Master of the Precious

Okay, it’s time to hand out the most important unofficial title in the world:  The Master of the Precious.  This probably shouldn’t require any explanation, but there are a number of occasions throughout this challenge in which one author received two awards in the same decade.  Clearly the interweb not only needs but desires that I exercise my authority as supreme arbiter and make a final determination as to which of those titles is the real Master of the Precious.

Let’s take a closer look at the HEP SCOREs.

Here, DS apparently won by exactly one point.  In fact, every score is actually the same except DS received one more point (‘5/5’) for the Social/Political Climate than FITS.  The nature of the looming political collapse, the kidnapping by rival political factions and the difficulty everyone had adjusting to Lorenzo’s presence all justified the higher score.

Every other HEP SCORE was identical, even the scientific wonders, which was kind of surprising.  There was one category though in which one book clearly outshone the other.  I have remarked before that one of Heinlein’s crowning achievements is his ability to create characters that I want to marry, so it’s only fitting that the characters should be the category to really tip the scales.  Both books received ‘5/5’ scores, but if my feet were really put to the fire (or whatever that saying is), I’d have to say DS had the more solid ‘5’.  This is a clear win because The Great Lorenzo was a wildly more dynamic character than Bill, who is really kind of flat (but still a fun guy to read about).  Also DS’s Martians were pretty awesome dudes.

DS: M of the P

 So there it is.  When it comes to Heinlein’s 1950’s Hugo Winners, Double Star is the true Master of the Precious and Farmer in the Sky is just a stupid, fat Hobbit.