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dustydigger
Posted 2016-11-18 4:06 AM (#14603 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I flew through the last of the Heinlein juveniles,Time for the Stars Wow,what a contrast with The Rolling Stones which was the frothiest of humorous froth. So much is packed into a mere 188 pages in Time for the Stars with lots of science,space exploration adventure and danger.
When mankind sets off to the stars,desperate to locate liveable planets to ease Earth's dire overpopulation, the technology will get the ships up to 99% light speed,so radio waves will be impossibly slow for communication over the huge distances.So they decide to use the simultaneity of telepathy between twins,which is unaffected by distance.We follow the story through one such pair of twins,Tom and Pat. One twin will go on the spaceship,the other will stay earthbound to receive the ship communications. RAH carefully shows some of the interesting effects of relativity as the twin on earth ages by decades,while barely months or a few years passes by in the ships.
One interesting topic is the matter of relationships between twins which rather than being depicted as all sweetness and light can actually be quite fraugh . We also have contac t with aliens who pretty much wipe the floor with the humans,with a lot of deaths. Surprised that RAH managed to get so much of that through the publisher. This is definitely up at the top of of the audience's age group.
Then at the end is tacked on an unexpected tech development,slightly deus ex machina in my mind,but on return to Earth the spacers find that society has moved on tremendously in 50 years and they are just a minor little footnote in the history books.. Got to say despite the YA tone of the book I found this a much more agreeable and interesting take on relativity than Joe Haldeman's Forever War.(Yep I am one of the few who didnt take to that book in the slightest!).
I would rate this as one of the better of the Heinlein juveniles with its complex relationships and the stuff about relativity. Good stuff.
I am now about a quarter of the way through A A Van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle and have started ERBs At the Earth's Core

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