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creadsagain's review
adventurous
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
scytale's review
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
markyon's review
4.0
Having read the chronologically first novel in the series, the science-heavy They Shall Have Stars, following it with A Life for the Stars (LFTS) is a shock. It is different. In this second novel, Blish seems to be channelling Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, or perhaps Robert A Heinlein’s juveniles, though it has very different results.
Like many of Heinlein’s juvenile novels, LFTS is a bildungsroman novel. It is initially about Chris, a young man who, although limited in education, ends up travelling to the stars on one of the cities currently leaving Earth in search for work.
Since the first novel, the development of the anti-gravity drive Spindizzy (invented in the first book) has meant that Earth cities are now, once adapted, physically lifting off the ground to travel free, beyond Earth. Like the Okies of the USA’s past, these cities can travel for work throughout the galaxy, escaping the harsh regime of suppression and surveillance created on Earth in the “Age of Security”.
Unfortunately for Chris, he doesn’t know that simply by watching a city prepare for take-off means that he has to be taken with it, in order to maintain secrecy. It seems like a weak plot point, but it does reflect that feeling of paranoia and suspicion that was created under the ‘Age of Security’ in the previous novel. LFTS is set fifty years later than the first story.
Chris begins to travel through the stars, seeing the cities at work, taking on work contracts and taking over contracts defaulted on by others. When Chris transfers from Scranton to New York, his life changes further. He meets the Mayor of New York, and when Manhattan arrives on a planet where a city has defaulted on its contract, finds himself involved in the resolution of the issue.
Being in general appearance a YA novel (remember that no such genre label existed in the 1960’s), A Life for the Stars has both strengths and weaknesses. It is simpler, admittedly, and less complex than the first novel, but this also makes the book more accessible and less didactic. For that reason, it is more enjoyable, and less of a strain to read. But at the same time the view is narrower, the overriding theme less obvious, the epic-ness more muted by being concentrated around one main, young and inexperienced character. Chris is not an adult like Dr Corsi, Senator Bliss Wagoner or even spaceman Paige Russell of the first novel, which gives a different perspective to that seen already in the series.
Whilst this may be nothing new, even in 1962, it is rather refreshing and allows the reader to experience, with eyes wide open, that sense of wonder that is so important to young readers. Reading the novel is a voyage of discovery, of taking and experiencing that journey into places unknown. Star Trek readers would love it (which is rather amusing to me, as Blish wrote the novelisation of the Original Series’ scripts.)
Interestingly, I found LFTS often more enjoyable than the Heinlein equivalents, which was a surprise. (To put this in context, Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit Will Travel was published in 1958, and Starship Troopers in 1959.)
Comparing the two author's work, there’s less of the lecturing here in LFTS, fewer fractious adults passing on their wisdom than usually seen in a Heinlein version. Don’t get me wrong – as my reviews show, I did enjoy the Heinlein books, but this seems more intelligent, more realistic, more memorable. Whilst there are undeniably lectures here, following many of the usual themes, LFTS seems to be more concerned with telling a tale, rather than propose a message. The message is there, but more subtly, and as a result the reader can feel less like they’ve been repeatedly hit by a moral or a message. Perhaps it is my Brit nature, but I feel that this way is more persuasive than the alternative.
Like Alexis Panshin’s Rite of Passage (1968), LFTS seems to take the original Heinlein template and then produce something that holds up as well as the original. Not all of the characters in LFTS are nice, nor honourable – there’s an unpleasant scene involving a dog at the beginning of the novel, that emphasises this. Like many of Heinlein’s characters, Chris’s road to adulthood is not straightforward. He makes mistakes, though by the end becomes good. His intellectual growth through hypnotic training is not easy, though it may be a bit of a cheat when compared with the graft of Heinlein’s Cadet School.
When Chris is transferred from lowly Scranton, Pennsylvania, to New York City, in an exchange deal, the story steps up a gear. Chris is taken further from a place he knows to somewhere more complex and more vibrant. It is also where we first meet one of the key characters of the series, the Mayor of Manhattan, John Amalfi. As the most memorable person other than Chris in the story, he is the equivalent of Hari Seldon in this series, and later books will continue his story, as the Foundation series had the presence of Seldon throughout. It is interesting to compare Mayor Amalfi with ‘The Mayors’ of Asimov’s Foundation (1942-1951). Like Salvor Hardin in Foundation, Amalfi is intelligent thoughtful and manipulative, but able to make ruthless decisions when required. It is characters such as these that guide the story, but characters like Chris who humanise it.
There are other parts that are quite surprising. I wonder what fans of Ken McLeod would make of a city where choices and important decisions are mainly given over to AI – self-monitoring, self-repairing machines. Though the Mayor may have executive control, it is just accepted as a fact that the ‘City Fathers’ can oust him, if his decisions are deemed to be unacceptable. I can’t see Heinlein going for such executive control by non-humans either, though computers may be useful in the future (see The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.)
On the downside, there are rather a lot of plot coincidences and issues rapidly resolved. From my more cynical world perspective of 2018, Chris’s mentors seem to be accepted and trusted rather too quickly, although for a young readership in the 1950’s such contrivances may be how it would happen, in the same ways that Heinlein’s would. The world is less trusting these days.
Some contemporary readers may also be disappointed by the male-dominance of the characters, though in comparison with much material of the time it is typical. Even Heinlein struggled to include female characters of prominence in his novels of that time.
Nevertheless, in short, I enjoyed A Life for the Stars a great deal. If They Shall Have Stars was Blish’s take on Asimov’s Foundation, this reads to me like his take on Heinlein’s juveniles. Whilst undeniably dated in places – I do wonder if such secrecy would be possible in today’s modern world of social media and fake news? – there’s a verve and an enthusiasm that is quite enjoyable. A Life for the Stars may not be entirely original, but it uses traditional tropes in a pleasurable manner. And in a world that is dark and scary, wonderfully comforting entertainment.
Like many of Heinlein’s juvenile novels, LFTS is a bildungsroman novel. It is initially about Chris, a young man who, although limited in education, ends up travelling to the stars on one of the cities currently leaving Earth in search for work.
Since the first novel, the development of the anti-gravity drive Spindizzy (invented in the first book) has meant that Earth cities are now, once adapted, physically lifting off the ground to travel free, beyond Earth. Like the Okies of the USA’s past, these cities can travel for work throughout the galaxy, escaping the harsh regime of suppression and surveillance created on Earth in the “Age of Security”.
Unfortunately for Chris, he doesn’t know that simply by watching a city prepare for take-off means that he has to be taken with it, in order to maintain secrecy. It seems like a weak plot point, but it does reflect that feeling of paranoia and suspicion that was created under the ‘Age of Security’ in the previous novel. LFTS is set fifty years later than the first story.
Chris begins to travel through the stars, seeing the cities at work, taking on work contracts and taking over contracts defaulted on by others. When Chris transfers from Scranton to New York, his life changes further. He meets the Mayor of New York, and when Manhattan arrives on a planet where a city has defaulted on its contract, finds himself involved in the resolution of the issue.
Being in general appearance a YA novel (remember that no such genre label existed in the 1960’s), A Life for the Stars has both strengths and weaknesses. It is simpler, admittedly, and less complex than the first novel, but this also makes the book more accessible and less didactic. For that reason, it is more enjoyable, and less of a strain to read. But at the same time the view is narrower, the overriding theme less obvious, the epic-ness more muted by being concentrated around one main, young and inexperienced character. Chris is not an adult like Dr Corsi, Senator Bliss Wagoner or even spaceman Paige Russell of the first novel, which gives a different perspective to that seen already in the series.
Whilst this may be nothing new, even in 1962, it is rather refreshing and allows the reader to experience, with eyes wide open, that sense of wonder that is so important to young readers. Reading the novel is a voyage of discovery, of taking and experiencing that journey into places unknown. Star Trek readers would love it (which is rather amusing to me, as Blish wrote the novelisation of the Original Series’ scripts.)
Interestingly, I found LFTS often more enjoyable than the Heinlein equivalents, which was a surprise. (To put this in context, Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit Will Travel was published in 1958, and Starship Troopers in 1959.)
Comparing the two author's work, there’s less of the lecturing here in LFTS, fewer fractious adults passing on their wisdom than usually seen in a Heinlein version. Don’t get me wrong – as my reviews show, I did enjoy the Heinlein books, but this seems more intelligent, more realistic, more memorable. Whilst there are undeniably lectures here, following many of the usual themes, LFTS seems to be more concerned with telling a tale, rather than propose a message. The message is there, but more subtly, and as a result the reader can feel less like they’ve been repeatedly hit by a moral or a message. Perhaps it is my Brit nature, but I feel that this way is more persuasive than the alternative.
Like Alexis Panshin’s Rite of Passage (1968), LFTS seems to take the original Heinlein template and then produce something that holds up as well as the original. Not all of the characters in LFTS are nice, nor honourable – there’s an unpleasant scene involving a dog at the beginning of the novel, that emphasises this. Like many of Heinlein’s characters, Chris’s road to adulthood is not straightforward. He makes mistakes, though by the end becomes good. His intellectual growth through hypnotic training is not easy, though it may be a bit of a cheat when compared with the graft of Heinlein’s Cadet School.
When Chris is transferred from lowly Scranton, Pennsylvania, to New York City, in an exchange deal, the story steps up a gear. Chris is taken further from a place he knows to somewhere more complex and more vibrant. It is also where we first meet one of the key characters of the series, the Mayor of Manhattan, John Amalfi. As the most memorable person other than Chris in the story, he is the equivalent of Hari Seldon in this series, and later books will continue his story, as the Foundation series had the presence of Seldon throughout. It is interesting to compare Mayor Amalfi with ‘The Mayors’ of Asimov’s Foundation (1942-1951). Like Salvor Hardin in Foundation, Amalfi is intelligent thoughtful and manipulative, but able to make ruthless decisions when required. It is characters such as these that guide the story, but characters like Chris who humanise it.
There are other parts that are quite surprising. I wonder what fans of Ken McLeod would make of a city where choices and important decisions are mainly given over to AI – self-monitoring, self-repairing machines. Though the Mayor may have executive control, it is just accepted as a fact that the ‘City Fathers’ can oust him, if his decisions are deemed to be unacceptable. I can’t see Heinlein going for such executive control by non-humans either, though computers may be useful in the future (see The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.)
On the downside, there are rather a lot of plot coincidences and issues rapidly resolved. From my more cynical world perspective of 2018, Chris’s mentors seem to be accepted and trusted rather too quickly, although for a young readership in the 1950’s such contrivances may be how it would happen, in the same ways that Heinlein’s would. The world is less trusting these days.
Some contemporary readers may also be disappointed by the male-dominance of the characters, though in comparison with much material of the time it is typical. Even Heinlein struggled to include female characters of prominence in his novels of that time.
Nevertheless, in short, I enjoyed A Life for the Stars a great deal. If They Shall Have Stars was Blish’s take on Asimov’s Foundation, this reads to me like his take on Heinlein’s juveniles. Whilst undeniably dated in places – I do wonder if such secrecy would be possible in today’s modern world of social media and fake news? – there’s a verve and an enthusiasm that is quite enjoyable. A Life for the Stars may not be entirely original, but it uses traditional tropes in a pleasurable manner. And in a world that is dark and scary, wonderfully comforting entertainment.
count_zero's review
4.0
Better than the first book, with more of a traditional narrative, and more fleshed out characters.
internpepper's review
4.0
Certainly an improvement over the first book. It had the same great ideas with a smaller cast of characters to develop better.
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