Well, I\u2019ve been having so much fun with the recent science fiction discussions I thought I\u2019d reminisce about the science fiction stories that had the biggest effect on me when I was first starting out reading science fiction.\u00a0 And the one that really impressed me the most early on was Heinlein\u2019s short story collection \u201cThe Green Hills of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think it was my introduction to his \u201cFuture History\u201d stories.\u00a0 And I remember that reading these stories was different from anything else I had read up to this point.\u00a0 With the space opera stories even as a child I could sense that there was a lot of handwaving going on to justify all the faster than light travel, humanoid aliens and super-duper energy weapons and shields that somehow translated 19th<\/sup> century naval exploration and warfare into interstellar adventure.<\/p>\n His stories attempted to describe the nuts and bolts of building space stations and lunar colonies based on the best information that existed at the time.\u00a0 Some of the stories (about Mars and Venus) were highly inaccurate.\u00a0 But the stories about the Moon are still quite close to what could and maybe will be accomplished.\u00a0 In that vein I think the story that exemplifies Heinlein\u2019s ability to make believable his picture of a lunar human environment is “Gentlemen, Be Seated!”\u00a0 And the plot and characters are both so skillfully sketched that disbelief is completely suspended right through to the end.<\/p>\n Now some of the stories aren\u2019t that believable.\u00a0 “\u2014We Also Walk Dogs” involves a very clever story about a consulting business that accepts the assignment of inventing artificial gravity in order to accommodate aliens from worlds that have both higher and lower gravity than Earth during a conference on Earth.\u00a0 Basically, they bribe a brilliant physicist to accomplish this \u201csimple\u201d task by stealing a museum artifact that he covets.\u00a0 As I said, it\u2019s a ridiculous premise but Heinlein portrays the Machiavellian machinations of this seemingly unlimited consulting firm very skillfully and with great gusto.\u00a0 So that even a story as unbelievable as this one is enjoyed on its own terms.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the thing with most of these stories.\u00a0 The writing is so skillful that the reader never feels let down by the quality of the stories.\u00a0 The characters are interesting and for the most part believable.\u00a0 The plots are clever and as I said in many cases plausible.\u00a0 And at the time this was far from typical in the stories that could be found on the science fiction shelf in the library or book store.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a list of the stories that were in that collection.\u00a0 See if any are or were favorites of yours.<\/p>\n “Delilah and the Space Rigger” (1949; originally published in Blue Book)<\/p>\n “Space Jockey” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)<\/p>\n “The Long Watch” (1949; originally published in The American Legion Magazine)<\/p>\n “Gentlemen, Be Seated!” (1948; originally published in Argosy Magazine)<\/p>\n “The Black Pits of Luna” (1948; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)<\/p>\n “It’s Great to Be Back!” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)<\/p>\n “\u2014We Also Walk Dogs” (1941; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)<\/p>\n “Ordeal in Space” (1948; originally published in Town & Country)<\/p>\n “The Green Hills of Earth” (1947; originally published in The Saturday Evening Post)<\/p>\n “Logic of Empire” (1941; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, I\u2019ve been having so much fun with the recent science fiction discussions I thought I\u2019d reminisce about the science fiction stories that had the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[38,1355,711,265,4510],"class_list":["post-37151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-robert-a-heinlein","tag-science-fiction","tag-the-green-hills-of-earth"],"yoast_head":"\n