From Wikipedia: Sadly the closest most people get to his work is the film Starship Troopers, aside from the omission of power armour, the film completely missed the point and feel of the original novel, which had very little fighting and focussed more on the political and social issues of warfare with much time devoted to the training and preparedness of soldiers. This isn't a huge surprise as director Paul Verhoeven admitted only reading the first few chapters before becoming 'bored and depressed'. Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel often held to be one of the greatest science fiction books ever written, was not only an instrumental text in the hippy movement, but also gave us the verb 'to grok'. Like many of his books it caused controversy, his themes of religion, money, monogamy, cannibalism and fear of death were a deliberate attempt to challenge social mores. He is often seen as one of the fathers of social science fiction, as Asimov was to robotics and Clarke was to futurism, a genre responsible for much of the post apocalyptic fiction that exists today. If you're a fan of science fiction, but haven't read Heinlein before, I would recommend Stranger in a Strange Land, then either Time Enough for Love or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Oh, and he got a credit of thanks in Starcraft.
This Thread arrived at the perfect time. I am just about to start looking through the library database for my next read and i was thinking i might get one of Dick's books, probably 'We can remember it for you wholesale'. Now i have another author to consider.
Who isn't? It's just a shame they never made any of his stuff into films. Like the way they never made those sequels to the Matrix they were talking about, or that fourth Indiana Jones movie which was proposed.
Or how its a good thing they stopped at 3 Star Wars films without feeling the need to explain how the force works.
Exactly! Although I've never read Heinlein. I really should. Any similarity to Ender's Game (I'm thinking the military preparedness aspect)?
The 1998 film The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez from a Kevin Williamson screenplay, is about a fictional high school at which the faculty and staff become taken over by alien parasites. In the film one of the characters mumbles that Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers is "a blatant rip off" of Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters. This is where I heard of heinlein. from The Faculty movie (which i love)
Definitely, though Ender's Game deals with strategy way more than Starship Troopers, it covers a lot of similar ground. The ideas of future social conventions as well as the day to day of military life not often seen in more action orientated stories, plus both protagonists stories follow their rise through the ranks. I'd probably say it was closer to Joe Haldeman's The Forever War though. Heinlein is often mimicked, mostly because his ideas were so influential they've become part of the zeitgeist of popular culture. I think there's an old B movie pretty similar to The Puppet Masters which got a lot of the same criticism when it was released, though that was more likely a case of plagiarism IMHO.
Not surprised. I got a novel which seems tome like a bit of a rip off of the movie Ghost with patrick Swayze. I'm not surprised authors and movies get mimicked. I watched starship troopers, but didnt know it was a heinlein book, like I said, I never heard of heinlein til The Faculty.
I think that film was painful for a lot of Heinlein fans and I've often wondered how many people considering reading him are put off as this is the only work they recognise.
Never really got into Heinlein or PKD. I found Asimov, Harrison and Clarke more entertaining. But why has no-one mentioned Keith Laumer? The first books of his I read were "A Plague of Demons" and "Night of Delusions" (can't remember which I read first). Laumer's work ranged from the serious through to the light-hearted and amusing, as in the "Reteif" series. Plus Laumer gave us the legendary "Bolo" tanks!
i've actually read the starship troopers book, which was cool, and while i also enjoyed the movie, it WAS a complete travesty if compared to the source material. haven't read anything else by heinlein however, but the subject made me remember joe haldeman's "the forever war". anyone read that one?
I've never read Keith Laumer though I've heard the name a few times, may have to add him to my 'authors to try' list. The Forever War was a very similar book, though I did like the concept of distorted ftl travel screwing with the tech levels of encounters between forces.
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote some good stuff. Sci-Fi with a sociology bent. I particularly recommend: The Lathe of Heaven. The Left Hand of Darkness The Word for World is Forest. Good reads all of them.
There was actually a movie made of The Puppet Masters. Quite liked it back in the day. God only knows if it would stand up today. But I haven't read any Heinlein to be disappointed by the adaptation to screen.
