{"id":707,"date":"2016-12-09T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T23:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=707"},"modified":"2017-06-13T18:47:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T22:47:15","slug":"heinlein-part-2-the-juveniles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/09\/heinlein-part-2-the-juveniles\/","title":{"rendered":"Heinlein Part 2 \u2013 The Juveniles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heinlein: What’s the Deal With Him?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Juveniles.\u00a0 That is where it all began for me, and I was probably typical.\u00a0 Exploring the science fiction shelf in the kid\u2019s floor of the library I found and read \u201cRed Planet.\u201d\u00a0 Fantastic.\u00a0 The characters were intelligent (well the good guys were) and the story combined adventure, humor and a young protagonist that we could root for.\u00a0 As I worked my way through the series I had no idea that most science fiction (especially juvenile sf) was nowhere near as good.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t know why I liked these books so much.\u00a0 But I do now.\u00a0 Heinlein had identified something important in how Americans of my generation viewed ourselves and the future.\u00a0 We believed it was time for humans to push the frontier beyond Earth.\u00a0 Heinlein had translated the Western into science fiction.\u00a0 His heroes are easily seen as descendants of the pioneers who pushed across the plains and forests of North America in the 19th<\/sup> Century and colonized a continent.\u00a0 His families (and they often came as families) were colonizing the Solar System.<\/p>\n

Consulting my on-line encyclopedia (specifically Infogalactic<\/a>) I find the following chronology:<\/p>\n

Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947<\/p>\n

Space Cadet, 1948<\/p>\n

Red Planet, 1949<\/p>\n

Farmer in the Sky, 1950<\/p>\n

Between Planets, 1951<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones aka Space Family Stone, 1952<\/p>\n

Starman Jones, 1953<\/p>\n

The Star Beast, 1954<\/p>\n

Tunnel in the Sky, 1955<\/p>\n

Time for the Stars, 1956<\/p>\n

Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957<\/p>\n

Have Space Suit\u2014Will Travel, 1958<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interestingly, Rocket Ship Galileo was always the weakest (in my mind) of the novels both in terms of plot and character development.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s the only one I\u2019ve never re-read.\u00a0 I can see that he had not quite come up with the formula he later perfected.\u00a0 And just to personalize this, here is my list in order of personal preference (top being favorite):<\/p>\n

Have Space Suit\u2014Will Travel<\/p>\n

Citizen of the Galaxy<\/p>\n

Starman Jones<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones<\/p>\n

The Star Beast<\/p>\n

Farmer in the Sky<\/p>\n

Red Planet<\/p>\n

Tunnel in the Sky<\/p>\n

Space Cadet<\/p>\n

Between Planets<\/p>\n

Time for the Stars<\/p>\n

Rocket Ship Galileo<\/p>\n

Of course, I probably could move around anything other than the top and bottom entries depending on mood.\u00a0 But this tells you more about me than about the author.<\/p>\n

So, as I approach sixty why do I consider these children\u2019s books interesting or relevant?\u00a0 Was it the extraordinary prose style or absolute unique character of the protagonists?\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 Heinlein was a very capable writer and wrote clean prose but he was no Faulkner.\u00a0 And many of his young adult characters are almost interchangeable.\u00a0 The real reason was because these novels combine all the components of good fiction.\u00a0 The plots are lively and interesting.\u00a0 The characters are engaging, sympathetic and admirable.\u00a0 To my mind, Heinlein in this series is the heir to Kipling\u2019s \u201cKim\u201d and Stevenson\u2019s \u201cTreasure Island.\u201d\u00a0 You recognize in them a voice that isn\u2019t confused about the rightness of the endeavor his characters are engaged in.\u00a0 There\u2019s very little of the moral ambivalence that became the defining characteristic of the 1960s and beyond.\u00a0 This was the spirit of the post-WWII optimism.\u00a0 This was the high noon of the American Century and it was beautiful.\u00a0 We would get another taste of this spirit when Ronald Reagan brought back American optimism in the 1980s.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had precious little of it since.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m of the opinion that adopting the same kind of feel to sf today would be popular.\u00a0 For this reason, I think the Heinlein juveniles (and some of his better adult stories and novels) have value as a template for what to look for in a sf story today.\u00a0 Lately I\u2019ve seen the beginning of this idea occurring and I see that as a hopeful sign.\u00a0 If this return to optimistic story style coincides with some kind of a Trump resurgence in American optimism in general it could be a fortunate thing for the sf fans of my grandsons\u2019 age.\u00a0 So, hat\u2019s off to RAH (and his editors) for producing a set of young adult sf novels that could last a hundred years without aging at all.\u00a0 I think I\u2019ll re-read \u201cHave Spacesuit Will Travel\u201d for Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heinlein: What’s the Deal With Him? The Juveniles.\u00a0 That is where it all began for me, and I was probably typical.\u00a0 Exploring the science fiction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[26,68,11,44,16],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-american-exceptionalism","tag-book-review","tag-sad-puppies","tag-sci-fi","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nHeinlein Part 2 \u2013 The Juveniles - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/09\/heinlein-part-2-the-juveniles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heinlein Part 2 \u2013 The Juveniles - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Heinlein: What’s the Deal With Him? 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