invariably the next book would be one I never heard of.
A number of publishers have posted the Heinlein timelines, here’s one I like https://www.blackgate.com/2021/05/02/vintage-treasures-emthe-past-through-tomorrowem-by-robert-a-heinlein/
The list isn’t all his books. It’s a list of books that if read in that order represent a timeline from past into the future.
Personally, I think the books can be divided into two sections, the old stuff and the new stuff. I think the old stuff was written for a younger audience. The newer stuff was geared for a mature audience and tend to be thick books with a lot of words and little action. I liked the older stuff in my youth.
These days I an re-reading Heinlein books based on the year published. I’m still going through the older stuff. What I notice, the main characters are male chauvinist pigs. Or maybe the main characters are or maybe the main characters are overly Alpha and everyone else is Beta.
One humerous thing. .. these books started being written in the 40’s (1940’s through to the early 80’s) I find it fun to see what futures didn’t happen (people going to Mars in the 90’s) and what futures were missed (like cell phones)
They made a few movies based on Robert Heinlein writings.
- Starship troopers - great, violent
- The Puppet masters - I have not seen this.
- Destination mom - I have not seen this.
- Predestination - great! Time traveling theme
- The door into summer - a Netflix movie - I have not seen this. Not in English
More information here:
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/1845/are-there-any-movies-based-on-robert-heinleins-works