Inny wrote:I haven't started Stranger in a Strange Land yet, so I can't tell you how it is. I actually don't know myself how it'll be, because even though I've read a lot of Heinlein before, I know that his writing style changed by a lot over his career. But, if you want a good recommendation, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is another good read from Heinlein.
I haven't read Asimov yet. I've wasted my time so far with Orson Scott Card and Larry Niven. Actually, I really liked Ringworld Engineers, so it wasn't a total waste.
Ok, let me know how Stranger in a Strange Land is.
Asimov is good, one of my favorites, though many hate his style. In the sci-fi realm, he's sort of the antithesis of Ray Bradbury. While Bradbury likes to focus on emotion and may go off on a long, analogy-heavy description of something, Asimov keeps things very...functional. Asimov described his style and the reasoning behind it like this:
I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics—Well, they can do whatever they wish.
It's all very direct, for better or for worse. This also shines through in his characters, which are often very rational, logical, thinker-types. Some say that many of his characters are unrealistic in their supposed lack of emotion, though I think that this is often exaggerated.
My favorite part of Asimov's writing is how he makes things like long, logical conversations and thoughts interesting and even exciting. While this doesn't always pay off, it often does (particularly in his earlier work). As Orson Scott Card said of Asimov: "all talk, no action -- but Asimov's talk
is action."
One thing to keep in mind:
start off with Asimov's early stuff. You may want to start with the original Foundation Trilogy, or with his Robots series (i.e. the I, Robot collection of short stories, or the novels like Caves of Steel). After the 50's, he largely took a break from fiction and managed to write and edit a ridiculous amount of non-fiction books. Later he returned to writing fiction, and then proceeded to write sequels to his earlier works. The problem with this was that he decided to retcon a substantial amount of content in an attempt to combine his various sci-fi universe into one giant universe. Furthermore, his post-50's fiction writing is pretty iff quality-wise (some stuff is great, some is horrible, though a majority of it is just mediocre).