Preliminary thoughts on Heinlein

[rachelmanija]

Based on both recommendations and easy availability, I have obtained Space Cadet, Time for the Stars, Have Space Suit - Will Travel, The Door Into Summer, Podkayne of Mars, and Tunnel in the Sky.

I read Tunnel in the Sky, which I generally enjoyed and will report on individually, and three pages of Podkayne of Mars, which was all I could get

Comments

[em_h]

Huh. I read Podkayne, in high school even, and I don't remember anything about it except that a teacher saw me reading it and said sneeringly, "You certainly have catholic reading tastes"

You would think that I would look back on it with horror, rather than it just being a big old blank in my mind. But then again, I guess there were an awful lot of books I had to just blank out ... and perhaps the teacher's sneeriness made me give it a bit of a pass.

[coffeeandink]

I read Podkayne as a kid and to this day what I remember best is my absolute OUTRAGE at everything about it.

[klwilliams]

I couldn't read Podkayne when I was a teenager. I can't imagine how barf-able it would be now.

My favorite of all of his is "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

[tool_of_satan]

Yeah, a lot of people justifiably hate Podkayne. I was kind of surprised to see so many people say they liked it in the comments on your previous post.

Your point about the bait-and-switch is an excellent one. (There were some related interesting comments made here.)

He occasionally managed to avoid this, but not as often as one might hope. The best example is probably Glory Road, which has a lot of weird gender stuff but does not end at all in the sadly typical way you describe. (Gur znva srznyr punenpgre vf erirnyrq gb or gur rzcerff (zber be yrff) bs gjragl havirefrf, naq cebprrqf gb trg ba jvgu ure wbo. Gur ureb funpxf hc jvgu ure sbe n juvyr, ohg riraghnyyl ernyvmrf ur vf onfvpnyyl n xrcg zna jvgu abguvat hfrshy gb qb, fb ur yrnirf, jvgu ab uneq srryvatf ba rvgure fvqr.)

[anonymous]

After reading a number of his adult books as a teen I came to the profound conclusion that he had a thing about incest.

I came across
Father/daughter

Mother/son (involved time travel so that son was older then mother)

Brother/sister
(there was commentary about how good and natural it was for older siblings to educate their younger siblings about sex)

progenitor/opposite sex clones! By this time my main reaction was, so that's why they were opposite sex clones.

This coupled with the all-woman-want-to-have-sex-with-me-and-my-perfect-perfect-genes 'hero' completely drove me away from his adult books.