Robert A. Heinlein is perhaps the greatest writer in SciFi history.

… popular, influential, and controversial …

Rockin’ recommended I revisit one of his “juvenile” classics, Red Planet (1949).

Jim Marlowe is a youngster living on Mars, and he has a “pet”-friend named Willis. Willis is a “bouncer,” a furry little guy of some intelligence whose most amazing quality is an innate capability to reproduce exactly anything he hears. Jim takes Willis with him when he and his friend Frank go off to school. The new headmaster makes life miserable for all the boys with his military discipline, and he has the audacity to take Willis away from Jim and lock him away in his office.

A bold rescue attempt by the brave lads manages to recover Willis before the headmaster sells him off to the London Zoo, but the friends’ joy soon turns to surprise when Willis plays back a conversation he overheard about the Company putting an end to the seasonal migrations on Mars. This means that Jim’s family in the South will be forced to remain where they are all winter, where the temperature easily falls below one hundred degrees freezing. Now it is up to the boys to escape from the school and somehow find their way back home (hundreds of miles away) and inform their families of the Company’s intentions. Only their bravery and a little help from Mars’ unique native inhabitants give them a chance to save the day.

The Martians are fascinating in and of themselves; needless to say, they are something entirely different from little green men. …

Good stuff. Entertaining and thought provoking.

Related …

I took a couple of dozen Isaac Asimov novels (audio) on my last long road trip. I must admit Heinlein is a far more nuanced and sophisticated writer than Asimov.

In fact, I was mostly disappointed with Asimov’s Robot series of books including I, Robot.

Two characters will stay with me, though, R. Daneel Olivaw and his human detective partner Elijah Baley. Brilliant fictional creations. Jehoshaphat!

In 2075, underground colonies are scattered across the Moon. Most “Loonies”, as the residents are called, are either criminal or political exiles or their descendants …

Amazon – The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

The ringleader of the Moon’s revolt from Earthworm tyranny, Professor Bernardo de La Paz, describes himself as a “Rational Anarchist”. We would call it Libertarianism.

Very thought provoking. This book is important social commentary, even today.

I’d never read the 1966 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, but it ranks up there with these other master works:

Heinlein was a genius, way ahead of his time.

Unfortunately his frequent theme of sexual liberation reached the point of prurience in his later novels. I wondered at the time if Heinlein’s mental faculties were diminished. His last books, I thought, unreadable.

Heinlein is oft listed with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke as one of the “three masters of science fiction to arise in the so-called Golden Age of science fiction”.

I would rank him with Asimov in the top two.

Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo is well known as Hawkeye Pierce from the old TV Show M.A.S.H.

I’d heard good reviews of his autobiography, published 2005. And finally listened to an abridged audio version with Alda reading.

Alan Alda’s autobiography travels a path less taken. Instead of a sensationalist, name-dropping page-turner, Alda writes about his life as a memory play, an exercise in recollecting his childhood, his parents (dad Robert was a veteran on stage, film, and vaudeville), and his career. You want to know about Alda’s most famous work, the eleven years on M*A*S*H? You have exactly 16 pages to do so, and guess what: It’s one of the least entertaining parts of the book. …

Really, who else would name his memoir after an unfortunate trip to the taxidermist? The year the book was published during a revival for the 69-year-old; he was nominated for an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony in the same year.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned

He was the prototype starving actor who financed his lousy career by inventing “systems” to win at the horse track.

Very interesting and engaging.

I loved his story of the morning of the Academy Awards … (He had been nominated for his supporting role as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese’s film The Aviator.) … While at the grocery store he was mistaken for an elderly shop clerk.

Alan Alda is a likable actor. And an entertaining writer. Highly recommended for one and all.

His second autobiographical book, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, looks to be less appealing.