Customer Reviews

Between Planets

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Heinlein is a name to be reckoned with in Science Fiction. This was the first book of his which I read and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It is a quality adventure story and well-suited even for a SF neophyte such as I. Additionally, there are a lot of interesting themes here such as homesickness, authoritarianism, and alienation. Pick this as an introduction to Heinlein.

Growing up, this was my fav Heinlien novel. His best works from the 60ws weren't kept in the library at my Catholic School, but as a pre-teen, this is one of the books that hooked me into Speculative Fiction for life.
You'll need to suspend any of the real science you've assimilated regarding Mars or Venus (especially!), but you'll be pleasently suprised if you're young (or young at heart).

Revolution, aliens, young love; hot stuff to a teener. Uncle Bob at his political, inventive best (this tale includes the first literary description of "stealth" vehicles,,,decades prior to their actual construction in "our" world).

Just for the record, before I launch into this, I have absolutely no problem with Heinlein's depiction of whether there was life on Venus (or Mars) or whether people could safety live on either. I don't know if Heinlein actually believed that back then (as a lot of folks did, we're talking the days before satellites, kids) or he just figured the cardinal rule of fun writing: don't let science get in the way of a good story. And he sure doesn't, Heinlein draws us into a pure SF adventure story that rockets around the solar system, as seen through the eyes of one Don Harvey, who really only wants to get back to Mars to see his parents. In the process he gets accosted by an irate Earth government (and Heinlein's depiction of an almost authoritarian Earth was probably a social comment that went way above the heads of his target audience . . . but then this is the guy who thought Starship Troopers was a childrens book), winds up on Venus and gets involved in the revolution (Viva!). It's mostly nonstop action and the settings are fun, if you can suspend your disbelief and take yourself back to a time where it was possible that there was life on Venus and we might one day wind up there, and I don't see why you can't, you'll find yourself enjoying this despite everything. Harvey is hilariously stubborn when it comes to just about everything, the aliens are interesting in a nonscience way, plot twists abound, and a grand time is had by all. Sure, Heinlein sticks in some of his usual "the army makes a man out of you and it's the only good life" stuff that eventually became the central concept of Starship Troopers (not that I didn't enjoy that book, mind you), by and by, this is optimistic endearing science fiction with some pointed messages but nothing too deep or heavy. It's just an enjoyably fun way to spend two hundred pages.

This novel tells the story of a colony (on Venus) in rebellion against the parent government (on Earth), and of a young man caught in the middle. At the level of a simple adventure story, it works, if you bear in mind that it was written in the 50's, and that it was written for young (say, 10-14) readers.

Having read several of Heinlein's juvenile novels, I would have to place this at or near the top of that group. When compared to the likes of Rocket Ship Galileo or Space Cadet, this is a better book. It is more interesting, a little more realistic, and certainly more fun to read.

However, it is not Starship Troopers or Stranger in a Strange Land, either. By today's standards, much of the science fiction is ridiculous - giant intellegent dragons living on Venus? The worst swear word is "Aw, shucks"? Thus, it sounds very dated and quaint and even.... juvenile. But that aside, it's a fun read and at 200 pages, it's not taking up much of your life. As someone else mentioned, pick it up for a long flight when you just want something fun to read.

This was one of the boringest books i've ever read.... Unless you want to kill serious time, and you love all types of science-fiction... then this is the book for you. If not, then don't try reading this book. I don't like books that don't get you hooked in, and this DEFINITELY doesn't get you hooked. That's all i have to say about it..

Between Planets was one of the first Heinlein books I read, when I was ten or eleven years old. I never counted how many times I've re-read it since, but if it's over fifty or a hundred times, at least half of them as an adult, it wouldn't surprise me. This is Heinlein writing adventure with the best of the classics -- Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Defoe, and Stephen Crane included. When Heinlein wrote it in the 1950's, his description of the planet Venus as capable of sustaining both human life and an intelligent race of dragons was not impossible. That we have since learned that there are no other planets in our solar system which are friendly to life as we know it is unimportant -- we'll someday find planets in other solar systems that are, and Heinlein wrote about that possibility in other of his books such as Starman Jones. But what makes Between Planets so memorable is the portrait Heinlein painted of the planet earth as politically repressed: where you can't make a phone call without a government agency like today's National Security Agency listening; where you can't go to an airport (it's a spaceport in Heinlein's future) without being X-rayed and body searched; where politically incorrect books are sold only by "bookleggers" (we're not there yet but keep your eyes open). And most importantly, where other planets can fight for independence from a world government on earth where a federal officer interrogating you can inform you that your request for a lawyer is about a hundred years too late to be meaningful. Read this book for the tight action writing, the coming of age story, the politics, the descriptions of meeting with non-human races who can be friendlier than our own kind at times. And give it to your kids to read. They're the ones who are going to have to live in the future Heinlein warned us about.

Reviewed by J. Neil Schulman

I love Heinlein's fiction. He is the great author. But this book is not the one of his best ones. There is action, there is story, it's nice to read, and it's not bad if you have to fill transantlantic flight. At least you will not feal bad after it (a lot of books does not have this important feature :-( ) But if you will not read it, you will not lose much. That's it.

I give this book only 2 stars because, well, compared to great literature, 'Between Planets' is what it is; a 1950's pulp sci-fi novella.

But that's not to say it isn't a solid, well-written story; it is. It's a bit dated, a bit simplistic, and a bit of fun.

Save this for a cross-country flight, or some other occasion you need to kill time. You're not missing anything if you don't read it.

It's a decent, solid novella that would earn any college student an 'A+' in a fiction-composition class.

A strong, unified plot - the entire book is about Don Harvey's quest to reach his parents on Mars. A believable politics of the future. A sympathetic but not at all perfect hero and some good minor characters. An atmospheric vision of Venus as it should have been, a world of swamps inhabited by a few human colonies and a race of intelligent (and friendly!) dinosuaroid that communicate by whistling. What more could you ask?