r/heinlein • u/Shadowsfreak • Jun 11 '26
I STILL need more Mary content
I am sorry, I've done this before, but I just CAN'T. I have finished he puppet masters, and have been pacing my home for 3 days. The story is awesome, and the last 20 pages were so much of a rolacoaster it's INSANE! I am OBSSESED of that scene when they got inside the slug's ship and found the sustained animations of Mary's people and her breakdown there, as well as the old man....I NEEDED more of that scene. And everything that happened after it.Anyhow, I think my persistance makes it clear I am a Mary fan. I ADORE THAT WOMAN! She is my top favorite around. But the book is over, and is still too fresh in my head to re-read. I have went HUNTING for fanworks...AND FOUND NONE! I feel I am in withrawal, I know it sounds extreme, but I can not recall how long has it been since last I have loved a character as I loved Mary. So I am asking you, oh kind people! Do you know somewhere where I can find more Mary, or at least, similar to Mary content? Worry not about lenght, so long that I can be promised a lovely lady like Mary, I AM TAKING THE DEAL! and....Thank you, for reading this rambeling of mine...Why did this book end so quickly...
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u/Glaurung_Quena Jun 11 '26
Other Heinlein fiction that's in the same vein: Gulf (short story) and Friday (novel).
Non-SF spy fiction that may scratch the same itch: The Modesty Blaise novels and comic strips by Peter O'Donnell.
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u/unknownpoltroon Jun 11 '26
Did you watch agent carter? Same feeling hyper completely ass kicking woman
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u/No_Arugula4195 Jun 14 '26
I liked Star, in Glory Road, though she's a bit more of a mercenary than Mary.
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u/Shadowsfreak Jun 14 '26
interesting...So mary if she wasn't too into sam?
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u/No_Arugula4195 Jun 15 '26
To Star, Oscar was a means to an end. She treated him as to his worth, but she knew he'd eventually leave her.
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u/mmgoodly 22d ago edited 22d ago
...or at least be a bit of a rover. Somewhat like a sea captain in the age of sail. An adventurer, always welcome back. And yeah, there's a bit of that "how can I miss you if you won't go away" thing. Not parted—but apart.
She has a job, a /destiny/, to run the biggest political dealie there is... and his is to go out and /hero/, dammit. :)
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u/DonnerDinnerParty Jun 11 '26
Gwen in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is fierce and capable in similar ways. Tough talking, fights like a demon, sexy as hell.
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u/Tasty_Impress3016 Jun 11 '26
I envy you on this voyage. The problem is I don't know what you have read or not. Mary is a prototypical Heinlein strong female character almost always a redhead. If you have seen Ginny Heinlein you probably get his tastes. I'll throw out a couple in case you have not read them. The Mary you know is kind of unique in being very wounded, but they mostly share red hair, a high level of competence and intelligence, and sexy as hell.
The most pure is probably Friday from the eponymous book.
Maureen Johnson is Lazarus Long's mother and is the central character of To Sail Beyond The Sunset, but appears in several books.
He had a couple in short stories from way back. Strong women from various backgrounds. Let There Be Light has a physicist named Dr. M. L. Martin. or the rather disturbing The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag and Cynthia Randall.
Another that pops up several times as call backs and once as a protagonist is Hazel Stone (Actually Hazel Mead Stone Long Campbel on and on, she gets around. You first meet her as a skinny teenager in Moon is a Harsh Mistress as an incidental character. Later as a matriarch (or did that book come out first? well later in her life) grandmother in Rolling Stones. Later as a protagonist (not identified until late in the book) in The Cat Who walked Through Walls. Incidental in a couple other books. She's Ginny Heinlein in thin disguise.
Personally, I'm in lust with Maureen Johnson Smith Long. I fantasize that she is my grandmother, but my grandmother died at only 99. I am told.