[conspire] OT: Science Fiction, places to start

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dire Red (deirdre at deirdre.net):

> I will give Heinlein points for trying to write female characters at a
> time when other men weren't, though.

He was a one of a kind -- an intelligent and adaptable man socialised in
pre-WWII America, who tried really, really hard to grasp societal change
starting around the time we were born.  He made the transition 
brilliantly in every area except one or two.  You could see that he was
trying to grapple with it, but not making it -- and failing
spectacularly in full public view.

And then, something seems to have happened to his ability to think
clearly, around 1970.  It might have been microstrokes following a
surgical attempt to remedy the arteries going to his brain[1]; we'll
never know for sure, but that was when the really peculiar and uneven
output emerged (_I Will Fear No Evil_, _The Number of the Beast_, _Job:
A Comedy of Justice_, and _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_ - along with
better works).

Even Jo Walton, who's a big fan, agrees:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/07/heinleins-worst-novel
(In fairness, I should also mention that Jo somehow got over the squick
factor of _Friday_, and she claims to have liked it.)


[1] I mean that literally.  See:
http://boingboing.net/2008/07/05/strosss-new-novel-sa.html