Andre Norton and Heinlein juveniles (was: Highlights and Lowlights - August 2024)

On 9/8/2024 10:27 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
[snip-snip]

I would say that "Witchworld" was the start of Norton's gear-change.
I believe I read the first one and didn't care for it at all, and rarely
clicked on her stuff after that.  For me the _The Zero Stone_/_Uncharted Stars_
duology was peak Norton.

I had a similar reaction to the first _Witch World_ novel and found its disproportionate popularity -- it was the only Norton novel nominated for the Hugo award -- somewhat puzzling. Moreover, there were dozens of other stories/novels set in the same world and the last one, _Silver May Tarnish_ (with Lyn McConchie), came out in 2005.
It's almost like not everyone shares my tastes. Odd, that.
Having said that, it's worth pointing out that, even though "late Norton" books are generally not as well regarded as earlier ones, it wasn't a cliff. For example, the _The Zero Stone_/_Uncharted Stars_
duology came out in 1968/1969, 5-6 years after the first _Witch World_ (1963).

I loved most of the Heinlein juvies, but never really clicked on
_Time For The Stars_, _Between Planets_ or _Red Planet_, and I read
Podkayne too late.

One thing that we determined back in the 1990s was that Usenet posters generally agreed that most Heinlein juveniles were "good", but everyone had a somewhat different rated list. For what it's worth, here is mine:
Tier 1
* Citizen of the Galaxy
* Have Space Suit -- Will Travel
Tier 2
* Tunnel in the Sky
* The Star Beast
* Time for the Stars
* Red Planet
Tier 3
* Starman Jones
* Farmer in the Sky
* The Rolling Stones
Tier 4
* Between Planets
* Space Cadet
* Podkayne of Mars
Tier 5
* Rocket Ship Galileo
(_Starship Troopers_ was originally written as a juvenile and rejected by Scribner as "too adult". And then Doubleday and Campbell rejected it as "too juvenile".)