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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
At times entertaining. At moments touching. A bit of cheese tossed in and you have an okay story. Not great. Just okay. Not much happens. Mostly just a frontier story of beginnings. As i understand it, the juvenile novels all serve as a story arc of mans reaching into the future for the stars. So here we have the colonization of Ganymede. Some disaster. A bit of teenage gusto. I work on an apple farm (i should probably find something better to do with my English degree and IT education some day, but I like the farm) so the schultz apple plot was kind of neat. I actually listened to some of this while picking apples. That made me grin. The ending piqued my curiosity. The crystals, the other seemingly alien made objects.
This book had a bit better representation of women, a lot better actually, than 'Beyond This Horizon' had. You see females taking on more roles. Less sexist gusto from the men. Beyond This Horizon was brutally cheesy with sexism, in part a product of its time and in part that of Heinlein in his younger years. But Heinlein evolves.. read Stanger in a Stange Land and try denying he evolves. You see it book by book as stories get better in different ways each time.
I'm looking forward to seeing how his stories change as i progress through my chronological-ish reading of his novels. I have all of them. And many short story collections. Back when ebay was less expensive to buy books on, i hunted down every single Heinlein book i could find.
This book had a bit better representation of women, a lot better actually, than 'Beyond This Horizon' had. You see females taking on more roles. Less sexist gusto from the men. Beyond This Horizon was brutally cheesy with sexism, in part a product of its time and in part that of Heinlein in his younger years. But Heinlein evolves.. read Stanger in a Stange Land and try denying he evolves. You see it book by book as stories get better in different ways each time.
I'm looking forward to seeing how his stories change as i progress through my chronological-ish reading of his novels. I have all of them. And many short story collections. Back when ebay was less expensive to buy books on, i hunted down every single Heinlein book i could find.
It is quite fascinating to read about immigration to Ganymede being an immigrant in Australia.
Science fiction written in 1950, this is an imagining of life on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. In 1950 they could see Ganymede with a telescope and understood what spaceflight would be like, but it was still years before Sputnik. Yet they understood what spaceflight would entail given the distances, realistic G forces and time. Heinlein imagines ships that can fly in air shuttling people to and from interplanetary ships that only go in vacuum. What makes this interesting to read in 2013 is that the science fiction is entirely mechanical -- there's no mention of information technology at all. There are no smart phones, no cell phones, no internet, no games, no movies -- no screens nor entertainment at all. Instead there's space travel and terraforming another world, but when someone wants to know something they look it up in a book. This book was written for young adults and the teenage narrator's life is robustly simple, with a lot of hard work, rewarding meals and maybe a little music before bed. It's worth a read, but these days it's like sci-fi and history combined.
My second Heinlein book (Starship Troopers was the other) was entertaining in some ways, but quite often prosaic and technical. I know that the author was, admirably, a stickler for scientific accuracy in his work, but I think there's a creative line between being inaccurate and going into too much technical detail. Especially since, I believe, this was aimed at the young adult market. The focus was definitely much more on the factual process of (planetary) colonization, but at the expense of character development and dialogue; both of which I usually look for in a story. However, I find myself still liking the protagonist and the general feel of the book. The staging of the set pieces and the overall pace was good though and though the supporting cast were just bit players propping up the main character, I still kinda liked a few of them. Not sure I'll read a ton more of his YA-oriented stuff but I enjoyed this one, for all is flaws.
This is one of Heinlein's "juveniles" but still enjoyable to an adult. The hero is a boy/young man named Bill who emigrates to a fledgling colony on Ganymede along with his dad, and new step -mother and -sister.
I'm not sure how realistic the science here is, but it isn't over-the-top. It definitely works for the story.
The major appeal is the development of Bill and co. into successful colonists and survivors, and the way they meet and overcome these challenges.
It reads quickly and well. The narrative has a great conversational style. The plot is definitely linear, and just now that's exactly what i wanted.
This was a good read. I'll definitely seek out more Heinlein novels.
I'm not sure how realistic the science here is, but it isn't over-the-top. It definitely works for the story.
The major appeal is the development of Bill and co. into successful colonists and survivors, and the way they meet and overcome these challenges.
It reads quickly and well. The narrative has a great conversational style. The plot is definitely linear, and just now that's exactly what i wanted.
This was a good read. I'll definitely seek out more Heinlein novels.
I love me some good old classic science fiction... This book was just wonderful, short and sweet, and the only thing that saddened me was the fact that it reminded me of Andy Weir's Martian, when it should have been the other way around. The first step into my Hugo Awards odyssey was quite promising, can't wait for what's to come next :)
Read this book as a kid and I still remember it. Fantastic story from one of the old greats. One of Heinlein's best.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Yet another of Heinlein's juveniles, and the last in my project to read them. By this point, I'd say I have a pretty good idea of how the plot will go, and my gut sense about most of the major twists was correct. But it was a fun read, regardless!
Leer a Heinlein siempre es entretenido y divertido. La novela fue publicada inicialmente en 1950 y no fue hasta el 2001 que recibió el premio Retro Hugo.
Los Lermer deciden escapar de una Tierra superpoblada a tal punto que la comida es racionada. Se alistan al proyecto Júpiter con la esperanza de convertirse en colonos de Ganímedes y tratar de empezar una nueva vida.
Los Lermer deciden escapar de una Tierra superpoblada a tal punto que la comida es racionada. Se alistan al proyecto Júpiter con la esperanza de convertirse en colonos de Ganímedes y tratar de empezar una nueva vida.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book seemed like a compilation of prologues to plots that never really progressed. It hinted at some political themes, some family tensions, a potential romance, an encounter with alien artifacts, and more. However, the characters and plot were really just a loose scaffolding to explore what interplanetary life may look like. It's almost comedically dated in this regard with manual farm labor being the primary occupation for most planetary colonists. However, following along with the simple protagonists experience moving across space felt unusually realistic. It felt like historical fiction with a few futuristic twists.