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So well said, Feliks. Thank you for that. As a kid, I read two good Heinlein stories, "Day of the Jackpot," in old 1950s SF magazines, but the ones after that got more and more. . . as you say, "sappy, cheeful."
In the miasma of my youth, I liked Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, del Rey, etc.
After finishing high school, and getting exposed to Nabokov and Mann, in college, my tastes changed.
While I still view all fiction as escape literature (to all the English teachers in the world: suck it up: "meaningful fiction" is an oxymoron), I also have come to value style (Heinlein tended to bang words together well -- arguably better than Clarke or Asimov) and characterization much more.
I'm not going to get into bashing particular writers and particular periods of their writing. I will provide a couple of votes:
Heinlein's best novel, imho, was Double Star. Asimov's best were Caves of Steel and the Naked Sun, and Clarke's, the City and the Stars, Earthlight, and Childhood's End.
I think that Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein get way too much attention, unfairly overshadowing L Sprague de Camp, Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, and Poul Anderson, Samuel Delaney, Jack Vance, Jack Williamson, and many others who are, arguably, at least as deserving of praise as Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.
You're allowed to dislike Heinlein. Personally, I think some of his best work is his juveniles, and his worst is everything published after A Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. plus Revolt in 2100.
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Paula
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Nov 05, 2015 05:57PM
So well said, Feliks. Thank you for that. As a kid, I read two good Heinlein stories, "Day of the Jackpot," in old 1950s SF magazines, but the ones after that got more and more. . . as you say, "sappy, cheeful."
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In the miasma of my youth, I liked Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, del Rey, etc.After finishing high school, and getting exposed to Nabokov and Mann, in college, my tastes changed.
While I still view all fiction as escape literature (to all the English teachers in the world: suck it up: "meaningful fiction" is an oxymoron), I also have come to value style (Heinlein tended to bang words together well -- arguably better than Clarke or Asimov) and characterization much more.
I'm not going to get into bashing particular writers and particular periods of their writing. I will provide a couple of votes:
Heinlein's best novel, imho, was Double Star. Asimov's best were Caves of Steel and the Naked Sun, and Clarke's, the City and the Stars, Earthlight, and Childhood's End.
I think that Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein get way too much attention, unfairly overshadowing L Sprague de Camp, Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, and Poul Anderson, Samuel Delaney, Jack Vance, Jack Williamson, and many others who are, arguably, at least as deserving of praise as Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.
You're allowed to dislike Heinlein. Personally, I think some of his best work is his juveniles, and his worst is everything published after A Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. plus Revolt in 2100.
