Customer Reviews

Starman Jones

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_This is one of the few books that I read as a boy that stuck with me all the rest of my life. While I never studied to be an "astrogator", this book did inspire me to study astronomy, navigation, physics, and calculus. It gave me a dream to build on. You see, the hero, Max, is a poor, rural kid from a highly dysfunctional and abusive family (actually, "white trash" is more accurate.) Being lower class, Max has no realistic chance of going to college or entering a profession ( a "guild".) Yet he not only escapes, he goes on to captain a starship. He succeeds entirely on his own against incredible odds. Instead of accepting a life of rural idiocy and poverty he literally remakes himself and his destiny from the ground up.

_Whenever I was up against it in my own life I inevitably remembered Max. How many modern books provide an example like this for "lower class" kids? My only regret is that there wasn't an Astrogator's Guild that I could have joined. If Max could cut it, so could I...

I have been a fan of Robert A. Heinlein since I was 8 years old. This book is from what many consider his most creative period. The so-called juveniles he wrote for Charles Scribners Sons had an immediate and lasting impact. None of them has ever been out of print. This is despite their awful titles and their original target audience.

Maximilian Jones is from a poor family. The star of the family was his late Uncle Chester who was a member of the Astrogator's Guild. Max runs away from home with his Uncle's astrogation manuals with a vague notion of following in his Uncle's footsteps. Along the way he meets with and is robbed by another tramp, Sam.

In a interesting twist of events, this thief becomes the best friend a man ever had. Between the Max's brilliance and Sam's avarice and cunning,their mutual loyalty, and series of fortunate and unfortunate events, Max achieves his goal.

Obviously a novel written during the fifties has dated technology. The ships computer is two steps above Eniac. There are effectively no female crewmen. But none this detracts from a fine story. Along the way lessons are given, regarding leadership, friendship, responsibility and of all things rule of law.

Having read this as a child, I did not understand everything at the time that I read it. But as I grew older the lessons learned helped me in life.

The book is still an excellent read even if you're an adult. Personally I have gone so far as to track down an old library hardcover with the original illustrations.

It is unfortunate that Heinlein has received a lot of press for some of the worst things he wrote for an adult audience, such as _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_. His genius was in his "juvenile novels" -- the stories he wrote for serialization in boy scout magazines, later published as books.

Max Jones dropped out of high school to support his lazy irresponsible stepmother by working on their farm, which has only those amenities that would have been commonplace in 1850. But he dreams of becoming an astrogator aboard a starship like his late Uncle Chet, who instructed him in that profession. When his stepmother marries a man who is uneducated and cannot appreciate his ambition, Max leaves. The world being badly mismanaged, he must hitchhike to the city of Earthport to find out whether he has been appointed his uncle's professional heir.

I will not give away spoilers, but herewith I will tease you a little bit. Heinlein was a graduate of the Naval Academy, where he learned some of the laws in force aboard ships. While Max is serving aboard a ship that has become lost and set down on an unknown planet, with no realistic hope of finding its way home, the First Officer explains to the passengers and crew certain legal rights and obligations that apply in such an emergency. A passenger objects: "There are no laws HERE." The First Officer corrects him, saying the law goes where the ship goes. That sets the context for a climax several chapters later, involving legal, moral, political, and psychological aspects of leadership in an emergency.

The book dramatizes the role of intelligent purposefulness in human life. A scene occupying about the first four pages of the second chapter is a beautiful example: Max is alone facing difficulties and using his head.

The book has various readily identifiable flaws, which it would be easy for me to list. Those don't matter at all.

Max Jones is a young farmer, working hard to support his unlovable stepmother after his father's death, but he dreams of the life his Uncle Chet lived, as a member of the Astrogators' Guild. Chet had promised him that he'd nominate him for membership, but died while Max was still too young to join, and then Max's father, before he died also, made him promise to take care of his stepmother.

But when his stepmother remarries and she and her new husband sell the farm out from under him, he runs away, taking his uncle's astrogation books with him. The books get stolen from him by a deceitfully helpful conman, and then he discovers that his uncle had died before nominating him for the guild, and all his dreams seem crushed forever. But then he meets that charming conman again, who decides that they can help each other get what they both really want-a berth on a starship. For Max, it's a berth as a steward's mate, and he's tending farm animals again, but he's on a starship, and he's a plucky, resourceful, just plain likable young Heinlein hero, who makes you buy into every improbable plot twist along the way to his dream.

Once again, great fun.

Wow, what a nice little sci fi story. I'm just so glad that Heinlein lived in this world and wrote so many enjoyable books. Starman Jones falls into his juvenile period, where he writes for youngsters. This doesn't mean that you wont enjoy them as an adult.

Heinlein played with this story scenario in a few of his books. I'm thinking of Citizen of the Galaxy and there are probably a couple of others. Here, he has a kid, Max, who is leading a hard life. He dreams of going to the stars. What transpires follows a path of rags to riches. Thats it. Simple. But elegantly enchanting at the same time.

This book was published 60 years ago. Two sociological points really stood out for me. One is that women in society and the rolls they play are VASTLY different today than they were in 1950. I like to think of Heinlein as a progressive fellow, but his idea of what it meant to be a woman was so backward, it was kind of shocking. Secondly, its sort of amazing how far computers have come. The whole plot of Starman Jones revolves around a kid who could do complex mathematical problems in his head. Something that any computer could do millions of times faster.

I guess I have a third sociological point to make. That is Heinlein was very liberal. I make that assumption based upon his work. He portrays a future society that has seemingly almost choked to death on unions and workers rights. Its a bleak place. I don't think that Heinlein intended to call out socialism or the New Deal in a negative light, but here it reads as pretty gloomy.

If you think about it, Heinlein's future could sort of be summed up as the New Deal carried forward 200 years. Contrast him to an author like Gibson who's Neuromancer captures a world overwhelmed by freetrade capitalism. Maybe unintentionally, both authors have created a glimpse of "what-if's" that works primarily as a warning in regards to completely following one political movement or another.

so... a simple story. A good story. A story you will probably have a good time reading even though it is dated. I can't imagine any author ever writing from such a viewpoint again. This is sort of like a time capsule gussied up in the form of a sci-fi novel. THIS IS NOT Heinleins best work. He has 10 that I would recommend before this. It just goes to show the strength of this authors writing. No sci-fi author has come close to matching Heinlein's prowess.

I believe this is the first science fiction novel I ever read -- shortly after it came out, when I was in [...]. It certainly hooked me on adventure stories about space and aliens, and it increased my interest in future technology, . . . as it was understood at that time, with slide rules and printed logarithm tables, and with huge "computing machines" filled with wires and tubes. Max Jones, the hero of the story, is a self-confessed hillbilly who yearns to get into space. (The author seems to feel the animal-powered cultural isolation of the Ozarks in the mid-20th century would continue into a time of extra-solar colonization, in a rather hidebound society run by inherited guild membership.) He comes under the questionable influence of an ex-spaceman and, through forgery and chicanery, gets his wish as a low-ranking steward's mate on a commercial star liner. But Max also has considerable talents as a mathematician -- plus a very handy eidetic memory -- so he's shortly being pulled up the ranks into the ship's control room itself. And as the emergencies begin to stack up, Max, naturally, becomes a hero, even as he confesses to his earlier fraud. It's a better-than-average yarn, with good dialogue, a worthwhile moral, and engaging characters. Even with the lack of "modern" technology, it's still worth recommending to adolescent readers.

I reread this book recently after nearly thirty years since my first reading, as a high school student. I was amazed at how much I remembered. It must have had quite an impact on my young mind because so much of it came back as I read. Unlike the story's protagonist, my memory for past reading is abysmal.

This story is wonderfully crafted. I had to check the publication date a couple of times, because I've read far less convincing descriptions of FTL travel in more recent novels. The drama and interplay of the crew and officers on the ship is excellent, particularly so for a young man learning his way in society.

In my opinion, the conversations between the protagonist and his female love interest are of a different character. These seem stilted, awkward, and less credible. Heinlein has been taken to task for this in other venues so I won't belabor it here. I have to wonder if my own early lack of success communicating with the opposite sex was influenced by his juveniles, but I suspect the problem is more widespread and genetically based.

Speculation...

Spoiler Warning: The following reveals some plot elements. Stop reading further if you haven't read this book, and plan to.

At the end of this novel, an intelligent species of centaur-like beings bent on the enslavement of humans has examples of our "advanced" technology, plus two complete sets of Astrogation Manuals. These manuals were hidden, but the planet has various species of creatures that excel at spying on humans.

I have to wonder if the Grand Master wasn't planning a follow-up novel in which an older Starman Jones (or descendant) is tasked with helping to defend our civilization from these aggressive creatures.

"Hello, Spider Robinson? Ready for the next round?"

Max Jones could not seem to ever get a break, first his mother dies, then his father leaving him a run down farm in the Ozarks and a shiftless step-mother to support. Still it did not do any good to complain so Max dropped out of school and worked the farm and dreamed of roaming the stars like his uncle had. When his stepmother arrived home with a new husband, one who promptly announced that he had sold the farm and that Max would now answer to him, Max decided that it was time to go.

Unfortunately his bad luck seemed to go with him, he was robbed, he found that his uncle had not left a will naming him heir to enter a Guild. Just when it seemed as though every door was firmly closed against him Max's luck seemed to change....but for better or worse?

This is one of the 'juveniles' that Heinlein wrote in the '50's. Most of these stories were originally serials in magazines, usually ones aimed at boys and told from a young man's point of view. The technology described was amazing stuff at the time but most of it now seems quaint. The attitudes of the times toward women and social class also appear as foreign to today's reader as any alien culture. Despite all this Heinlein still spins a good story, one that will leave the reader with something to think about long after.

Fans of Heinlein will recognize bits that will appear in later works, young Max has lots in common with Andy Libby of the Future History stories, descriptions of life aboard a starship liner will be revisited in later works as well as the idea of an idyllic planet hiding subtle dangers. Those who are not familiar with Heinlein's works would do well to start here enough though it is not one of his better known works.

Heinlein told one of his greatest coming-of-age stories in this novel. The characters are perhaps more varied and interesting than in some of his other great juveniles and the things that they go through are fascinating.

It will be difficult for a juvenile reader to envisage a future with interstellar flight but without computers that could make astrogation trivial, and thus destroy much of the story. If the youngster, or adult, who reads this story can suspend his or her disbelief about this matter the reward will be one of the best juvenile novels of all time.

A fine old SF yarn, laced with intelligence, about a young farmboy trying to realize his dream of venturing into space as a trained "astrogator", a kind of space navigator. I liked the way the book shows young Max Jones making some bad decisions and mistakes in judgement early on, but thanks to good advice and honest self-examination, recovers from those mishaps and gets back on the right path. The result is a story that sends a nice message to its intended audience of young people that nobody's perfect and one can not only recover from mistakes but become a stronger person because of them.

Nicely juxtaposing elements such as high adventure and romance with tough decisions and the realities of life, this is a great little book, and I can see why it's still in print 50-plus years after its original publication. And I didn't even talk about the scene-stealing alien pet, the "spider-puppy" known as Mr. Chips! Wait'll you get a load of that little bugger.