Astrogators in space!

One of Heinlein's earlier juvenile novels, this is one where RAH describes in great detail the machinations of the astrogators, quite a bit dated now with computers and it is amusing to imagine as he did a trio of math geniuses sitting in chairs with slide rules charting out a space ship's course, but that was part of his charm.

Some thin characterizations along with some very 1950sish language, but Heinlein was working his very peculiar magic and this is all the while a fine sci-fi story.

**** 2019 Re-read

Was this 1953 publication an influence on Star Trek the original series and Lost in Space? Was Max Jones an idea for James Kirk?

Their characters are very different, but this bildungsroman does follow our protagonist from farm boy to ship’s captain in spectacular fashion in a way that would be suited to fiery Kirk. The description of 3D chess would indicate the possibility that Roddenberry and crew had read this. wise, getting some decimals misplaced resulted in the spaceship in Heinlein’s story to be lost could have been a seed for the later 1965 TV series.

Heinlein published his twelve Scribner’s juvenile books between 1947 and 1958 and this one is the seventh. Starman Jones describes Max Jones’ journey from the hills of the Ozarks to command of the Starship Asgard and the many adventures he had on the way.

This is packed full of Heinlein’s campy wisecracks and homey logic, but also tells a damn fine SF story and one particularly enjoyable to anyone who’s stood watch of naval ships as RAH adds his personal knowledge of all things nautical and in his own inimitable way.

54 s Adrian604 232

Ad Hoc SF read March 2023

I seem to be on a bit of Heinlein kick for some reason, maybe because he was one of the first SF authors I discovered nearly 50 years ago and because his books came out of the boxes first when I set up my new library about 2 months ago. I hadn't read that many of his books for a long time so this has been an enjoyable few months. We shall see if it goes further or I get back to books I promised to read
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