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depizan 's review for:
The Star Beast
by Robert A. Heinlein
I'm not sure I'll ever get past Heinlein's writing of/about women enough to enjoy his books. And I think he even thought he was being progressive. But, frankly, his alien men are more human than his human women.
Though his writing of people in general in this book was particularly bad. The two "kid" characters were somewhere between 10 and 18, which is to say, they acted (especially John) about 10, but they're dating and they discussed where to go to college, which suggests they're supposed to be somewhere around 18. Also they get married, so I hope to hell they were older than they acted. Most of the other characters were cartoons. Hell, the whole book suffered from being half a cartoon and half a diplomatic story.
Lummox was an interesting alien, and I liked Mr. Kiku and Dr. Ftaemel, but it was a slog to get to them. The entire first chunk of the book was nearly unreadably bad - it really did seem more appropriate to a cartoon, where the action could carry you along too fast to start asking questions about why things were happening or people reacted the way they did. I mean, I'm sorry, but a family having a gigantic alien pet for generations - one that got taken for walks, I might add - would not be a surprise to their neighbors. Yet their reactions when Lummox got out seemed more "Aaeeeeiii, unknown monster!" than "Damn it, the Stuarts' giant pet got out."
Between the neighbor reactions and John's mother, it was like a good chunk of the cast didn't exist in universe before the beginning of the book. Hell, I'm not sure anyone in the town, except maybe John and Betty, even belonged in the world of the book.
The diplomatic shenanigans were infinitely more enjoyable. (Though Heinlein seems to have been an incredible cynic about humanity, bureaucracy, and intergalactic relations.)
So minus several thousand for rampant sexism and cardboard cartoon characters, plus some for interesting alien physiology and two enjoyable characters, even it all out with the fact that my sense of humor is on par with John Thomas Stuart XI's intelligence (that is to say: rocks have more), and we'll call it three stars.
Though his writing of people in general in this book was particularly bad. The two "kid" characters were somewhere between 10 and 18, which is to say, they acted (especially John) about 10, but they're dating and they discussed where to go to college, which suggests they're supposed to be somewhere around 18. Also
Lummox was an interesting alien, and I liked Mr. Kiku and Dr. Ftaemel, but it was a slog to get to them. The entire first chunk of the book was nearly unreadably bad - it really did seem more appropriate to a cartoon, where the action could carry you along too fast to start asking questions about why things were happening or people reacted the way they did. I mean, I'm sorry, but a family having a gigantic alien pet for generations - one that got taken for walks, I might add - would not be a surprise to their neighbors. Yet their reactions when Lummox got out seemed more "Aaeeeeiii, unknown monster!" than "Damn it, the Stuarts' giant pet got out."
Between the neighbor reactions and John's mother, it was like a good chunk of the cast didn't exist in universe before the beginning of the book. Hell, I'm not sure anyone in the town, except maybe John and Betty, even belonged in the world of the book.
The diplomatic shenanigans were infinitely more enjoyable. (Though Heinlein seems to have been an incredible cynic about humanity, bureaucracy, and intergalactic relations.)
So minus several thousand for rampant sexism and cardboard cartoon characters, plus some for interesting alien physiology and two enjoyable characters, even it all out with the fact that my sense of humor is on par with John Thomas Stuart XI's intelligence (that is to say: rocks have more), and we'll call it three stars.