OK, I finally clued in to “competent man” as a search term and did a little reading and now I totally get where you and @kxkvi are coming from.
I still like my interpretation better (than Heinlein’s intent, not your analysis), but this wouldn’t be the first time this thread has disabused me of a treasured notion from my early reading life. 
You and me both.
I’ve heard of it, but the reviews turned me off for some reason. Maybe I should reconsider.
I read all three of the “Killer B’s” Foundation novels and didn’t like them (especially Benford’s, which I absolutely hated). I did like some of the robot novels written by Roger MacBride Allen, but those played with small bits of the overall Asimov universe. Well written but they could just as well have been some other background altogether.
I forgot all about the Killer B’s! I’m sure I’ve read them but I don’t really remember anything about them, other than being kind of excited at the prospect of authors I’d previously read and liked1 taking up a story/universe that I really enjoyed. I don’t think I disliked them, but that being said, I’m starting to think I might not have very discriminating tastes. 
For example, I enjoyed the first few Dune sequels by Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson. I can remember people who didn’t like them saying they were silly, and poorly plotted, and had unrealistic characters and whatnot, and the authors just weren’t as good as Frank Herbert. And I was like, dude, have you read Chapterhouse: Dune? (or really, any of the the senior Herbert’s sequels). That’s the one where he uses cloning vats and some sort of genetic memory thing to bring back endless copies of Duncan Idaho and the Bene Gesserit have to battle their Evil Twin sister organization for control of the very universe! I mean, those later books of his were far out!
In any case, what I’m trying to say is that maybe you should take my Kingsbury recommendation with a grain of salt if you already knew about it and gave it a pass. I tend to remember my experience of reading a book more than the details of the book itself, so I’m not necessarily great at recommendations.
1. David Brin’s Uplift books, in particular, were where I first became aware that Space Opera was a thing, and that I loved it.
I’ve enjoyed C. J. Cherryh’s Foreigner saga. A human colony ship has an accident and gets lost in space, encountering the world of the alien atevi. The ship’s crew want to look for another world, but the colonists parachute down to the planet. Things go well at first, but misunderstandings grow, and humans wind up at war with the atevi-- and lose. The survivors are relocated to an island, with only one human, the paidhi, allowed to live on the mainland, where they translate between the species and slowly turn over human technology at a pace that won’t destabilize the atevi culture. Hundreds of years later, the newest paidhi of the line, Bren Cameron, finds himself challenged by political upheavals and must find a way, alone, through a thicket of alliances among aliens who psychologically can’t think as humans do, who cannot understand the concept of “friendship”…
It’s structured in a series of trilogies, each one building on the last, slowly painting a picture of an alien culture. I’m still a few books behind-- I had to come up for air around book 14. It’s still good, but the author went into incredibly fine detail on the current conflict and I didn’t have the concentration for it.
Something I’m not entirely crazy about: several trilogies in, Cherryh starts shifting part of each book’s POV to Cajeiri, the son of the atevi ruler, who spent several of his formative years among humans and therefore doesn’t have a thoroughly atevi mindset. It’s still fascinating… yet for however many books, we’re told humans can never truly understand how atevi thinks. Seeing through atevi eyes, even immature ones, kind of spoils that.
If you like space opera with plenty of intrigue, I definitely recommend this series.
I guess sequels to stories by one author (or books in the same universe) by others can be good or bad. Of the three Killer Bs Foundation books, the middle one by Bear was stylistically most like Asimov’s, but depended on plot points I disliked in the first one by Benford.
Have you read the Vorkosigan series by Bujold? I really enjoy those, mostly due to the neat background and great characterization.
On chapter 4 of—
https://www.npr.org/2014/10/17/356989560/the-freaky-fabulous-feminist-secret-history-of-wonder-woman
—holy shit, Dr. Psycho was a real guy.
I read the first couple trilogies of these more-or-less as they were coming out (in paperback), and quite enjoyed them. I think the atevi were interesting aliens because they were essentially like us, except for that one key trait, and that somehow made them feel even more alien (or foreign, if you will) than any of the insectoid hive-minds or gas-giant-dwelling blimpalots I’d read about in other sci-fi stories.
I knew that she’d written other books in the series, but I had no idea that she’d gotten up to fourteen [checks wikipedia] twenty volumes. Holy smokes, that’s a lot of books! I doubt I will be catching up any time soon, but I’ll probably keep an eye out the next time I hit the used book store. Cherryh was one of my early favorites; I especially liked the Morgaine trilogy as a kid – they’re probably one of the few series/books I’ve read more than once.
I have! Not all of it, but at least the first half-dozen or so, as well as the prequels about his (Miles’) parents. Those books are compulsively readable. I’d seen them on the shelves for a long time before I finally picked one up, but once I did, I ended up tearing through a whole slew of them in a relatively short period of time. They remind me a lot of Elizabeth Moon’s Harris Serano books. Well-plotted page-turners that just sort of suck you in because of the characters (as you’ve noted) as much as the story.
ETA: to put this post at least slightly back on topic, I’m about 200 pages into A Fire Upon the Deep, but Vernor Vinge. Now here are some interesting aliens, as well as a novel (to me, at least) take on the whole transcendental intelligence trope.
Not in this edition, though, but as part of this hefty tome:
One of the last things our Women’s Lit professor asked us before the term ended was were we going to keep the book, as opposed to selling it back. I think everyone said they were going to keep it, although I doubt everyone really did. Well, all these years later I’ve still got my copy. Granted, I’ve scarcely looked at it since, merely reading a few of the bios and a couple years ago a bit of Jane Austen’s juvenilia.
May switch to a more easily toted e-copy. The footnotes are highly useful, but, on the other hand, the significant underlining provided by the book’s previous owner is beginning to get on my nerves.
I am convinced there are students who just highlight/underline as they read.
The underlining’s not exactly misplaced, and I admit quite possibly useful for a college text, but when attempting to read for pleasure, it feels like someone repeatedly whispering in my ear, “This sentence is especially significant. Pay attention!”
I have a copy of Austen’s Emma where a previous owner wrote “irony!” In the margins… next to a bunch of unironic parts. The term they wanted was foreshadowing.
Now that’s ironic. Or moronic.
Like rain on your wedding day.
Do you read any Kindle books? I hate the “Popular Highlights” that seems to always be turning itself on on my devices. It’s like… “Hey! Here is something that others in the world thought was important or pithy or quotable or randomly highlighted like I always end up doing”
98% of the time when I highlight something in Kindle it’s a complete accident. The rest of the time, it’s because I want to do a web search for it.
I just finished reading “East of Eden” for the first time.
What was it about? I have no idea. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.
About six hundred pages, I’d guess.
This was a really entertaining, quick read. Cyberpunk libertarian hellscape but with magic in a not-really-Shadorwun-like way that struck me as fresh and new in some ways. (Though the main character is a freelancer and so “minimum wage” was really the wrong choice for title.)
For the past week I have been trying to read “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” It’s been like walking barefoot on gravel. Am I missing something? Can I stop? Does it get better?
Whenever something starts to happen, Smiley — a character I generally like — starts on some long stroll down memory lane. The whole thing is written in a style that is trying to be as obscure and jumbled as possible. Carré is trying to put me in Smiley’s head having his stream of consciousness. But I am not Smiley!
Would probably play better as an audiobook, as it can get a trifle samey, but overall a good read thus far.
