Yes, I remember. That awful movie franchise butchered the premise. Neither Paul Verhoeven nor anyone else understood the first thing about what the early Heinlein was trying to tell the world. Especially his definition of true citizenship, and his examples of leadership.

Let alone every five or so cover views is an ad reminding me to watch the Democratic Debate on Tuesday...

I prefer sci-fi and police procedurals, not current comedy.

Seconded, although I'd knock SIASL farther down the list in favor of Starship Troopers, which is one of his best for philosophy. (It actually goes fairly deeply into the difference between patriotism and nationalism, even while favoring both.)

I also have several books by Neal Stephenson in my top 20, including The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and especially Cryptonomicon.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, nick!
Getting a referral to 'new' authors is a delight and one of the great benefits of being here in the gulch with kindred spirits.

You are correct Freedom, it is the Apple/Google thing, but I think he also pulled the plug on the Kindle "all you can eat" program as well for the same reason. They seemed to have lowered the fees paid to authors, for unlimited use of their material.

His series got mostly good reviews on Audible and Downpour. Most people complained about the short length (they are 8-10 hour audio books, 100-110K word books) and the second one was deemed as unnecessary. I found you did need to listen to all of them to get all the stuff going on, but I interpreted it as sort of a "Star Trek with different names" type storyline. You have a young brash captain, thrown into command, a logical and analytical XO (complete with emotional detachment), a Russian (not Scot) engineer who can fix anything, and it moves planet to planet with the usual misadventures. I would rate it at a 7-8 on a 1-10 scale, and it seems to get better as you go along. The premise is pretty good, if not standard fare, but RB seems to be growing into the writing role with each book. It is projected to be a series of 75 books, in 3 story arcs, covering a 100 year span. He is at book 14 I think in the first 25 book arc. I would recommend it as a Sci Fi series, but you may also want to look into H.Paul Honsingers "Man of War" series. He does a better job with characters and suspenseful interest, and his bad guys are giant rats who just happen to match human DNA to 98% due to some long ago alien intervention, who are really pissed about it and want to wipe out humanity for it. Much more fun and great, well thought out science to it.

xthinker, you may be right in that interpretation, Mike could do the miracles he propounded to do, which was why they offed him (which they really didn't). I think RAH was trying to say on several levels that he believed that there were more things we do not understand about the universe, and have a habit of then writing off to a mystical god being, and his Mike was just the vehicle to show how even when given a gift of the ability to "grok" things to a point were you understood their essence. Unfortunately, he did not believe we could be mature enough to handle such power, and that people will screw it up anyways just to able to be unhappy. Mike offered man a huge benefit that most rejected because of prejudice and greed. His "religion" was a scam in the sense that it was framed as one, when in reality, there was no god, no other being, that you had to hope would be nice to you. You could be nice to yourself. Since you are God. I would think it was an Objectivist view is many ways.

That was the Fosterites, the group Mike absconds with.

Maybe have to go back and rewatch the movie. Not reading a Harry Potter book at this point. Have too much Twain to catch up on.

Actually, I would argue that Mike was the only one in that book whose religion was not a scam. Because he could actually do "miracles" and he could teach others through his religion to do them as well.

The other religions in there, especially the Fosterites, were definitely scams.

I'm not thinking just of the group Mike himself starts, but of the "mainstream" faith (I forget the name of) that invites Harshaw's whole family to a show. They're as well organized as any outfit in Las Vegas.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had a strong libertarian theme, and in that book Harry Potter worked hard and displayed real talent.
http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/20...

Orson Scott Card is pretty politically incorrect, but he had a recent movie, so therefore his book makes the list. I like his book thoughts though.

Harry Potter? That stuff is entertaining, but crap. Message: Be born into power, and be a nice guy. No hard work. No real talent. Just be lucky. Sends the message: "Boy, if I just had my big break. Maybe I'll win the lottery".

Here is the blog link:
http://www.frontierssaga.com/ryks-log/
Unless I am mis-reading the April 2, 2015 entry, he stopped selling through Apple and Google but still sells on Amazon. The loss of revenue seems to have gone to the Apple/Google connection, perhaps another layer of fees in addition to the Amazon fees?

Thanks for sharing the info. Do you recommend Ryk's series?

Indeed, that is very true. Ryk Brown is an independent writer who is doing a Sci Fi series called "The Frontier Saga" where he has self published and used Amazon Kindle library, which he had to pull out of after they kept cutting his fee back, to the point he lost 50% of his revenue. He gives a good explanation of just how the self publishing business works on his blog.

Mike definitely made it into a scam, with an underlying good reason, to him. I think it was that part that really disturbed people. Overall I always like the story and the cautions Heinlein tried to bring up.

I'm appalled at the list. They didn't include David Drake: In enjoyed reading the Hammer Series, I have read only one RCN novel.
In Urban Fantasy: Jim Butcher's Dresden novels are excellent as well.
It is sad that Amazon and CNN are illiterate when it comes to reading good scifi and fantasy books.

Dreadful list. No Heinlein, no Piers Anthony, no C.S. Lewis, no Anne McCaffrey...no Ayn Rand dystopian future...

I'm not a sci-fi enthusiast, but I majored in literature in college-MARGARET ATWOOD LISTED AS SCI_FI FOR HANDMAID"S TALE??! what fresh hell is that. no wonder sad puppies exists

I could talk about my Jurassic Park paddock but that would be science fact.

They're missing Robert Jordan on there. (And Brandon Sanderson).

And if they are basing things on popularity (see Harry Potter), they should also probably include the Twilight series and

For more serious consideration, I don't see Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance world). No David Eddings or Terry Brooks. No Anne McCaffrey. And no Edgar Allen Poe.

A list sorely lacking, IMHO.

Time Machine was there. No Terry Goodkind, however.

No Heinlein? I'm not interested.

Amazin' Amazon is not even close. Whoever compiled this list, piled it all right.