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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
In my ongoing quest to read all the Heinlein juveniles I’ve neglected, here’s the latest. Farmer in the Sky is the tale of Bill, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout who decides to emigrate to Ganymede. Now, it’s not quite that simple, it never really is, is it, and there are a number of obstacles and interruptions as Bill and family (dad, step mom and step sister) try to adjust to what is basically a frontier lifestyle on one of the moons of an outer planet.
It’s not a bad book, but certainly not one of my favorites. One of the things which got to me was the rampant sexism. I know this book was published in 1950 (after being serialized in Boy’s Life, the Boy Scout Magazine, earlier in the year) but when the step mom abandons her sick daughter because “a wife’s place is with her husband.” rubs me the wrong way. Even in 1950, in a book written for adolescent boys, this strikes me as a bad message to send.
That aside, though, the story is fun and full of adventure, but Bill vacillates between wanting to leave and wanting to stay so much you have no idea what’s going to happen in the end – and it seems to come from nowhere in terms of character development. Overall, I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t be revisiting it any time soon.
Full review here: https://captainjaq.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/review-kellers-fedora-and-others/
It’s not a bad book, but certainly not one of my favorites. One of the things which got to me was the rampant sexism. I know this book was published in 1950 (after being serialized in Boy’s Life, the Boy Scout Magazine, earlier in the year) but when the step mom abandons her sick daughter because “a wife’s place is with her husband.” rubs me the wrong way. Even in 1950, in a book written for adolescent boys, this strikes me as a bad message to send.
That aside, though, the story is fun and full of adventure, but Bill vacillates between wanting to leave and wanting to stay so much you have no idea what’s going to happen in the end – and it seems to come from nowhere in terms of character development. Overall, I’m glad I read it, but probably won’t be revisiting it any time soon.
Full review here: https://captainjaq.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/review-kellers-fedora-and-others/
A Boy Scout moves to Jupiter’s moon Ganymede to homestead and start a farm from scratch. Mildly interesting for the early ideas around terraforming and colonization. Meh.
I know this was written in the very early 50s, but aside from the fact that they’re on Ganymede, it could almost have been set in the then-present day. There was no consideration of how tech advanced enough to allow for interplanetary colonization (and somewhat hand-wave-y large-scale terraforming) might affect farming, other than having some machinery to grind up rocks into fine dirt ready to be mixed with imported treated soil.
And, of course, men and boys do their manly things, while the women cook, worry, or are brushed off as annoying.
I seem to be finding that I’m not a fan of early Heinlein.
I know this was written in the very early 50s, but aside from the fact that they’re on Ganymede, it could almost have been set in the then-present day. There was no consideration of how tech advanced enough to allow for interplanetary colonization (and somewhat hand-wave-y large-scale terraforming) might affect farming, other than having some machinery to grind up rocks into fine dirt ready to be mixed with imported treated soil.
And, of course, men and boys do their manly things, while the women cook, worry, or are brushed off as annoying.
I seem to be finding that I’m not a fan of early Heinlein.
Even though Heinlein glosses over some of the science that would actually support the farmers that he envisions on Ganymede, it was a decent read. The advancements in technology and our understanding of the Jovian system, has rendered his ideas sort of moot. But, reading the book, with the understanding that it was written in 1950, the story falls into place with the generalized stories of that time period.
Near the end of the book, he introduces another object into the story, but never actually dives into the meaning or the reasoning of why he placed the object into the story. Did he have to keep the book to a prescribed length? So, to keep that, he had to sacrifice the details in the end? I wished he expanded the idea more and how the main character interacted with the items.
Near the end of the book, he introduces another object into the story, but never actually dives into the meaning or the reasoning of why he placed the object into the story. Did he have to keep the book to a prescribed length? So, to keep that, he had to sacrifice the details in the end? I wished he expanded the idea more and how the main character interacted with the items.
The writing is dated and utterly lacking in subtlety, but the science is good, and I found the technical/engineering details interesting.
First, the meh-to-bad:
This reads a bit like "Leave it to Beaver" in space. The characters are all there to teach various Boys' Life lessons - don't complain, work hard, don't shirk your studies - all very admirable, but at least to someone who didn't come of age in the 50s, more than a little condescending.
The political situation on Ganymede is pretty idealized, as well. This is basically homesteaders in space, whereas if such an expensive endeavor as colonizing a moon ever actually occurs, it will most likely be very corporate-run. No small farms, no rugged individualism. It seems much more likely the colonists would be indentured servants working massive corporate farms or digging in corporation-owned mines.
The good:
The science bits are interesting. They're written in a manner that the layperson (layboy, I guess, in 50s terms) can follow, and the engineering bits are interesting and fun, as well. If you manage to suspend your disbelief and allow Heinlein's two-dimensional characters to be real, it's a fun read with some decent sensawunda.
First, the meh-to-bad:
This reads a bit like "Leave it to Beaver" in space. The characters are all there to teach various Boys' Life lessons - don't complain, work hard, don't shirk your studies - all very admirable, but at least to someone who didn't come of age in the 50s, more than a little condescending.
The political situation on Ganymede is pretty idealized, as well. This is basically homesteaders in space, whereas if such an expensive endeavor as colonizing a moon ever actually occurs, it will most likely be very corporate-run. No small farms, no rugged individualism. It seems much more likely the colonists would be indentured servants working massive corporate farms or digging in corporation-owned mines.
The good:
The science bits are interesting. They're written in a manner that the layperson (layboy, I guess, in 50s terms) can follow, and the engineering bits are interesting and fun, as well. If you manage to suspend your disbelief and allow Heinlein's two-dimensional characters to be real, it's a fun read with some decent sensawunda.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'd have adored this as a ten-year old.
This is one of Heinlein’s better novels, in my opinion. Not only did he finally begin including competent women characters, but the story is interesting, fast-paced, and tight. (Except for the odd part at the end where he squeezes an “ancient aliens” scene in just before the conclusion.)
(I published a longer review on my website.)
In Farmer in the Sky, we begin to see the somewhat dystopic future for earth that is hinted at in Red Planet and some of the historical sequence stories - population pressure driving immigration, scarcity of resources, rationing.
Farmer in the Sky is a book about the perils of homesteading, a topic Heinlein was clearly attracted to, and would revisit in other novels, particularly Time Enough for Love - and if a particular theme is of importance to him, then it will be found somewhere in Time Enough for Love.
Bill Lermer and his father George are unhappy on Earth. George is a widower who wants a new beginning; Bill wants a different kind of life. Naturally, the new arrivals on Ganymede discover that conditions are far from what was claimed, the Colonial commission has set things up to work in the worst possible way, the current settlers resent them, and life on Ganymede is going to be ten times harder than they’d thought it could be....
But it’s possible, with some good will, and what follows is a manual on what you need to think about to colonise a new planet, and what not to do. Again, there is a strong suggestion that there are people who are ‘right’ for the rigours of a life away from earth, and it’s made quite clear that those who aren’t ‘the right stuff’ aren’t really pleasant people to be around, at least in Heinlein’s eyes. The kind of person needed for the job of space man or planetary colonist is the sort of person Heinlein sets his readers up to identify with. And the events of Farmer in the Sky are exactly what one would expect to find in an examination booklet on finding out if one has what’s needed to be the best colonial settlers.
Farmer in the Sky is a book about the perils of homesteading, a topic Heinlein was clearly attracted to, and would revisit in other novels, particularly Time Enough for Love - and if a particular theme is of importance to him, then it will be found somewhere in Time Enough for Love.
Bill Lermer and his father George are unhappy on Earth. George is a widower who wants a new beginning; Bill wants a different kind of life. Naturally, the new arrivals on Ganymede discover that conditions are far from what was claimed, the Colonial commission has set things up to work in the worst possible way, the current settlers resent them, and life on Ganymede is going to be ten times harder than they’d thought it could be....
But it’s possible, with some good will, and what follows is a manual on what you need to think about to colonise a new planet, and what not to do. Again, there is a strong suggestion that there are people who are ‘right’ for the rigours of a life away from earth, and it’s made quite clear that those who aren’t ‘the right stuff’ aren’t really pleasant people to be around, at least in Heinlein’s eyes. The kind of person needed for the job of space man or planetary colonist is the sort of person Heinlein sets his readers up to identify with. And the events of Farmer in the Sky are exactly what one would expect to find in an examination booklet on finding out if one has what’s needed to be the best colonial settlers.
Overall the story of populating another planet was very interesting and the world Heinlein created in Farmer in the Sky was good. At times, the explanations were a bit much. I understand that he wanted the reader to understand the conditions on Ganymede, but it felt too forced at times.
I think I hung with the story because I am an avid farmer and love to read about farming. But overall this story was rather boring. If it were created into a movie and stuck to the book exactly as it was written, I'm afraid the movie might not be that interesting.
This was my first Heinlein book and I plan on reading others that I found by him at a garage sale. Right now I'm not overly impressed with his writing. But I'll save my overall judgment until I have read his other works.
I think I hung with the story because I am an avid farmer and love to read about farming. But overall this story was rather boring. If it were created into a movie and stuck to the book exactly as it was written, I'm afraid the movie might not be that interesting.
This was my first Heinlein book and I plan on reading others that I found by him at a garage sale. Right now I'm not overly impressed with his writing. But I'll save my overall judgment until I have read his other works.
I "read" an audiobook edition - if you could pick anyone in literature to give a swirly to, Heinlein's Bill would be the guy.
This protagonist and his narrative voice would be any voice actor's challenge because he is such a self-absorbed yet unself-aware, unlikeable guy that he grates on your every nerve.
plus the slang and curses and turns of phrase Heinlein creates to give the world its 50's on the moon flavor are enough to make you want to throttle the poor main character kid every time he opens his mouth or even thinks a thought .
all that aside, this story is still great speculative fiction, much of it put forward for young readers in such a way as to challenge myths of western expansion and manifest destiny while at the same time telling a story with some coming of age, tension & adventure. It's also an ode to engineers in a way which i always enjoy .
Perfect ? no . Perfectly entertaining & worth the read, yes !
This protagonist and his narrative voice would be any voice actor's challenge because he is such a self-absorbed yet unself-aware, unlikeable guy that he grates on your every nerve.
plus the slang and curses and turns of phrase Heinlein creates to give the world its 50's on the moon flavor are enough to make you want to throttle the poor main character kid every time he opens his mouth or even thinks a thought .
all that aside, this story is still great speculative fiction, much of it put forward for young readers in such a way as to challenge myths of western expansion and manifest destiny while at the same time telling a story with some coming of age, tension & adventure. It's also an ode to engineers in a way which i always enjoy .
Perfect ? no . Perfectly entertaining & worth the read, yes !
This is the step-brother of Heinlein's masterful YA novel [b:Have Space Suit—Will Travel|20417|Have Space Suit—Will Travel|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425593094s/20417.jpg|1984753]. For some reason I didn't know this was another of Heinlein's YAs ("juveniles") and I missed my chance to read it when I might have appreciated it. But I can see why it, unlike HSS-WT, was passed over when it came time to stock the tiny local library in the town I grew up in.
The story's plot is rambling and unfocused. It suffers from a lack of a single, consistent villains. What villains there are turn out to be an interchangeable cast of whiners, bullies, and narcissists--exactly the kinds of people you don't want having around if you're trying to colonize a moon of Jupiter.
The real antagonist--not a villain--is the moon Ganymede itself. The last third of the book becomes interesting as our teen hero and his family struggle to turn barren rock into a productive farm. There's some hand-wavium around, like the heat trap that causes the temperature of the moon to rise to a livable level, and there are things we know now (about long space flight, or Jupiter's overwhelming magnetic field that would shut down the brains of anyone landing on Ganymede) that make the colonization project absurd. Still, Heinlein's geeky love of ballistics, physics, chemistry, and all science subjects shines through. He gets a lot wrong, but his thinking is never lazy.
The most compelling part is a disaster that sets the homesteaders back severely--those that survive. At the very end, Heinlein shows real heart by demonstrating the spirit that drives pioneers to take enormous risk, break their backs with difficult work, and, to paraphrase Kipling, "watch the things they've given their life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools." The very end, with an interesting First Contact subplot just to sweeten the deal, moved my rating from 3 stars to 4. Heinlein really is a genius, even on his off days.
The story's plot is rambling and unfocused. It suffers from a lack of a single, consistent villains. What villains there are turn out to be an interchangeable cast of whiners, bullies, and narcissists--exactly the kinds of people you don't want having around if you're trying to colonize a moon of Jupiter.
The real antagonist--not a villain--is the moon Ganymede itself. The last third of the book becomes interesting as our teen hero and his family struggle to turn barren rock into a productive farm. There's some hand-wavium around, like the heat trap that causes the temperature of the moon to rise to a livable level, and there are things we know now (about long space flight, or Jupiter's overwhelming magnetic field that would shut down the brains of anyone landing on Ganymede) that make the colonization project absurd. Still, Heinlein's geeky love of ballistics, physics, chemistry, and all science subjects shines through. He gets a lot wrong, but his thinking is never lazy.
The most compelling part is a disaster that sets the homesteaders back severely--those that survive. At the very end, Heinlein shows real heart by demonstrating the spirit that drives pioneers to take enormous risk, break their backs with difficult work, and, to paraphrase Kipling, "watch the things they've given their life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools." The very end, with an interesting First Contact subplot just to sweeten the deal, moved my rating from 3 stars to 4. Heinlein really is a genius, even on his off days.