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Title: Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein, Will McAuliffe ISBN: 1-932076-41-7 Publisher: Full Cast Audio Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 8 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.68 (75 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Relatively Well-Balanced
Comment: Robert A. Heinlein (author of "Starship Troopers," etc.) wrote this sci-fi novel that can be best be described as, well, well-balanced. Under its hood, the tale is basically a space opera, though it wears a hood of strong scientific reasoning. It does keep the reader hooked with its innocence and a strange sense of humor I've come to respect.
The main character is a high-school student named Clifford 'Kip' Russell, whose whimsical (read the first two pages, probably the most humorous in the book, and you'll see what I mean) and quite odd father has pushed him through his awkward education. (Footnote: The time period is strange, including obvious 50's elements -- Kip works as a soda jerk in a drug store -- but with technologically advanced portions, like moon tours and an evolved UN.) Ready to go to college, Kip instead yearns to see the moon. Entering in a soap contest, he devotes a large portion of his life to advertising Skyway Soap and receives a spacesuit. This suit leads to his kidnapping by an insidious space pirate. And so the adventure begins..
Accompanied by a bratty girl genius and a motherly Vegan (see "Barlowe's Guide to the Extraterrestrials"), the unlikely hero trudges 40 miles across the moon, gets drugged, spends a week in a dungeon, almost freezes to death and sees Vega and the place where the region's life began. I found a great deal of the story fascinating, from the lifestyle of the Vegans to the 1958 description of the moon and Pluto. The adventure comes to a close with a page-turning trial in which Kip must determine the fate of mankind and the ending is extremely weird.
The story may sound like a space fairy-tale, but plenty of science is packed in here (cosmology, mathematics, Roman history, and more about spacesuits than I'm sure you'll ever care to know -- during the Moon trek) but the way it's written (there is an unusual proliferance of the phrase, "I shut up," for example) will compel you back most of the time. One bad flaw: some pieces of the plot are never explained. How did the pirates take Tombaugh Station? Or, what exactly were the pirates' motives? Overall, though, you'll probably like this novel.
Rating: 4
Summary: Quick and Fun Science Fiction
Comment: This is the first book I've ever read by Heinlein, and I suspect that this will not be the last. Any book/author that encourages youngsters to learn more about science and the applications of math, enhances the imagination about the far reaches of space and what it holds, and makes it fun and entertaining will, of course, be highly recommended by me.
This is the story of Kip Russell who's biggest desire is to make it to the moon. This story not only takes us to the moon but also to the edge of our solar system and beyond.
There were two things that I really liked about this story. The first was the desire by Kip's father that Kip obtain a REAL education, not just the simplistic and spoon-fed "education" of our public high schools. I was also very impressed that this book shows the applications of math in science, though now-a-days a computer or a good calculator would be used instead of a slide-ruler.
There were some things that bothered me about this book, though. First, the dialog was a little bit surreal and watered down. The two "geniuses" seemed to be spending WAY too much time explaining to each other what was going on. The other was the trial of the human species at the end of the book. Actually, it was a trial of two different home worlds and it struck me that while there was very little difference between the two races, they received two very different sentences. Those who stood up to support the human race did nothing to support the "worm faces," and the result of the trial didn't amount to very much anyways.
However, I would highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys science fiction and I'm looking forward to picking up more works by this author.
Rating: 4
Summary: A stellar novel
Comment: Have Space Suit - Will Travel, is an excellent example of Heinlein's juvenile works in his early career. The plot is deceptively simple. Clifford 'Kip' Russel is an average (but fairly bright) teenager who wins a second hand space suit in a contest. Through the influences of his father, and his own desire to visit the moon he educates himself and brings his dump-ready space suit up to operational readiness. Of course he becomes enmeshed in an interstellar plot filled with exotic life forms and intergalactic politics.
Like so many of Heinlein's novels this one draws you in with its adventure and accessible characters. As always, the plot is built upon a foundation of solid science and technology. It is a wonderful way to press knowledge on young people in a palatable format. I know it worked on me as a youngster.
One of the things I love about this book is its datedness. While it is nominally science fiction it provides a fascinating view of the life and culture of the 1950's. As is so often the case with science fiction they make drastically unrealistic leaps with their visions of the future, while society and its moral and political structures remain fixed as they were when the novel was written.
Despite its having been aimed for a pubescent audience, I find myself digging this one out to read at least once a year. I would highly recommend it to you as well.
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Title: Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein ISBN: 0345353730 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 October, 1987 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Red Planet by ROBERT A. HEINLEIN ISBN: 0345340396 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 June, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Citizen of the Galaxy by ROBERT A. HEINLEIN ISBN: 0345342445 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 June, 1987 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein ISBN: 0345330137 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Farmer in the Sky by ROBERT A. HEINLEIN ISBN: 0345324382 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 February, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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