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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Another Heinlein juvenile which I haven't read since high school. This one tells the story of a young man and his father who leave an overcrowded Earth to join a new colony on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. I have no particular memory of the book from the first time I read it except for the family with the apple tree; but this time around I was struck by the description of how Ganymede is terraformed - not the most obvious candidate for terraforming, but with unlimited power (from total conversion reactors) the method described sounds plausible at least. I also enjoyed the description of the sky - enormous Jupiter going through its phases over the course of a week, the other Jovian moons moving through the sky.
Plot wise, not a whole lot happens in this story. The attraction is that of exploring a world.
Plot wise, not a whole lot happens in this story. The attraction is that of exploring a world.
Boy scout becomes space farmer in bland scifi story in the sky.
Sorta a plot. No real character arcs. All characters are forgettable instantly. Science is nto believable. Lack of detail beyond the travelling part leads to more unbelievable and boring.
I realized like 20 pages in, that it was a juvenile novel and just kept going. Seems very simple compared to the YA of today, not that i ever try to purposely read YA. Hopefully other Heinlein is better.
Maybe Green Mars is a beter book on space farming - one can hope.
Sorta a plot. No real character arcs. All characters are forgettable instantly. Science is nto believable. Lack of detail beyond the travelling part leads to more unbelievable and boring.
I realized like 20 pages in, that it was a juvenile novel and just kept going. Seems very simple compared to the YA of today, not that i ever try to purposely read YA. Hopefully other Heinlein is better.
Maybe Green Mars is a beter book on space farming - one can hope.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
I’ve read this book in Russian translation some 25+ years ago and now re-read the original. I enjoyed the novel then and I liked it now. While today I can clearly see the severe censorship the author met in his juveniles, which are quite unlike either modern YA books or his own works for more mature audience, it is great how he overcome it to preach his vision on how a man (they are mostly for boys after all) should behave – honest, helping, independent and self-reliant.
The story takes place on overpopulated Earth, from which the protagonist and his family moves to the moon of Jupiter, Ganymede to settle a farm there. There is a lot of edu-tainment, Heinlein style, a bit of hand-waving technology to advance the plot and, as usual for RAH, a lot of adventure in space and on the planet.
Honestly, I cannot state that this is the best Heinlein’s juvenile, there are a few I’d prefer, but it is quite solid if you like the author or have a nostalgia about good old SF, with not much sex and gore.
The story takes place on overpopulated Earth, from which the protagonist and his family moves to the moon of Jupiter, Ganymede to settle a farm there. There is a lot of edu-tainment, Heinlein style, a bit of hand-waving technology to advance the plot and, as usual for RAH, a lot of adventure in space and on the planet.
Honestly, I cannot state that this is the best Heinlein’s juvenile, there are a few I’d prefer, but it is quite solid if you like the author or have a nostalgia about good old SF, with not much sex and gore.
More representative of RAH in his Boy's Life phase, a city boy and his father join the fledgling colony on Ganymede and find it's even harsher than they expected. The hours and days in the promised land are not just filled backbreaking work but also with politics, arguments over land and gumption, and fields of rock. Very strong characters and story.
I always enjoy reading Robert Heinlein, but be aware that this book was written in the 1950s and ages terribly. Casual sexism pervades the book.
However, if you can get past the author's deplorable view of women, you'll be rewarded with a strictly mediocre pioneer/adventure story.
However, if you can get past the author's deplorable view of women, you'll be rewarded with a strictly mediocre pioneer/adventure story.
Quite a good Heinlein juvenile. I'm always impressed by Heinlein's knowledge, research, and ability to predict what the future might be like. He fills his books with rich details about such things as what it might be like to farm on another planet. Good story and good characters as always.
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1161903.html[return][return]Farmer in the Sky is a juvenile, with our narrator, his father, his stepmother and her daughter leaving Earth to build a new colony on Ganymede. There is a significant amount of product placement for the scouting movement, which is not surprising as it was originally serialised in a scouts magazine. We encounter nice guys and nasty guys, and even a few women, though they don't get to speak much. There is a major natural disaster which wipes out two thirds of the colony, but our hero and most of his family survive. At the end of the book, our hero discovers some alien technology which incidentally saves his life.[return][return]A lot of this was already pretty standard sfnal fare even in 1950, but Heinlein fuses it all together into a coherent and literate package, which has a colossal amount of sensawunda, sufficient to keep the book going at full pace to thend and to keep its reputation alive among fans for decades. (He even manages the pro-scouting propaganda fairly discreetly, though of course this also helps underpin the gender and racial constraints of the narrative.)
Overly saccharine; even for the 50's - and how!