Bill, I also read “Stargate” every other year or so. (You’d think I’d have it memorized by now.) You really hit the nail on the head about Collins’ voice. I don’t think I truly realized, until I read your post, just how wonderful it is.

Oh, how I too wish the stars had aligned so Steve could have written many, many more books. In the end, time, money, life and death interfered. A loss for all of us.

Daniel–thank you for recognizing Steve’s ability to drive plot through dialog. This was one of Steve’s passions. I cannot tell you how many books and movies he dismissed on these grounds. Over and over he would tell me that if the narrator or characters were merely describing the action, it was a sign of “lazy writing” and “not very interesting.”

To Steve, each of his characters was a living, breathing person. (In fact, often, when he first spoke of a person to me, I would wonder whether it was a real person or someone he’d invented and whom I would soon find filling the pages of Steve’s stories.)

Steve’s books and stories are pure Steve. If you had know him well, you would hear him speaking in those pages. The turn of a phrase, the wink and the nod, the deep love of life and sense of humor along with that bit of sly cynicsm he kept just barely below the surface. The way his eyes lit up at the wonders of the world and the universe. His sense of justice. All Steve through and through.

Thank you once again. Oh how I miss him. And how grateful I am to have known and loved him.

Kathy

For years I’ve told people I learned to write dialog from Gregory Mcdonald. I should have been adding Robinett in there as well, and in the future I will. He was a hell of a writer.

“The humor and “light touch” others have mentioned seem to be in short supply;”

Is begging to be misunderstood. I should have included a few more words … as in:

“The humor and “light touch” others have mentioned [in Robinett's work] seem to be in short supply [among other writers ... would that those writers could handle this with Robinett's deft touch];”

Or something. Anyway, didn’t want to post something vague and easily-misunderstood — as I said I laugh/smile often when reading “Stargate”, something I don’t see just a lot of, particularly in the speculative fiction genres.

I spent a little time back in the pre-internet days looking for more novels by SR and, not being able to find anything at all, gave up. But every few years I’ll re-read this one … it has given me hours of pleasure and is one of my all-time favorite books. So when I do a little searching I find this site …

I’ve written some short stories and a couple aborted/half-finished novels, never published anything, but have read voraciously since I was very young. Let me tell you this: if I could ever write novels, of any genre/type, I couldn’t do better (in my opinion) than to have SR’s first-person voice (of Collins’ character) at my disposal. It’s a wonderful thing; many authors can make you care about a character, but to make you laugh along with him and deeply understand him that way … wow. Maybe there were things he could learn about the craft, but that’s beside the point. I just love that novel, it puts a smile on my face pretty much constantly while reading it. What more could we ask for?

The humor and “light touch” others have mentioned seem to be in short supply; his writing has always reminded me of a mix of Roger Zelazny and Pat McManus; pretty steep praise, eh? Perhaps had the stars aligned enough for him to write several more books he’d be far better known. I like to think he would.

Again, my condolences; I’ll thank you, since I can’t thank your late husband, for writing “Stargate” …

May Stephen rest in peace.

Sincerely,

Bill in TN

Mr. Warner–I was unaware of Steve’s article on defamation in the SFWA Newsletter. I still occassionally come across pieces (published and not) that I didn’t know Steve wrote. If I come across that one, I will let you know on this forum.

Thank you again.

My (alas, belated) condolences on your loss.

I also read the serialized Stargate (and the two(?) stories before it) in Analog. I liked the way he handled dialog, which was way better than the methods they were teaching me in high school at the time.

I also liked the article he wrote for the SFWA Newsletter with the unlikely title of “Defamation, Hitler, and Artemus Jones” …! Sure wish I could find a copy of that somewhere; it explained the whole concept of defamation and libel perfectly.

He will be missed by this on-again, off-again tech writer.

–gdw

Also, in addition to his single collection, Projections I believe he had a third novel, Mindwipe!, published under the pen name Steve Hahn.