Starman Jones

Author - Robert A. Heinlein ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Pocket was reviewed on 7-Nov-2008.

Search ISBN:1416505504 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Starman Jones Reference Book. Classifications : Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Literary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General Heinlein, Robert A. ( H ) Authors, A-Z Science Fic . Click the following link to view the cover of Starman Jones.

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1) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket. A fine old SF yarn, laced with intelligence, about a young farmboy trying to realize his dream of venturing into space as a trained "astrogator", a kind of space navigator. I liked the way the book shows young Max Jones making some bad decisions and mistakes in judgement early on, but thanks to good advice and honest self-examination, recovers from those mishaps and gets back on the right path. The result is a story that sends a nice message to its intended audience of young people that nobody´s perfect and one can not only recover from mistakes but become a stronger person because of them.

Nicely juxtaposing elements such as high adventure and romance with tough decisions and the realities of life, this is a great little book, and I can see why it´s still in print 50-plus years after its original publication. And I really didn´t even talk about the scene-stealing alien pet, the "spider-puppy" known as Mr. Chips! Wait´ll you get a load of that little bugger.¤

2) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket. "Starman Jones" is a very good Heinlein ´Juvenile´. When I read it, I think I wanted to be Max.

There are a large number of future technology ideas in this book. I hope several of them come true.

Please remember that this novel was written when ´computers´ were huge masses of vacuum tubes and barely could add two plus two and used IBM punch cards as their input device. This is why the "Starman Jones" ship computers seem so poor today.

Max is memorable. I really liked him. However, he does have a few talents that are unusual. I always did wonder what a novel about a thiry or forty year old Max might be like.

Read the book. It is an excellent ´juvenile´.¤

3) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket. This was not one of the readily-available Heinlein Ace paperbacks with the horrible covers. I have the late-60s Dell paperback, really neat John Berkey cover. As a result, although I have obtained Scribner hardbacks to replace the Ace paperbacks, I am keeping this pb. Good story, read umpteen times. The setting, starship cruise liner, gets recycled for the novel Friday.

The book is a really, really good example of a science fiction author setting a story a hundred years or more in the future, but not predicting correctly technology 15 years into the future. A major plot point is the protagonist´s ability to memorize logarithm tables so that the starship crew can interpret the binary output of the navigation computer. Can´t remember if the computer actually used vacuum tubes. It must have had kilobytes and kilobytes of drum memory, too.

Strangely enough, although the author relied on relativity as a plot point in "Time for the Stars" for a similar setting, he completely ignores it here.

If only my kid was interested in reading my (older!!) Heinleins...¤

4) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket. I read this as a teenager and found it refreshing to read again. It is a great inspirational story for reading to children (grandchildren) to spark their imaginations. And it is a lot of fun to read for your own restful pleasure.¤

5) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket. Max Jones could not seem to ever get a break, first his mother dies, then his father leaving him a run down farm in the Ozarks and a shiftless step-mother to support. Still it did not do any good to complain so Max dropped out of school and worked the farm and dreamed of roaming the stars like his uncle had. When his stepmother arrived home with a new husband, one who promptly announced that he had sold the farm and that Max would now answer to him, Max decided that it was time to go.

Unfortunately his bad luck seemed to go with him, he was robbed, he found that his uncle had not left a will naming him heir to enter a Guild. Just when it seemed as though every door was firmly closed against him Max´s luck seemed to change....but for better or worse?

This is one of the ´juveniles´ that Heinlein wrote in the ´50´s. Most of these stories were originally serials in magazines, usually ones aimed at boys and told from a young man´s point of view. The technology described was amazing stuff at the time but most of it now seems quaint. The attitudes of the times toward women and social class also appear as foreign to today´s reader as any alien culture. Despite all this Heinlein still spins a good story, one that will leave the reader with something to think about long after.

Fans of Heinlein will recognize bits that will appear in later works, young Max has lots in common with Andy Libby of the Future History stories, descriptions of life aboard a starship liner will be revisited in later works as well as the idea of an idyllic planet hiding subtle dangers. Those who are not familiar with Heinlein´s works would do well to start here enough though it is not one of his better known works.¤

6) Paperback Book Starman Jones by Pocket.

It was a desperate time, when one´s next meal and the comforts of home couldn´t be taken for granted. Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land. Until an unexpected, ultimate adventure -- as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship -- carries him away...but to where? And when? And how could he ever get back? With the ship´s pilot dead and his charts and tables are destroyed, Max must call upon all of his untested knowledge and skills in order to survive....¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 5-Dec-2008, 14165055049781416505501, 290-330-170-901-041-121-201-8

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