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Variable Star (Hardcover)

by Robert A. Heinlein (Author), Spider Robinson (Author)
Key Phrases: quantum ramjet, pink smoke, circular breathing, Solar System, Brasil Novo, Conrad of Conrad (more...)
3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Like a good Ganymedean farmer in the sky, Robinson (Callahan's Key) plants both feet firmly in Heinlein territory with this mostly credible pastiche of a Heinlein young adult novel circa 1955. Working from an unfinished outline and notes, Robinson tells the coming-of-age tale of Joel Johnston, who flees a broken romance to the new colony planet Brasil Novo 85 light-years away. Joel and his companions demonstrate the odd mixture of innocence and sexual experimentation that Heinlein employed, as Robinson captures the naïve yet advanced tone of Heinlein's future history. But the strain of a contemporary author trying to fit his sensibility about the future (in which nonaggression is a way of life, for example) into Heinlein's more notably militaristic mindset leaves its traces on the characters and plot, with some unexplained role reversals. Nostalgia for Heinlein's early work may pique interest in this posthumous collaboration, but old Heinlein hands may be disappointed that the book is incomplete, being all journey and no arrival. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
A mere glimpse at the legendary byline and Heinleinesque astronomical title may make at least older sf fans salivate. Alas, the source material is neither a lost or unfinished masterpiece but only a fifties-era outline made whole by journeyman sf scribe Robinson. No slouch at space opera himself, Robinson weaves Heinlein's guidelines into a serviceably entertaining tale of a young space explorer colonizing a new world. After discovering his fiancee and supposed fellow orphan is really a wealthy mogul's granddaughter, struggling musician Joel Johnston gets cold feet and grabs the next outbound starship. With his formative agricultural training on Ganymede, Joel has skills that come in handy tending goats and crops in preparation for landfall on Brasil Novo. Yet his vow to abandon love in favor of farming meets some surprising--and romantically intriguing--challenges. The trademark Heinlein quips, space-travel motifs, and obligatory schmaltzy romance are all here in a faithful, if technologically updated, pastiche of the late master's style and storytelling genius. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 19, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 076531312X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765313126
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,693 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #66 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Heinlein, Robert A.

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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
quantum ramjet, pink smoke, circular breathing, star travel
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Solar System, Brasil Novo, Conrad of Conrad, Captain Bean, Solomon Short, Joel Johnston, Dorothy Robb, Richard Conrad, Lieutenant Bruce, Peter Kindred, Matty Jaymes, Power Room, Star Chamber, Coordinator Grossman, Horn of Plenty, Jinny Hamilton, Miss Jinny, North Keep, Alice Dahl, Governor-General Cott, Oort Cloud, Paul Hattori, Sol Short, British Columbia, Hungry Ghost
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52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars RAH, RAH, RAH - and Spider, October 10, 2006
This book, like many posthumous `collaborations' that are attempts to complete an unfinished work, has both good and bad things about it.

First, yes, Heinlein's touch is definitely evident, mainly in the basic story setting and its main characters. Clearly the outline and notes that Spider worked from defined these elements unambiguously, and anyone familiar with Heinlein's work will find much here that will evoke that feeling that so many of his YA books from the fifties had. The story is very definitely set in the `Future History' line, with references to Red Planet, If This Goes On, Coventry, Time for the Stars, Starman Jones, Space Cadet, and multiple other stories. Its protagonist is, at least at the start of this book, a rather typical Heinlein older teen, a young man who starts with no clear idea of what he wants from life, and while quite intelligent has a tendency to leap without fully considering all the consequences.

But it is also true that this is Spider writing, and as such it's told in Spider's voice, with his own very distinctive style, which includes his penchant for punning, and to some extent, mysticism, neither of which Heinlein would normally touch. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I've enjoyed many of Spider's other books, and his style normally complements his story material very well. But here I found some of this a little jarring, as it simply didn't match my expectation of how Heinlein's voice would have told this story. Not that Spider either should or could have really matched Heinlein's voice - any attempt to do so would have probably been a disaster.

The objections some others have raised about Spider inserting some commentary about current events into the Future History time line (as `The Terror Wars') I found was actually fairly well done, giving a more solid basis to the rise of Nehemiah Scudder than Heinlein ever did (though this was an area that Heinlein himself avoided, as too depressing to write about). Spider does manage to create characters that I could fully believe in, and they bear a strong resemblance to what these characters would have been like under Heinlein's pen, and this does much to keep this story highly readable and enjoyable.

But I found that the direction of the plot for about the last third of this book rather upsetting, as it plays havoc with the Future History as we have come to know and love it - and this area is pure Spider, for as stated in the afterword, Heinlein's notes were incomplete, and did not include an ending. The ending that is here has both a deus-ex-machina device (but one that Heinlein himself used in one of his other stories) and a clear path to a possible sequel, as clearly there is more story to tell, if Spider (and the Heinlein estate) would so desire.

I finished this book with very mixed feelings. Yes, it's another entry into the Future History corpus; yes, it's well written, engrossing, and enjoyable; but no, it's not Heinlein, and it branches in a direction well outside the known Future History, at the very least requiring another major branch in the World-as-Myth world view. But if Spider ever does write a sequel to this, I'll be there at the bookstore waiting to buy it when it comes in.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Don't expect Heinlein, but does have some redeeming features, September 20, 2006
By Larry Smith (Yonkers, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
First the bad news. According to the afterword, all Spider started with was 7 pages of notes (there were more, but any additional pages have been lost) and 14 3x5 cards with more notes. So the plot in broad terms is recognizably Heinleinesque, but he didn't have much to go on. But the real disappointment is that Spider's agent told him not to write the novel in a Heinlein style, but in his own. Understandable, sure. But it just doesn't feel like a Heinlein book (much less a Heinlein Juvenile, which the Publisher's Weekly semi-compares it to in their review). It has a fair amount of profanity, multiple drug references (soft, hard and alcohol) and sentences like "Damned souls condemned to yearn forever, and destroy all they touched, knowing it was pointless." As a Spider Robinson book it's OK, but he's really pushing it to include RAH's name on it (no matter how lovingly he tried to do him justice).

OK, now onto the good parts. Throughout the first, oh, half of the book (but then it peters out), Spider peppers the story liberally with RAH allusions. For example: The story starts with Joel (the hero) and Jinny (as in Mrs. Ginny Heinlein?) dancing. Afterwards, she says, "After dancing like that ... a couple really ought to get married". Sound familiar? It should. The Number of the Beast (with its own ton of allusions) starts the same way -- "After a tango like that the couple ought to get married." In both books they go to (Jinny's home) which "isn't anywhere" and (Deety's/Jake's cabin) "It's ... a nowhere place." And there are many, many more. If you're like me and have read and re-read Heinlein's works so often you've practically got them memorized, you'll have fun picking out the references. Trivia question: In Variable Star, on several occasions people use the phrase "Crave pardon." Where else in the RAH canon is this phrase used?

And did I mention a character named Solomon Short? (Presumably used by permission of David Gerrold.)

Side comment -- Kathleen Moore complains that the book's resolution is based on a deus ex machina. Well, so it is. Which is ironic, because it's essentially the same deus ex machina used at the end of Time for the Stars that she mentions. So in a way that's another allusion. And while, yes, there is a lot of Time for the Stars in this novel, it doesn't take much thought to realize that in many ways, Variable Star is closest, structurally, to The Door Into Summer.

So the bottom line is that I gave this only 3 stars. If I'd read it without knowing the author(s), this is probably how I'd rate it. Which is a shame. I wish it had been better.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Is this a Spider/Heinlein medley or a harmony? Hard to say, but worth a read., December 23, 2006
By Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Your opinion of this book naturally will be affected by your opinion of Spider Robinson's novels. It certainly was so for me, and I admit that I was uncertain that Spider (or anybody) could pull off the "write a novel from 8 pages of Heinlein's notes" challenge. This isn't a perfect success, but he did far better than I feared.

Just for context: I loved Spider Robinson's early books and short story collections. But, as with a musician that has a distinctive "sound," I grew to prefer his stuff in small doses -- catch the song on the radio rather than listen to an entire album. Plus, over the years, I found Spider's authorial tics to be a bit too predictable, his puns obvious, and theme repetitions that were great... the first time around. So it's been years since I've read any of his new stuff. Although I knew that Spider grokked Heinlein better than anybody else, could he write with the Master's voice? I wasn't sure if Spider's own music would overwhelm the core of Heinlein's plot; whether they could harmonize or whether it'd be a "oh, here's the Heinlein solo" back-and-forth.

Spider far exceeded my expectations. This is a good story. It's not an awesome story, but it's a good one. It won't make you feel as though you're reading a Heinlein novel that you somehow had missed; it will, however, remind you of the things you liked about Heinlein's stories. There's the independent hero, the spaceship headed to a new colony, the gorgeous women who are also brilliant. There's also the things that could be irritating about Heinlein, passed through Spider's interpretation, which (I feel compelled to point out to other reviewers) included a propensity for pedantic opinion-sharing, and for sometimes awkwardly done brain-dumps of history or "this is how the science works." Unlike others, I appreciate the references to earlier works and the effort to twist the universe into Future History.

The Heinlein/Spider collaboration never reaches the state of beautiful harmony in which one cannot pick out one voice over another, but to my ear it sounds just fine. I don't think you'll be bowled over, but Heinlein fans will be glad they read this novel.
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