Haven't read Lightning yet.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

Annalee Newitz

OldDog1

One of the best of the Heinlein juveniles, sez this old fart. I highly recommend the unabridged audio version available from Audible. Hazel Meade Stone also is a character in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I had such high hopes for Spider Robinson's sharecropping novelization of Heinlein's Variable Star outline, but Robinson seemed so determined *not* to write a Heinlein pastiche that he ruined the book, imo. Varley does great Heinlein - and great John D. MacDonald - when he sets his mind to it. I can't wait to read Rolling Thunder.

fhbals

Jeff-Minor

Varley was a cutting-edge, talented writer once. But lately he seems to believe he's the reincarnation of Heinlein, on a mission to rewrite the master's entire oeuvre. I'm going through _The Golden Globe_ at the moment and it is becoming very clear there's not an ounce of originality left in him. This is a sad ending to the career of a writer who was post-cyberpunk before there even was cyberpunk.

Michael_GR

Sounds like Varley could win an Oscar for the screenplay version...if he were a stripper.

I've only read The Golden Globe and a few of his short stories. I really enjoyed Globe, so I'm not sure why I haven't dug in deeper.

moff

Even old farts might remember a Heilein juvie, "The Rolling Stones" I don't remember much about it, i read it in grammar school. I guess they don't even have "grammar school" any more. I think it was a family in a tramp space ship.

I think he is writing these to be movies, especially "Mammoth" but i don't know if he has had any bites yet.
"

codydog

Annalee Newitz

So... Thanks. :)

Matt.C

oldandintheway

Annalee Newitz

I had a meeting once with a high-ranking state official regarding a project. I invited the official to meet over dinner at a rather expensive restaurant at the Four Seasons, my treat. He happily accepted, and when he showed up for dinner, he brought his girlfriend with him. To a business meeting. He had taken my invitation as an opportunity to take his girlfriend to a fancy dinner at someone else's expense.

Anyways, about a third of the way through dinner, the uninvited girlfriend proclaimed she had developed a headache. She proceeded to ask me, the waitstaff, and just about anybody else, if they had any aspirin. We all replied no. She then sent the official I was having the meeting with off on a search through the entire Four Seasons Resort for aspirin. The entrees had barely been served when he left. I was left to listen to his girlfriend blather on for eternity as to what her solution for peace in the Middle East was, how "big windmills" like mine chopped up birds, etc.

The official finally returned at about the time the desert menu was being circulated. He sat down, looking like a puppy who was about to be scolded for doing something bad, and leaned over to his girlfriend. Then came the words that will haunt me forever. After ordering just about everything on the menu for himself and his girlfriend, on my tab, he said to her, "The aspirin at the giftshop costs five dollars. Is it a five dollar headache?"

Her response was it was not. I'm thinking she must have consoled herself when she ordered two deserts.

And that's the Five Dollar Aspirin Story. And to this day I have never invited a government official to any lunch or dinner meeting at anyplace nicer than Cocos.

Sorry for the headache.

EBone

Annalee Newitz

EBone

Annalee Newitz

Tim Faulkner