On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:22:19 -0700, "CalifBill"
wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 19:18:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

Heinlein (Stranger in a strange land... I still re-read it)

Which version - unedited or edited.

The unedited version is better and by comparison, the edited version
sucks.

Heinlien was good only up to a point. If he kept within the bounds of
his Libertarian views, he wrote some great stuff. When he started
wandering off the reservation trying to match Silverberg and Dick (who
by the way was a complete and total asshole as befits his name), he
lost it completely. Read "Grumbles from The Grave" sometime - that
will give you a whole new opinion of Heinlien.

Issac Asimov was a good friend of my Father's. They met through
another friend of my Dad's Clifford Simak - another scifi author.

My favorite Asimov story was when I was in high school - I came home
from football practice on my way to my job at the TV store and sitting
in my living room with my Dad was Asimov, Simak and Martin Greenberg
(the publisher, not the anthologist) yucking it up like there was no
tomorrow. :)

Heinlein wrote "Friday". Was a great book until he decided it was time to
end the novel and crapped it completely in 1 final chapter!

I agree, although I always saw, being a contrarian by nature, that
"Friday" was Heinlein's attempt to replicate and expand upon "Starship
Troopers". A lot of the themes found in "Starship Troopers" that were
never fully explored show up in "Friday" somewhat twisted and warped.

I didn't think it was worthy of a Nebula or Hugo award though - a lot
of "Friday" was unreadable - in some ways, it out Clancy'd Clancy. :)