Who Do You Think is Greater, Robert A Heinlein or Poul Anderson ?

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BAYLOR

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Robert A Heinlein The Man who gave us Such Novels as Stanger in A Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Glory Road , The Moon is Harsh , Mistress and and so many other great novels and stories


or


Poul Anderson who gave us Ensign Flandry , the Brokken Sword , Tau Zeo and so many other wonderful books and stories


Which of them do you think is greater? Which of them do you prefer and why? :)
 
It rather depends what you mean by greater, I think Baylor.

Largest cultural footprint? Heinlein
Most significant influence on the genre? Heinlein
Most widely read currently? Heinlein
Most likely to be read 50 years from now? Probably Heinlein
Greatest number of significant works that I personally admire very much? Anderson
Most consistent output across their whole career? Anderson
Most words and expressions added to English language? Heinlein
Best hard SF novel? Anderson
Best at fantasy? Anderson
Most Hugo and Nebula Awards? Anderson
Most books published? Anderson
Greatest proponent of incest? Heinlein
Fullest head of hair? Anderson
Grumpiest? Heinlein
Best pipe? Anderson

As to which I prefer..., very difficult. I love a lot of Heinlein, but if I was told I could only read one no the other from hereon, I would probably pick Anderson, though its not a choice I'd want to make.
 
Bick said:
It rather depends what you mean by greater, I think Baylor.

Largest cultural footprint? Heinlein
Most significant influence on the genre? Heinlein
Most widely read currently? Heinlein
Most likely to be read 50 years from now? Probably Heinlein
Greatest number of significant works that I personally admire very much? Anderson
Most consistent output across their whole career? Anderson
Most words and expressions added to English language? Heinlein
Best hard SF novel? Anderson
Best at fantasy? Anderson
Most Hugo and Nebula Awards? Anderson
Most books published? Anderson
Greatest proponent of incest? Heinlein
Fullest head of hair? Anderson
Grumpiest? Heinlein
Best pipe? Anderson

As to which I prefer..., very difficult. I love a lot of Heinlein, but if I was told I could only read one no the other from hereon, I would probably pick Anderson, though its not a choice I'd want to make.
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You forgot Best Blog (Anderson)
 
is that a serious question? heinlein of course. if you asked about him and asimov maybe, there's a lot of people that like asimov for some reason.... but it's Heinlein all the way and then maybe frank herbert
 
What a question! I have very fond memories of reading Anderson, thinking of Three Hearts and Three Lions, The Dancer from Atlantis and Shield in particular. Possibly not a great author though.

On the other hand, Heinlein's work had greater scope but his prose style not so much. Also his work is soaked in sexism, racism and US right wing paranoia. If he were alive today he would be a MAGA nutball.

Neither is great so neither can be greater, if you follow me.
 
yngvi said:
On the other hand, Heinlein's work had greater scope but his prose style not so much. Also his work is soaked in sexism, racism and US right wing paranoia. If he were alive today he would be a MAGA nutball.
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matter of perspective...if you read his books, starship and stranger are almost opposites. as for sexism, racism and etc... never noticed racism.. maybe sexism but that's mainly because he decided to make th women as women and not versions of cardboard. us right wing could be in the soldiers but then again honestly there's almost no contact between his ideas and real us right wing paranois, speciality today
 
I think Rachael Bloom started - and ended - this debate with what she said about Ray Bradberry.

You'll have to search Youtube yourself, since the song's title won't get past the censors, but if you need a laugh......
 
On the whole I would say Anderson for good well written straight forwards hard SF.
While Heinlein's earlier stuff was good and I have enjoyed a lot of it, he tended to go off the rails a bit with his later works as well as being controversial, has anyone ever read "Farnham's Freehold".
I've tried to read "The Number Of The Beast" a few times but I tend to find the characters in it a bit too over the top, must have a go at "Friday" sometime.
P.S. I think the Original Star Trek idea of the Tribbles was taken from the Martian Flat Cats from Heinlein's book "Red Planet"!
 
BigBadBob141 said:
On the whole I would say Anderson for good well written straight forwards hard SF.
While Heinlein's earlier stuff was good and I have enjoyed a lot of it, he tended to go off the rails a bit with his later works as well as being controversial, has anyone ever read "Farnham's Freehold".
I've tried to read "The Number Of The Beast" a few times but I tend to find the characters in it a bit too over the top, must have a go at "Friday" sometime.
P.S. I think the Original Star Trek idea of the Tribbles was taken from the Martian Flat Cats from Heinlein's book "Red Planet"!
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Number of the Beast is the worst Heinlein by far. I got to the end of it, but it was only by sheer brute force.
 
Vince W said:
Number of the Beast is the worst Heinlein by far. I got to the end of it, but it was only by sheer brute force.
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matter of opinion. i found it quite interesting. and the new version , pankera, also has it's interest. now, freehold on the other hand.... and yet in two books he kind of predicted islamic problems
 
tobl said:
matter of perspective...if you read his books, starship and stranger are almost opposites. as for sexism, racism and etc... never noticed racism.. maybe sexism but that's mainly because he decided to make th women as women and not versions of cardboard. us right wing could be in the soldiers but then again honestly there's almost no contact between his ideas and real us right wing paranois, speciality today
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You never read "The Day After Tomorrow", where Americans develop a death ray which kills only the invading Pan Asians. You never read the anti taxation/big government rants by Heinlein in "Glory Road"?
 
yngvi said:
You never read "The Day After Tomorrow", where Americans develop a death ray which kills only the invading Pan Asians. in in "Glory Road"?
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yep read all his books.... sorry but those examples... you think that a ray that kills only pan asians is a demonstration of racism?? seriously? the pan asians invaded and instead of having enormous numbers of inoccent victims the ray was mainly used of the actually involved... sorry if i don´t see the racism. east timor for instance was invaded by indonesia and only at the end of the 90s did they managed to get rid of them with lots of casualitys. do you really think they wouldn't habe used that ray if they had it? if you mean that that ray could be used for bad intentions by bad people, i don't know, eliminating all asians or black people in the world then i'm sorry to say that every single government in the world would want one, second that they are trying to develop a biological weapon to do just that and that anything can be used for evil by bad people.
As for taxs and government you mean to tell you're the person in the world that never rants against government and taxes? amazing... never expected to meet you. can i have an autograph? :LOL:
 
Vince W said:
Number of the Beast is the worst Heinlein by far. I got to the end of it, but it was only by sheer brute force.
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There is an alt version of Number of the Beast in the bookstores.
 
Vince W said:
Number of the Beast is the worst Heinlein by far. I got to the end of it, but it was only by sheer brute force.
Click to expand...

As a writer , Heinlein went from good to bad . What caused that to happen ? He had it and then , he lost it. Why?
 
BAYLOR said:
As a writer , Heinlein went from good to bad . What caused that to happen ? He had it and then , he lost it. Why?
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I don't know about that. I enjoyed several of his last works, but Number of the Beast just didn't work for me. Some people liked it I'm sure, I wasn't one of them though. What made it worse for me, I think, was that I wasn't enjoying it. A strange experience for me when reading Heinlein at the time. I thought it was me and that I should be enjoying it, but wasn't.
 
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