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3.0 out of 5 stars
Old Fashioned High Adventure, Aug 31 2001
I hadn't read this one of Heinlein's in many, many years when I picked it up and was leafing through it in search of an answer to a trivia question. Doing this with any Heinlein novel is dangerous; in short order I was snagged into re-reading the entirety of this one. Heinlein has often been cited by many of today's scientists and engineers as their inspiration for getting into the sciences, and this book is a prime example of why. As the story of Matt Dodson, young man in training to be a Space Patrol officer, it is a very typical adolescent-to-man portrayal. The first half of the book deals with his training, from the rigorous testing to eliminate those who don't have what it takes to descriptions of the myriad of subjects an officer is expected to know. The second half details his experiences and on-the-job training as a school graduate, from long boring hours in space transit, to the finding of a missing Patrol ship, to his experiences in the art of negotiation with Venusian natives. At no point does this book ever become boring; I fully believe Heinlein could have written a twenty page exposition on watching grass grow and kept his readers totally engrossed. Some of the details he presents on the art of astrogation and space flight may go over the heads of some younger readers of this book, but it is precisely such details that will get those readers interested in studying such subjects. This book was written in 1948, and some allowances must be made for that reason, such as the description of Venus as mainly a hot and very wet but habitable planet (at the time he wrote this, this was one of the main scientific suppositions about conditions on the this planet). At the same time, it is quite incredible just how accurate he was in describing everything from rocket ship design, fuels, space walks, space sickness, space habitats, eating utensils designed for space use, the utility of a global peace-keeping force (such as the U.N., which was just being formed when this was written), and even predicted the use of microwaves for cooking (this prediction is hidden in a throw away one-liner comment, typical for Heinlein, as he quite correctly portrays the inventions of the future as mere commonplaces of their time). Some have called this a watered-down version of Starship Troopers, and there is some validity to this point, as there is very little of the heavy philosophy that characterized Starship Troopers here (although, like all of his 'juvenile' novels, there are strong threads running throughout on the importance of honesty, duty, personal responsibility, and the proper role of government), but much of the same flavor regarding military organizations. Other than Matt himself, the characterizations are somewhat one-dimensional, in some cases near caricatures drawn with broad strokes. This is not necessarily bad in a book intended for young readers, who have not yet reached the sophistication to see the world in many shades of gray, but is a little grating for the adult readers. The depiction of Burke, supposedly good enough to survive all the testing and early training for the Space Patrol, but so dunderheaded as to effectively kidnap a local Venusian 'mother' and not see anything wrong with his actions is especially grating. This book was the basis for an attempt at a TV serial: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet in the early fifties, and is very well suited to this type of treatment. The book is a fun, fast read. Adult readers may be disappointed in its lack of meaty subjects and sketchy characters, but it is near perfect for its intended audience.
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