New Heinlein Novel

book_reader writes "It's hard to believe but the grand master of sci-fi is back - 15 years or so after his death. His first novel that he wrote in the mid 30's and long since thought lost was rediscovered and will be coming out in November! The thought of a novel he wrote so early in his writing career boggles my mind but who will be able to resist - not I!"

Comments

My thoughts on this

[Ignorant Aardvark]

I don't know whether to be elated or scared. It's kind of common knowledge that Heinlein's earlier works are better than this later works ... but if this is his first work, it might not be all that good. There might be a reason it wasn't published up until now ... there might be a reason Heinlein hid it away for all these years. I'll definitely buy it and read it, but I'm keeping my expectations low.

Re:My thoughts on this

[msuzio]

Eh. Sounds too much like his later works.

Everything after "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" kind of sucked, IMHO. Once he got so into the whole sex/polyamory thing as a constant focus, I just lost interest. He actually managed to make sex boring to me, which is really saying something. Yeah, OK, Lazarus Long has slept with everyone and their mother... yeah, wonderful, free love is awesome, whatever.

I actually heard Heinlein was kind of pissed about how his works inspired the poly crowd, but I don't see what *else* he was intending to say in all these books. I mean, just off the top of my head -- Friday, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Time Enough For Love -- all of these books were soured for me by what seemed like constant, totally unerotic sex. In "Friday", it was almost mechanical... boring.

(Yes, I know someone will post a page-count vs. sex acts ratio to try to convince me otherwise, but I don't care).

[ ObSenselessRant: Oh yeah, and Piers Anthony is a dirty old man. "Bio of A Space Tyrant" sucked once he got into the hero having consensual sex with a 12 year old. That coupled with Xanth novels titled "The Color of Her Panties" makes me want to have authorities monitoring his shack in Florida... ]

Add the "Dune Lite" books to that list...

[Jack_Frost]

Brian Herbert's books are cereal box covers compared to the depth of the originals turned out by Frank Herbert. Still though, I won't call this graverobbing until I read it.

Re:I hate this kind of stuff

[TopShelf]

If you RTFA (I know, I know...), you'll see that what was recovered is a final draft, which required only a few "minor edits and spelling corrections." Hardly comparable to your other examples.

As to the Tolkein stuff, some was well worth posthumous publication (Silmarillion, Book of Lost Tales, etc.), but they did end up going waaaay overboard.

Maybe this will be good

[Mycroft_514]

>Let the man rest in peace. Did he approve of the editor? Did he have any input in to it since 1930?

What editor? If you read the top, it was published with only minor spelling corrections. This is similar to the tack that was taken with 2 other works after his death. They were re-published the way HE wrote them, not the way they were first published.

Spider Robinson was a friend of his, and if he has some say in the matter (he did one of the forwards for this book), then it ought to maintain some integrity.

Mark me down as optimistic until I get a chance to review it. Most of his "so-called" hack work is better then 90% of today's writers anyway.

Re:Who?

[alexre1]

I wish there was a "-1, Uncultured" moderator rating!

But for those of you who don't know, Heinlein was a master Science Fiction writer, who wrote many famous books, such as "Starship Troopers", "Stranger in a strange land", "The moon is a harsh mistress", etc. I think he wrote over a hundred works. IMHO one of the top 5 science fiction authors of all time

Here is a listing of all his published materials, for those who are interested.

And for those who only saw "Starship Troopers" and never read the book, PLEASE don't judge the author by the movie, because that movie was truly horrendous.

Re:I'll be buying.

[Glock27]

His chauvinism occasionally sets my teeth on edge, and his later works are preachy, but these are small blemishes on the body of work of a man, who above everything else, knew how to tell a story.

Given that you're a fan overall, I can't be too hard on you. ;-)

However, I'd suggest that Heinlein wasn't "chauvinistic", just that he celebrated the differences between men and women (which any sane individual recognizes, no?).

Heinlein's women piloted starships, fought alongside the men in battle, and generally bested the males involved in most situations. Given that a lot of those writings appeared in the 50's, I think he should be recognized as one of the most progressive proponents of women's equality (superiority?) of the 20th Century.

I realize some of his writings may lead in other directions ;-) but hey you have have to look at the overall picture... :-)

Vive la difference!

[Unknown Kadath]

Three points:

1) Certainly most of Heinlein's female characters are as competent as the male ones, but the air of "don't you worry your pretty little head" that so many of his mouthpiece characters have, especially in his earlier works, drives me batty. "Sure, she can pilot a starship and shoot the center out of the ace of spades at 50 paces, and isn't it cute? She'll meet the right man one day and settle down, and then she won't have to because he'll take care of her."

2) There's also Heinlein's assumption that gender roles are as they should be--this was his opinion, and I strongly disagree with it, but overall it didn't detract much from his writing.

3) Finally, a lot of his female characters break under the slightest pressure and start crying. His male characters never do. Especially in the Future History, where sexuality and gender identity is supposed to be androgynous, this bothers me. Even Galahad in Time Enough for Love, (the most sympathetic portrayal an effeminate man ever got in Heinlein) never cries.

I can ignore sexism in most of the authors of Heinlein's generation and earlier (*coughAsimovcough*), but Heinlein himself was just so progressive in everything else that a lot of his gender politics show up as glaring flaws, when they would just fade into the background in works by other writers. Writers shouldn't have to be politically correct, and Heinlein was perfectly justified in coloring his stories with his opinion, but I find that it tempers my enjoyment of his works.

-Carolyn