Robert Heinlein

[Sukerkin]

Alas... so many books... so little space in the house....

Couldn't agree more - that's why one room of my house has been converted into a library (floor to ceiling shelves on all walls, above the door above the windows and aisles across the width).

Starship Troopers, Stranger In A Strange Land and Glory Road are classic science fiction/fantasy but I do have to agree with those that've said his earlier work was his better.

 

[redfang]

First one I read was Stranger.(Maybe it was Job,come to think of it.)

But Faves are Friday, Time Enough for Love, Number of the Beast, I Will Fear No Evil, To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Those come to mind, but I am hard pressed to think of a Heinlein novel that I didn't enjoy.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Starship Troopers was what initially got me interested in a military career. Glory Road, Strangers in a Strange Land, Tunnel in the Sky, and a bunch of others are on my bookshelf. I even enjoy Number of the Beast now and again. Could be a lot shorter though!

 

[crushing]

Starship Troopers was what initially got me interested in a military career. Glory Road, Strangers in a Strange Land, Tunnel in the Sky, and a bunch of others are on my bookshelf. I even enjoy Number of the Beast now and again. Could be a lot shorter though!

I just finished Stranger today, based on that experience and some of the comments in this thread, I'm putting Starship Troopers next on my list. I have not seen the movie, but I have heard it was one of the most horrible book-to-movies ever done.

 

[Kacey]

I just finished Stranger today, based on that experience and some of the comments in this thread, I'm putting Starship Troopers next on my list. I have not seen the movie, but I have heard it was one of the most horrible book-to-movies ever done.

Starship Troopers is a good book... the movie stunk, and had very little resemblance to the book beyond the title - kind of like I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov - it said "inspired by the novel" - and that's about all it was... from everything I heard, I never watched I, Robot; I had the chance to watch Starship Troopers and couldn't get halfway through it...

 

[Cryozombie]

I'm putting Starship Troopers next on my list. I have not seen the movie, but I have heard it was one of the most horrible book-to-movies ever done.

Its an excellent book. A so-so movie. But when you see the movie after reading the book, about the only things they have in common are some names... that movie was NOT an adaptation of the book. But then, Verhoven himself admitted he wanted to make a Giant Spider movie, and was presented Starship Troopers... and made it into his Giant Spider Movie.

 

[Cryozombie]

*thread hijack*

Also I thought this would be a good thread to bring up one of my favorite illiustrators, Michael Whelan.

Mr. Wheelan did many of the more recent (80s) Book covers for Heinleins books, as well as all the McAffree Pern novels Kacey mentioned.
​

 

[Kreth]

*thread hijack*

Also I thought this would be a good thread to bring up one of my favorite illiustrators, Michael Whelan.

Mr. Wheelan did many of the more recent (80s) Book covers for Heinleins books, as well as all the McAffree Pern novels Kacey mentioned.
​

I like his artwork and that of the Bros. Hildebrandt. Maybe they could have him redo the Wheel of Time covers, instead of that hack Sweet... :idunno:

 

[jks9199]

I just finished Stranger today, based on that experience and some of the comments in this thread, I'm putting Starship Troopers next on my list. I have not seen the movie, but I have heard it was one of the most horrible book-to-movies ever done.

Horrible is an understatement. The movie basically turned a very thoughtful and intelligent political book with a great war/adventure story running through it into a cartoon propaganda piece.

Read Starship Troopers. In fact, if you've already read it, but haven't re-read it lately... Re-read it. (I'm due to do so myself... but got myself sidetracked with the Liaden's again...) Think of the movie as a neat special effects piece only loosely connected to the book, and probably more connected to the role playing game. (And it didn't have powered armor, anyway!)

 

[jks9199]

Starship Troopers is a good book... the movie stunk, and had very little resemblance to the book beyond the title - kind of like I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov - it said "inspired by the novel" - and that's about all it was... from everything I heard, I never watched I, Robot; I had the chance to watch Starship Troopers and couldn't get halfway through it...

I thought I, Robot was a reasonable adaptation of several of Asimov's stories into a movie. Bluntly... few of his stories would make a good movie, in my opinion. They're great reads -- but too cerebral to make into a movie. Can you imagine many people having the patience to watch a movie based on Foundation, for example?

 

[exile]

Starship Troopers is a good book... the movie stunk, and had very little resemblance to the book beyond the title - kind of like I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov - it said "inspired by the novel" - and that's about all it was... from everything I heard, I never watched I, Robot; I had the chance to watch Starship Troopers and couldn't get halfway through it...

I took a pass on the movie I, Robot, for exactly the same reason. Not sure why, but Hollywood seems totally helpless in the face of Golden Age sci-fi. I can imagine a brilliant movie made from Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End—it couldn't match the book , I don't think, but it could be as good in relation to the book as, say, LoTR was in relation to Tolkien's books... but it'll never happen.

I think the best movie adaptation of a sci-fi novel was probably The Forbidden Planet. And that was probably because the novel was based on an ingenious premise but had little of the complexity or nuance that shines out on every page by authors like Asimov and Clarke; mostly it was suspense that drove the storyline, and that sort of thing usually comes off pretty well in movie adaptations.

 

[Kacey]

I thought I, Robot was a reasonable adaptation of several of Asimov's stories into a movie.

I didn't... but I've been reading Asimov for 30 years, and I have my own visualizations of what the characters should look like and act like. Now, I felt that the movie of Bicentennial Man was very well done... but if you look at the information on I, Robot, the movie, it says "suggested by" the novel - and I really think that's all it was... suggested...

Bluntly... few of his stories would make a good movie, in my opinion. They're great reads -- but too cerebral to make into a movie. Can you imagine many people having the patience to watch a movie based on Foundation, for example?

They are great reads - and that's what Asimov wrote them for - to be read, not as the basis for movie scripts - and I don't see any reason why he should have done otherwise. There are a lot of good novels that have been ruined by being turned into movies; there are some movies that are better than the book - although, IMHO, that generally only happens when the book is written after the movie. LoTR, now - that was a great job of turning great novels into good movies - but even then, I have a few problems with some of the changes... but that is, as they say, a topic for another thread.

Now, getting back to Heinlein, The Twilight Zone did a great job with The Puppet Masters - one of the better jobs of turning a book into a movie, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I thought I, Robot was a fairly decent movie in it's own right. As a fan of Asimov, I thought it was influenced pretty well by the ideas of Asimiv but with a distinctively Hollywood flair

 

[exile]

I thought I, Robot was a reasonable adaptation of several of Asimov's stories into a movie. Bluntly... few of his stories would make a good movie, in my opinion. They're great reads -- but too cerebral to make into a movie. Can you imagine many people having the patience to watch a movie based on Foundation, for example?

I don't think cerebrality is necessarily a death-knell for some book-to-move/TV project. Certainly, there are plenty of very cerebral TV series that have been great successes—just about anything by Dennis Potter for example. The Singing Detective is a very demanding, dense enterprise, but it succeeded brilliantly.

I think the problem is that normal studio production in the US relies heavily on extremely expensive special effects that require mass-audience appeal to generate the box $$$ necessary to keep the project in the black. A Hollywood version of Foundation would wind up spending eight figures on a recreation of Trantor and still more on the space battles involving the early history of the Foundation and its expansion, figuring that that's what it would take to keep audiences coming in. It's that kind of mindset that's the problem. I think any of these great Golden Age novels could be done and done brilliantly, Heinlein included of course, but not with a Hollywood studio system director...

 

[Don Roley]

You know, of all the Heinlein books, I always thought that Tunnel in the Sky would be the one best suited for a movie.

Anyone have any other suggestions?