One more post about my time as writer-in-residence at Michael A. Riffel High School. I was thrilled, after I gave my usual presentation in an advanced placement English class, to be asked by a student, “So, which of the Big Three is your favorite?” And, yes, he meant Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke, all of which he’d been devouring.
Better yet, after class, I heard him telling his teacher–a science fiction reader herself! Yay!–all about Heinlein’s “juveniles,” which she hadn’t read, and urging her to pick up, in particular, Tunnel in the Sky, which is my favorite (with Have Space Suit, Will Travel a close second).
And just to prove that there’s hope for the next generation, one of the individual students I worked with actually brought me science fiction, not fantasy or horror–and science fiction into which she had put a great deal of worldbuilding thought, creating a quite fascinating and believable world and society that can support any number of great stories.
It all brought a tear to my eye.
The Old Ways live!
