Hey, Look What I Found! (May Reading)

[ase]

6xH: Six Stories by Robert H. Heinlein (Robert A. Heinlein): 1961 collection of "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag", "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants", "All You Zombies", "They", "Our Fair City", and finally, "And He Built a Crooked House".

Comments

[tessfawcett]

Have you read Haldeman's Forever War? I think it's kind of the natural progression after reading Starship Troopers. I actually don't like most of Haldeman's other work (or at least am indifferent to it-- namely I can't remember the title of a single other thing he's written, although I know I've read some of them), but FW is thought-provoking, especially post-ST.

[ase]

I read FW back in the late teens binge, and mostly remember how tragic the romance nearly was. I liked it at the time, and the fact I'm remembering plot points as I type is telling.

[countrycousin]

I just ran across the text version of Star Dust. So now I have to look out for the graphic novel, too? OK

Did you ever see the graphic novels that were started for Cherryh's Morgaine series? They didn't get very far, but they started off well. I think I prefer the text versions there.

I treasure 6xH because of "All You Zombies". I have to admit that the gender bender in there was strictly for plot purposes. I love "All You Zombies" because the character literally is his own granpa (there used to be a song by that name) - (s)he is all of his/her ancestors and descendents. I regard is as the most perfectly complete time travel story.

Did you ever run across The Star Beast?

The Star Beast

[almeda]

I like the Star Beast not only for its boys-adventure coolness, but because of the long-running implicit smutty pun he managed to sneak past Boy's Life Magazine for all those issues ...

What's the Beast's hobby?

Raising John Thomases.

Re: The Star Beast

[countrycousin]

I wasn't reading Boy's Life by the time it came out - missed that. And missed the pun. I was tickled by the change in viewpoint revealed with that statement. And maybe desensitized by going by "Dick" most of my life. (and although I think I had read Lady Chatterly by then, the pet names were not what seemed to stick)

I thought the female character was very strong - I don't remember any that strong from when I was reading the magazine. But, I admit to not remembering any of those stories very clearly. I remember many "Astounding SF" stories . . . I don't think they had started letting girls into Explorers then - didn't they later on?

[ase]

Drop the text version now and find the graphic version. Exact same text, made 1,000 times better by Charles Vess's visual contributions. This is all my opinion, of course. However, I think Gaiman's comics roots show in things like this, where I respond so much more to words plus images than to words alone. Stardust is the Gaiman I bother to reread. I might own American Gods in paperback, but if so, it's the only other Gaiman I've bothered keeping, and it's packed in a box at dad's.

I'm aware of, but haven't read the Morgaine graphic novels. One of these days I will to order them and see if I like 'em.

"All You Zombies" works better as a short story than a radio play, in my experience. The thought of collapsing everyone in your life down to you strikes me as a little disturbing, and people should mess with it more.

I haven't run across The Star Beast, nor do I plan to seek out further Heinlein at the moment. I'm stalling hard in the second chapter of The Puppetmasters, and I should be all over that.

[meril]

Yes, x had to be the villain. if x wasn't, the book would have been longer than 300 pages ;)

I liked it mainly because I am amused by intentional retro. :)

[ase]

Yes, x had to be the villain. if x wasn't, the book would have been longer than 300 pages ;)

But... but... X is never the villain! When someone comes stumbling in proclaiming that X is the villain, it is inevitably Y, using the accusation as a smokescreen for his/her dastardly plan!

Yes, I have reached the point where straightforward, non-byzantine plotting confuses me. I have no idea how this happened.

I liked it mainly because I am amused by intentional retro. :)

It works well as intentional retro; sometimes that's what I'm in the mood for. McCarthy writes well enough I might pick up further novels at some point down the road. I have a four hour flight in July to pack for!

[meril]

You haven't had enough cheese in your literary diet lately, that's what.

I was going to use all my spare paperbackswap points to get the books McCarthy wrote before this one. I'm not sure I'll like the followups to this.

[ase]

Well, you know the villain's coming back. There might be maniacal laughing, and a touching redemption scene before he sacrifices himself for Queen and country. Solar system. Whatever.

(How it is you're on LJ and not IM? Holes in the internet blocks?)

[charlie_ego]

...er, I actually liked Beggars in Spain (thus making me possibly the only person of my aquaintance that did), and loved Ender's Game, actually rather more than the novella. (Although both those books suffered greatly from the "let's expand into a three-or-four-book series!" as well-- I hated, uh, whatever the third book in the Beggars series was, which I just read a month ago, and rather disliked the third and fourth "ender" books.)

...But I also read Ender's Game as a geeky smart misunderstood lonely adolescent, so I was basically exactly the target class for the book version. Which, I think, makes a huge difference-- the short story is not especially targeted, so you can read it at any age/personalitytype and it works, whereas I think the novel only works for a specific target class, and otherwise you're all, "okay, what is he whinging about now and why do we have to put up with this?"

[almeda]

I liked Beggars in Spain and Ender's Game a lot ... but then, I never read the shorter works from which they were expanded (didn't know they were expanded, actually, either of them). Beggars in Spain makes an interesting parallel read with the (admittedly awful) Jupiter's Children, which though insisting repeatedly that it's a THRILLER and not one of those icky sci-fi books, has a plot that revolves around a very similar 'let's make super-children' mcguffin. However, Jupiter's Children is all about the wrangling and intrigue around who will control the technology, whereas Beggars in Spain is about what society will be like once we have a bunch of said kids.

Also, Kress gets her science, y'know, right. :->

Ender's Game I mostly liked because (a) it was a set-at-school story (b) and the school had COOL TECH. I still love the idea of a school with Battle Rooms.

[ase]

However, Jupiter's Children is all about the wrangling and intrigue around who will control the technology, whereas Beggars in Spain is about what society will be like once we have a bunch of said kids.

Both types of stories can be quite good, if they play to their strengths. Depends on how well the themes are developed. (My tentative definition of 'thriller': the theme is "blow stuff up! No, bigger stuff!")

Ender's Game I mostly liked because (a) it was a set-at-school story (b) and the school had COOL TECH.

It's completely unsurprising to me how "cool tech" will always win out in an SF fan vote. (She says, dryly.) Can't imagine where that's coming from.

[ase]

I haven't read the short story, but I loathed the novel because I didn't like whats-her-name, the main character - Leisha? Amazon says Leisha. I distinctly remember her collapsing late in the book because some - gasp - manipulated the legal system in the service of their agenda over the truth. And I just sat there and thought, "you've been a practicing lawyer for how many years and are just discovering corruption? You're just now realizing that your mean opposite number who you thought was your friend really does have an evil plan? Wow."

I was a very cynical teenager.

Beggars kills me because I should like it. The story uses a number of tropes I should love, like bioengineering and the impact of science on society. However, I didn't understand where Kress was going with her worldbuiling, and Leisha's naïveté gave me very little reason to care. I might like it more now, but it's just as likely I would find myself on a little on evil Jennifer's side.

...But I also read Ender's Game as a geeky smart misunderstood lonely adolescent

[filkferengi]

Your reviews rock! [Nice Bujold metaphor.]

[ase]

Well thank you.

[filkferengi]

You're welcome. ;)

When is it y'all're going to Vegas? Don't forget the books & sunscreen [under 3 oz., lest they steal it from you].