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Alternate Earth Characters: Heinlein-verse


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Towards his last books Robert Heinlein introduced the concept that the characters and settings of books are real, somewhere else, to those who like them. His characters travelled from their own universe to the Land of Oz, John Carter's Barsoom, Doc EE Smith's Lensman world, Mark Twain's Yankee in King Arthurs Court and so on, ending up in a world he himself had written earlier featuring Lazarus Long. They hypothesized that persons who liked Pulp novels of the Maltese Falcon Chandler style would find worlds like that while romance novelist fans could land in those.

 

So I wondered, if given the opportunity ('magic' space ship?) to travel to alternate dimensions what ones would he go to and would he stay or only visit, living here in 'the real world' of Champions...?

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ShadowCross would without hesitation seek out an Amazons rule the Men universe and set herself up with a few man-slaves to do the dishes and housework.

 

LineDrive would venture out into a western themed universe and have a drink with Wyatt Earp once his baseball career ends. Otherwise he would vacation there and return for the season.

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Originally posted by Battlestaff

Which books were those? It sounds like a great idea.

 

Okay basically Heinlien wrote two Universes. One was his early books (pre 1960). Once the space program blossomed and science fiction started giving way to science fact he created another universe.

 

His fans however loved both and he wanted to begin to tie them together. He did a little of it, but mainly stuck with one world.

 

Eventually there was tie in with the following books:

Number of The Beast

Glory Road

Stranger in a Strange Land

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

The Doorway into Summer

Friday

Methusalah's Children

Have Spaceship Will Travel

Starman Jones

Waldo and Magic Inc.

Job: A Comedy of Justice

Double Star

 

these books all have characters that are mentioned, related or appear somewhere in the other books.

 

The "Moon Trilogy": The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Friday, and

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls are my favorites.

 

Umm I'm a Heinlien geek by the way....

 

 

Peace

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Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Didnt care for Heinlein's later work, but really enjoyed his earlier science fiction. I remember NotB being very disjointed and more concerned about the sexual relationships of its main characters than anything else, but its been a while and I may be mis-recalling.

I yield to no one as a Heinlein fan. Three of his four Hugo winning novels changed my life. However, even I conceed that everything after Time Enough For Love is for the Fans, not the general readers.

 

 

 

 

Not sure I understand the original question. Where would we go? Or where would our characters go?

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Baron von Darien -- indulges himself in a moment of petty amusement when he travels to the Buffyverse for the specific purpose of kicking the unholy living crap out of (insert long list here). And I'm not referring to the villains...

 

He then does a brief shopping spree in various RPG universes and comes home.

 

 

Dr. Pain -- hell, he /moves/ to Tertius. His kinda place.

 

 

Starguard -- I tell you three times. Oz. Oz. Oz. :D

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Originally posted by McCoy

Not sure I understand the original question. Where would we go? Or where would our characters go?

 

I meant your characters but you can insert your own travel itinerary as well. I have all the Heinlein books and both versions of Podkayne of Mars but despite him being my favorite author my first skip would be to Barsoom. Followed by Star Trek.

 

Baron, as always I love your character's reaction. :-)

 

Sabre doesn't read much fiction, she would prefer sci-tech universes so she can study (steal) their technology to add to her own. After a long night of testing when your brain doesnt think normally, she'd do something crazy and go find a universe where the Loch Ness monster is real, and go find him. But then she gets some rest and her 'I dont have time for childish pursuits' mindset kicks in and its back to the lab, and the photos in a drawer.

 

Manx, a psychic child being hunted by evil corporations, would go to Oz or to NeverLand. Maybe to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Land or Mr Rogers Neighborhood. Oz would be great, if not for the evil flying monkeys.

 

Wraithe would appreciate a place like Babylon 5 or Star Wars, a place with a Just War to fight. She doesnt read much.

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Well Twilight's a thrill junky of the first caliber so he's hitting all the high spots starting with Middle Earth, then skipping over to the Star Wars Universe with many side trips to the Marvel and DC Universes as well as Astro City. You can expect him to show up in the stories of all his favourite characters so he'd end up in Neverland, Narnia, Valdemar, the 1920's [to team with various Pulp characters, most notably the shadow], Barsoom, Jurrasic Park and any other action packed place you can think of.

 

For downtime he'll probably hang out in the Hundred Acre Woods. :D

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Checkmate: Fascinated by the concept, Checkmate isn't much of a reader. He'd probably wind up in the Lensman universe. What happened then would depend a lot on who he met first. He could potentially become a lensman.

 

Guardian: The DC Universe (No mutant-hunters); The Buffyverse, especially in Season 5, wherein she would teach Glory that she ain't that strong.

 

Control: He'd be fascinated by Oz, but would want to meet Dr. Burroughs, D.T., Libby, and all the rest.

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Kenneth and Husky would bounce from action packed setting to action packed setting seeking a world where good and evil are black and white but never feeling satisfied because what Kenneth really "needs" is a stable loving environment and his quest for recognition and escapism will simply drive him further and further from what he really needs to be happy. Ironically this is the happy ending scenario that is most tragic for a character like Kenneth who is suddenly stripped of his playful escapism and revealed to the reader to be nothing more than a fragile child who has fallen prey to an unnatural addiction.

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  • 3 years later...

Re: Alternate Earth Characters: Heinlein-verse

 

Vitus has been reading and greatly enjoying the original James Bond novels since his arrival on Earth. Visiting the fictons should have his teammates very, very worried...

 

Zero is obsessed with 1950's americana, and collects memorabilia. The chance to move to a more 'civilised' era? he'ld jump at it.

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Re: Alternate Earth Characters: Heinlein-verse

 

Mike the Demoness: There are a /lot/ of hells that have been written about... and in most of them, infinite torture for finite sins is, in her mind, very, very injust. The various heavens are about to get an influx of large numbers of damned souls who've just rebelled against their demons...

 

Rubber Mousie: "Okay, so if we're all fictional characters in somebody's book or movie or comic or whatever... can I meet whoever's writing me? Hello, Authour? You listening up there? Any chance I can give you some input on what you should write about me next?"

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