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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It ought to seem dated, but somehow it doesn't, October 4, 2008
This review is from: Farmer in the Sky (Baen Book) (Paperback)
This is among the set of "classic" Heinlein novels written in the 1950s for juvenile readers -- what nowadays we'd call "young adults." By definition, this was written for kids, so a parent can feel comfortable in handing the book to a child (even a bright 8-year-old... certainly I'd have read it at that age).
The book (or a shorter version) was commissioned for Boy's Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts, so it has a huge thread of "scouting is great, you betcha!"
The protagonist, Bill, gets involved in starting a scout troop on the space flight to become a colonist on Ganymede, the Jupiter moon. The basic story is a modified "Hero's Journey" in which teenager Bill (and his father) emigrate as space colonists and must cope with all the challenges that entails. Although Heinlein later earned a reputation for tedious exposition, in this case it works very well. He goes through all the steps that would be necessary to terraform a moon (given some base assumptions/guesses about the evolution of science), for example, and how astrogation would work on the spaceship.
The result is that the young reader will learn (painlessly) that Science Matters; you might have a discussion with her about what did/didn't turn out to be true (not to mention, "So why *haven't* we colonized space?" -- good question, kid).
There are a few anachronistic giggles; for example, in the first few pages, Bill comes back from a consumer/scout airflight over California and his dad suggests he figure something out with his slide rule. It's likely that the one thing in the book that a child might need a definition for is that slide rule.
Farmer in the Sky isn't among the greatest of Heinlein's juveniles (much less his general fiction), but it's solidly good -- and holds up rather well, to my surprise. Heinlein was a master of just plain good taletelling, and can carry along anyone -- at least me -- with the thread of "And THEN what happened?!" to make me turn pages.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A short but interesting story, December 6, 2008
This review is from: Farmer in the Sky (Baen Book) (Paperback)
"Farmer in the Sky" is a relatively short but interesting story.
Oddly for a Heinlein story, it is the first few pages that really got to me. The Earth of the future is overcrowded. There seems to be a world government that rations food so Chinese peasants do not starve. Things are tight and the future does not look very bright. The main character is Bill and his father decides to emigrate, to Gandymede. This involves the widower father getting married again. So, we are treated to some teenage angst while things proceed.
Why Gandymede? I have no idea. Heinlein had done Mars and wanted a fresh challenge while staying within his Future History, I suppose.
On the other hand, Gandymede offers a chance to see some terraforming ideas that Mars would not have had. Combining a story of teenage angst with old fashioned 'hard science fiction', Heinlein delivers an interesting story. Though, I never have liked the ending because it is too contrived.
Uhh... This story was written more than fifty years ago. Among other things it mentions a slide rule within the story. So what? I used a slide rule in my work until the 1970s. For the last few years, I had picked up a simple plastic slide rule for, about, a dollar. That darn cheap model now sells on the internet for, about, $20. But, a 20 or 30 function calculator, which would have sold for a few hundred dollars in the 1970s now sells for less than that $20. Go figure!
Also, wording, conversations, attitudes, and etcetera reflect the average attitudes of the 1940s and 1950s. In other words, they seem outated, by 2008 standards.
Nevertheless, it is a fairly good story and I could not bear to rate it lower.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Necessary mentoring, March 14, 2011
This review is from: Farmer in the Sky (Baen Book) (Paperback)
I just finished rereading this book two days ago. As a youth (and this book was one of Heinlein's Juvies--targeted to boy scouts) I like this book. I thought that the earlier Space Cadet was a better book, and still do. But Both as a youth and a middle-aged man, I appreciate this book for what it is, and more importantly, for what it does: mentor youth.
You have the core story--and several of the books scientific flaws are critiqued by the afterward in the Baen's 2008 trade paperback edition--but you have these tangents, or asides, that make the book cross from science fiction to science mentoring.
And I love Heinlein for doing this in his book. There are these character types, who are really archetypes, that the young hero interacts with. You have loudmouths, know-it-alls, politicians, snobs who have their pride brought low by face of hard-pan reality.
It is helpful to read about these types (or these archetypes) because you really meet people like this in real life.
And Heinlein, who himself is a mentor, always includes mentors. Lermer's father is one. Captain Harkness is another. Johnny Schultz is one. So is Hank Jones, even though he and Bill being as adversaries. Again, we should be sensitive to our mentors, and what happens when we become mentors ourselves.
The plot is a bit bumpy, due to the story being serialized in Boy's Life, but it is really a series of "a slice of life" tales loosely connected. The ending had a deus-ex-machina--quite literally, with them finding the caterpillar machine. But this is also a beginning of a thread.
The aliens on Ganymede led to Hogan's The Minervan Experiment: Inherit the Stars; The Gentle Giants of Ganymede; Giant's Star, which led to the Macross Plus - The Collection (Two-Disc Set), and then to Robotech - Protoculture Collection. Also, I suspect that the blind aliens with no pictures may have influences the elusive Krell in Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc 50th Anniversary Edition).
So, take this book for what it is, and more importantly, what it does.
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