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Post by Den Tistry on Jun 22, 2009 21:47:02 GMT
Do people automatically dismiss SF these days? Robert Heinlein wrote many good 'yarns'. However, if you read under the surface, he's frequently having a rant about society. One of my favourites is Starship Troopers. (The film was - as expected - lightweight rubbish). His 'rant' in this one - bearing in mind that it was over 50 years ago - is as relevant today as it was then!
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Post by clarevoyant on Jun 23, 2009 8:07:39 GMT
Den, I don't think people do dismiss it, it's just different these days. My 14 year old has just started working his way through Wyndham, Heinlein, Phillip K. Dick, Brian Aldiss and Bradbury.
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Post by Peek on Jun 23, 2009 10:14:25 GMT
No Den, there are still new sci-fi readers coming through as the ranks as Faery says...my lad has read Heinlein and also Asimov , and in doing so he prompted my T5 to re-visit books that he read many moons ago. Stuff like that is still relevant today I reckon.
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Post by tigerlily on Jun 23, 2009 12:27:46 GMT
It's definitely still relevant today - incidentally, Heinlein had a great deal of influence on Spider Robinson, one of the newer sci-fi writers, who recently completed a partial novel that Heinlein had started in the 1950s but never published. It's really good!
I love Spider Robinson's stuff, it is absolutely great - very, very funny (some atrociously bad puns). The 'Callahan' series is fantastic, and his newer books are great, too. They feature an ageing journalist/column writer who lives on an island off the coast of Canada, and his college friend who is a telempath, along with a tough female cop.
Robert Asprin's 'Myth' books are also a great read, but far too short!
I discovered Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Harry Turtledove, E. E. 'Doc' Smith, Anne McCaffrey, Asimov, Larry Niven and writers of that ilk in my early twenties. It was an old boyfriend who introduced me to their works, he had bookshelves full of science-fiction from the 1950s onwards and I was like the cat who got the cream!
The Hippy is also a science-fiction fan. I have him hooked on Pratchett, and he returned the favour by introducing me to Robinson and Asprin.
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Post by paul Zernikazof on Jun 23, 2009 17:35:25 GMT
I have been a Sci Fi and also a Fantasy fan for many years. I recently had to purchase extra bookcases (thankfully Ikea is only half a mile away) to be able to put additions to my collection somewhere. I liked Heinlien's 'The moon is a harsh mistress' and have read it several times. I am now trying to replace some older paperbacks with hardback editions as I find them, especially the Discworld series. Harry Turtledove's World War series is one I have now got in hardback and really enjoyed. Anne McCafferey's Dargons of Pern books is one I am collecting at the moment, as is her Freedoms Landing series. For comic fantasy, as well as Pratchett I read Tom Holt and Robert Aspirin. Christopher Stasheff and Harry Harrison are a couple I would recommend. I think Den, that Sci Fi is very much alive and well.
p.s. At the risk of offending the ladies, I do have the full set of John Normans Gor series except for the last one that never got published in the uk
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Post by tigerlily on Jun 23, 2009 17:55:38 GMT
I'm not in the least bit offended, pZ!
*wonders how many people will have any idea about Gor and Goreans*
;-p
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Post by paul Zernikazof on Jun 23, 2009 22:03:49 GMT
I'm not in the least bit offended, pZ! *wonders how many people will have any idea about Gor and Goreans* ;-p That's because you know your place *tightens chains* ;D
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Post by tigerlily on Jun 24, 2009 11:33:24 GMT
I'm not in the least bit offended, pZ! *wonders how many people will have any idea about Gor and Goreans* ;-p That's because you know your place *tightens chains* ;D Exkweeze me! I'm nobody's kajira, thank you very much Mr Zernikazof!
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Post by paul Zernikazof on Sept 21, 2009 15:46:06 GMT
That's because you know your place *tightens chains* ;D Exkweeze me! I'm nobody's kajira, thank you very much Mr Zernikazof! Ahem! Its a night in the dung sack for you then. After you've done the washing up that is
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Post by tigerlily on Sept 21, 2009 18:16:58 GMT
Exkweeze me! I'm nobody's kajira, thank you very much Mr Zernikazof! Ahem! Its a night in the dung sack for you then. After you've done the washing up that is Washing up? What's that, then? (Why on Gor do you suppose Goddess created dishwashers)?
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