Just reread the story. I'm a little bit amazed by how clever it is, and how slick the prose is. Sci-fi writers, Douglas Adams excluded, tend to be really bland in the style department.
I had never heard of him, either, but I guess he was kind of a big deal in sci-fi. He wrote Starship Troopers, although the movie was apparently a pretty loose adaptation.
I'm gonna pick a novel and read it, maybe Stranger in a Strange Land.
I am one of the eyeroll moments people. Got it rated 4 out of 10. Rating it in terms of Hitchcocks is apt to me as I consider him one of the most over-rated figures in film history and the king of the eyerolls.
Jenny didn't think much of of it either - and she is not the same sort of movie watcher as me. Fair to say, she considers me a bit of a pain in the ass with my critical view of things. But no, she was rolling her eyes too.
Anyway, Gone Girl is currently sitting at 8.4 on imdb - the #88 movie of all time. And people love Hitchcock.
I think it works best if you approach it as a dark comedy. If you're anal-retentive about every little detail's plausibility, it's a ginormous shit show.