Orphans Of The Sky [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert A. Heinlein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1987

Ancient myths told of a place called Earth, but the modern world knew it was nonsense. Science knew the Ship was all the Universe, and as long as the sacred Converter was fed, lights would glow and air would flow through the miles of metal corridors. Hugh never questioned these truths until a despised mutie showed him the Control Room and he learned the true nature of the Ship and its mission.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Heinlein's 1951 novel offers a ship drifting through the currents of space as a microcosm of society, complete with class struggles, politics (including war between inhabitants of different decks), and love and family. Protagonist Hugh Hoyland fights to understand it all and to bring unity to the crew. Stealth titles are available directly at www.stealthpress.com.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish sf with 'Lifeline' for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. Among his many novels are The Door into Summer, Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Ace (April 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441639135
• ISBN-13: 978-0441639137
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,112,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert A. Heinlein, four-time winner of the Hugo Award and recipient of three Retro Hugos, received the first Grand Master Nebula Award for lifetime achievement. His worldwide bestsellers have been translated into 22 languages and include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His long-lost first novel, For Us, the Living, was recently published by Scribner and Pocket Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read for an hour; Enjoy it for years!, December 25, 2005

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orphans of the Sky (Mass Market Paperback)

The mutiny took place many, many years ago on an enormous star ship outfitted for a multi-generational voyage to Far Centaurus. The last remaining member of the original crew, for right or wrong, made a political decision to hide the logs and, in effect, to bury the present crew's real history. As a result, for those alive today, now drifting aimlessly in a deep space of which none of the inhabitants are even aware, the ship constitutes their entire universe. None of them has ever been outside the ship and, indeed, even the existence of "outside" is a concept beyond their ken and imagination. They farm, they eat, they raise their families, they live and die, and they battle mutants that inhabit the upper levels of the ship. Scraps of past knowledge such as a book entitled "Basic Modern Physics" have been re-interpreted as religious artifacts and scientists have become the priesthood of the ship's "religion". Hugh Hoyland, a young man who had hopes of becoming a scientist, is captured by the mutants as he indulges himself in typically reckless young men's high jinx on the upper levels of the ship. Although he has been presumed dead by the ship's crew he left behind, the mutants reveal the true nature of the ship and its place in the universe to Hugh who decides he must somehow return to the lower levels and persuade them to complete the trip to Centaurus.

Like many of his other ground-breaking classics such as "Methuselah's Children" or "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Orphans of the Sky" can read on the surface as a short exciting adventure tale that succeeds brilliantly. Indeed, it is so simple and straight forward that one could easily classify it as juvenile fiction that would thrill the young readers in your family and convert them to life long fans of the sci-fi genre.

But the discerning adult reader who cares to dig a little more deeply will appreciate that Heinlein, in the space of an incredibly short 128 pages, has provided us with the fodder for many a thoughtful conversation - science as religion; religion as science; the tendency of established religion to view thinking outside its doctrine as unforgivable heresy; the extreme societal antagonism to sea change and paradigm shifts in philosophical or scientific thought; the difficulties scientists often encounter in the interpretation of their own data when the results run counter to their intuition; and, of course, the prejudice, fear and hatred we are all prone to in dealing with societies or individuals "different" from ourselves. Heinlein no doubt took the light-hearted humorous expression "Don't look at me like I've got two heads!" and turned Joe-Jim Gregory, a mutant with two heads, into a metaphor for the whole bigotry issue. In the closing chapters, Heinlein even deals with the cruel necessity for persecuted individuals to occasionally strike out blindly on their own and establish a new pioneering society norm as an expedient for basic survival.

"Orphans of the Sky" is a classic that can be read at a single sitting but you'll savour it for years to come!

Paul Weiss

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pioneering, May 29, 2001

By 

J. L. Probert - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orphans of the Sky (Hardcover)

This entry in Gollancz's classic reprint series was originally published in two parts in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction back in 1941 and if you bear this in mind while reading it you'll appreciate what an achievement this was. Despite the efforts of H G Wells and others, science fiction was still very much in its infancy, and I would imagine that works of fiction that quoted Newton's inverse square law of gravitation (hilariously misinterpreted near the beginning of this book) or tried to compare the concepts of space travel with knitting a sweater or baking a cake must have been pretty thin on the ground. Read it with this in mind and you'll enjoy this rather brief tale of a starship community which has existed for generations, succeeded in misinterpreting its flight manuals and lost all concept of the fact that it is, in fact, flying through space. Don't worry, I haven't given anything away that isn't mentioned on practically the first page of a story which presumably inspired Brian Aldiss's later 'Non-Stop'- a novel which tells a similar tale though perhaps without quite so many slit throats and two-headed mutants. The attitude to women and to the ship's mutant community is what one would expect for the time in which it was written but doesn't serve to detract too much from Heinlein's rapid pacing. Probably ground breaking for its time and still a pretty good read today.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile read, December 15, 2001

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orphans of the Sky (Mass Market Paperback)

While it shouldn't be compared to his later genre-busting novels, Orphans of the Sky is an entertaining Robert A. Heinlein book in its own right. The concept is one often mentioned in science fiction, but rarely expanded upon: a giant, self-contained spaceship - it's own Universe - in which humans eat and breathe, sleep and breed. The twist here is that they've been in it for so long that they can't remember life before it - or even imagine it, as they now believe the the Ship IS the Universe. It is an interesting social critique, as it shows how perfectly viable truths (indeed, Common Sense) can be reduced to mere mythology and religious twaddle. The book is well-written. Short, compact - two stories in about 120 pages - it is very tight, and this is one of those rare stories where not a single word is wasted (a complete contrast to some of Heinlein's later novels, one might say.) These are also the last two stories in Heinlein's Future History (never included in The Past Through Tomorrow.) A worthwhile story, I'm glad to see it back in print. Certainly not a heavyweight novel, but Heinlein fans will enjoy it. Reccommended for them, or as a good distraction.