Great video…brought back some youthful reading memories. I love that Heinlein so often imagines a race blind future…refreshing, especially compared to his old editor Campbell, who sadly doubled down on racism in the 50s and 60s (I have just been reading a book about them called Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee). You also confirm my memory of Have Space Suit being possibly the best of the Juveniles…so i hope to hunt down a copy and reread it soon.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I would love to hear your take on Have Spacesuit Sleepy!
@leonardkrol2600
2 ай бұрын
I always considered this book to be the rebuttal of Lord of the Flies. If teenagers are left alone, they do not have to go savage.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I'd say that's a fair assessment Leonard.
@pipe2devnull
2 ай бұрын
Double thumbs up. As Rutger Bregman argues in his book Human Kindness. He attacks Lord of the Flies and presents a real world example of boys getting along well being stranded on an island.
@douglasdea637
2 ай бұрын
Well, in Lord all the kids had no idea what was going to happen. They are also, if I recall correctly 12-14 years old. In Tunnel everyone is 16-22 and they were prepared for a survival test.
@Rocketsong
2 ай бұрын
Heinlein's rebuttal to Lord of the Flies (intentionally so). My second favorite of the Juveniles after Starship Troopers.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Agreed on the rebuttal. And I know Troopers is considered YA but it reads more like an adult novel.
@vintagesf
2 ай бұрын
Society and governance are Heinlein’s favourite topics. Sometimes I think SF is just a vehicle for his views in these areas. I’m learning to appreciate this aspect of Heinlein’s approach. Great review of a lesser known Heinlein.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I agree completely, it is his vehicle to his world views. But sometimes I'm just looking for a good SF story!
@nstents7781
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks I think your earlier review of Glory Road shows this. It's much more of a "let's go on an adventure and maybe die (or at least get hurt)" book, and without a lot of overt delving into the good guy vs black hats trope. He does seem to return to the Hero's Journey that Joseph Campbell brought us to understand, with an older guide advising younger souls. You see it in Rocket Ship Galileo, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger In A Strange Land, Citizen of the Galaxy, Starship Troopers, to name a few. I guess I named more than a few.
@johnboren8928
Ай бұрын
I think (but can't quote) that Heinlein admits that he can't get enough people to listen to his views by themselves, so he wraps them in entertainment to get a larger audience. After all, he ran for elective office and was heavily involved in politics earlier in his life.
@randycosgrove3608
2 ай бұрын
Read this in my teens and loved it. Re-read it several times in my 20's and 30's. Never changed my opinion of the book. I like all of Heinlein's juveniles or YA if you will but I think my favorite is Citizen of the Galaxy. With Rolling Stones, Podkayne of Mars and Space Cadet coming in not too far behind.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Too many good ones to pick from!
@8enable
2 ай бұрын
Always loved the young adult books from Heinlein - and his commentaries.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I do think his YA books are some of his best.
@BookChatWithPat8668
2 ай бұрын
Terrific review, Grammaticus. I’m really fascinated by these Heinlein books in his juvenile series. I’ll look for this one too.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Thanks Pat. I appreciate you checking out the video!
@OmnivorousReader
2 ай бұрын
I have always really loved this book. I did not realise until recently it was meant to be 'juvenilia' but I think it has got some great themes that stand the test of time. Good vid, thank ye.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Thanks Omni!
@Jroc3578
3 күн бұрын
Colonel Bowie and Lady Macbeth. As a knife and blade guy my entire life I like that he bestows names and Interprets the personality of his knives. ⚔
@GrammaticusBooks
20 сағат бұрын
That was a nice touch!
@xrysoryba
2 ай бұрын
It's really kind of hard for an adult to review a YA novel because our views have changed as we've grown. I first read this book in 1957 when I was 13 years old and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Last year I reread it and didn't enjoy it quite as much. I was surprised by how much I remembered after over 60 years.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
A fair point!
@Jroc3578
3 күн бұрын
I'm just a guy. I really enjoyed this book. I read it in 7th grade around 1996. I'm 41yrs old now and have a vintage copy of this book that I bought online (We're getting there Robert!) because I still love it and read it. The vintage copy smells like my Junior High School library. Totally worth it. Maybe I'll read it this weekend and play Civilization Revolution. (Insert unemotional emoji here) 😊 😊 TeeHee!
@GrammaticusBooks
20 сағат бұрын
It's a great SF Juvenile. I honestly think RAH did his best work with his Juvenile's Jroc.
@KyleMaxwell
2 ай бұрын
When I was a kid in the 80s, my uncle gave me several boxes of what we'd now call vintage SF, and I read virtually everything Heinlein ever wrote. This was one of my favorites (and I had the exact same edition, based on that cover!)
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
It is a good buck Kyle and I think that's the most printed cover as well!
@carolynvankort-mm2kz
2 ай бұрын
Me, too! I still have that exact paperback right on my shelf!
@geoffsokoll-oh1gq
2 ай бұрын
Heinlein. Pure thoughts and clean living!
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
At least in the Juveniles!
@HungryCats70
2 ай бұрын
I think Time for the Stars was my favorite YA Heinlein novel, but this was probably number 2. Just the idea of interstellar teleportation being a ubiquitous form of travel, and in fact how high schoolers go on field trips, was a pretty wild idea. I agree that the latter part of the book was not as interesting to me as the beginning (developing a society and government...Bo-ring!), but not bad.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Thanks Cats. And sending high schoolers to deadly planets was pretty out there.
@HungryCats70
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks One way to deal with overpopulation, I guess! 🤣
@SkylerinAmarillo
2 ай бұрын
Darn it. after finding this channel, I’ve gotten so many reading assignments. I’ve got work to do, you know. Sheesh. Now to go find “Tunnel in the Sky.”
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Happy to provide Skyler!
@Ayelmar
2 ай бұрын
"Have Space Suit" is probably my favorite of the Scribner's juveniles, with "Space Cadet" a strong second, but "Tunnel in the Sky" is almost neck-and-neck with "The Rolling Stones" for third place -- I've read and re-read all the juveniles more times than I can count since I first discovered Heinlein at age 13 or so. I agree about the subtlety in depicting Rod's ethnic background -- it completely eluded me until it was pointed out to me a few years back -- even though Rod's attraction to Caroline Mishyeni, described as "a big Zulu girl" should have clued me in by my high school years at the very least... 😐 In defense of the relationship between Rod's sister and his teacher, it's important to remember that she's no naive waif -- both are (ex-)military officers. So, they're going into this with their eyes wide open. But Heinlein's subtle inclusion of strong Black main characters doesn't end with "Tunnel" -- Eunice/Jodn in "I Will Fear No Evil" was/is also subtly revealed to have bee/be Black -- a fact that also eluded me for many, many years.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
He was definitely ahead of his time with both strong women and non-white characters.
@User_Un_Friendly
2 ай бұрын
I need to reread Spacesuit. I actually prefer Space Cadet to Rolling Stones, Have Spacesuit and Tunnel. In my stash is an original publication of Puppet Masters with the original illustrations. But my unashamed fav of the Heinlein Juveniles is Citizen of the Galaxy. It is frankly his best work. ❤🎉🤩
@nstents7781
2 ай бұрын
@@User_Un_Friendly totally with you on Citizen of the Galaxy. It had to be pointed out to me, but if you've read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress you see a familiar name from The Rolling Stones show up as a tough girl, Hazel Meade Stone. I think it would be fun to see Lazarus Long show up as an incidental background character across a range of Heinlein's books.
@User_Un_Friendly
2 ай бұрын
@@nstents7781 In the Cat Who Who Through Walls, the mission undertaken by the protagonist is to rescue Mike/Michelle, the sentient computer from Moon is a Harsh Mistress, to be the computer support for inter-universal jaunts. Of course, Cat was written around the time Heinlein was obsessed with the Storyteller version of the Multiverse, so the quality was lowered and bizarre plot lines Heinlein indulged in made reading his later books difficult. 🙄🙄 Edit: I just remembered! "Manny" Garcia the protagonist in Moon is a Harsh Mistress, is obviously a Hispanic name. 👍🙂
@carolynvankort-mm2kz
2 ай бұрын
Absolutely love Citizen of the Galaxy. Slavery is evil no matter when or where it pokes it's tyrannical head👿
@General_reader
2 ай бұрын
found a first edition with no dust jacket the other day. Haven’t read it yet.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Nice!
@richelliott9320
2 ай бұрын
I read this in high school and loved it. Though I knew I’d be dead I about a day if I was sent lol
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
It did seem like an extremely dangerous place to send a bunch of high school kids!
@Scott-i9v2s
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks One could presume that the survivalist class was taught things relevant to recognizing & avoiding dangers. High school kids back in the 1950s were NOT as dumb as they are nowadays... I read the book after having been a Boy Scout in 2 different countries (& patrol leader in both). So could place myself quite easily in the book's main mindset.
@Bargle5
2 ай бұрын
One of the early Heinlein's I read. I've been searching for a book by another author that is sort of a sequel to this one. It mentions that the town from Heinlein's book has been washed away. There may also be animals that taste like gasoline. If anyone recognizes it, please leave a note. Anyway, did enjoy reading this one back in the day.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Animals that taste like gasoline? Interesting. Unfortunately, it's not ringing a bell though.
@nstents7781
2 ай бұрын
A "dopey joe" aka stobor, I think tasted like kerosene and that was the best anybody could do with them. If that helps. Edit: it seems a number of people out there want the same book you do.
@Bargle5
2 ай бұрын
@@nstents7781 Yes, it's somewhat memorable, but hard for anyone to remember the name of.
@craigrussell7542
2 ай бұрын
Thanks for this!
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
You’re most welcome!
@Book-bz8ns
2 ай бұрын
❤
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Thanks Books!
@robleahy5759
2 ай бұрын
My first Heinlein novel. Orphans was the first i bought in Dublin 1980
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Orphans is a great book Rob!
@Draconisrex1
2 ай бұрын
Walker was Black. There was big tell early on when other teens assumed he was going to pair--up with the Black girl nott the girl he ended up with. As the Heinlein Society has pointed out, in his later years Heinlein wrote a letter in which he unambiguously states that Rod Walker is black. I still don't care. All I wanted was a good story and I enjoyed it.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Roger that Draco!
@wooddavid8293
2 ай бұрын
Watch out for Stobor!
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
lol, yes the dreaded Stobor!
@carolynvankort-mm2kz
2 ай бұрын
There's a stobor in the woods near my house in the wilds of Oregon. Sometimes that horrible scream wakes me up in the middle of the night and scares the heck out of me😨
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
@@carolynvankort-mm2kz Hah!
@jimnightshadethatsme
2 ай бұрын
"Reins up....REINS UP!"
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Head em up, move em out, Rawhide!
@User_Un_Friendly
2 ай бұрын
I'm going to make an alternate recommendation. Islands in the Sky by Clarke is way more fun, interesting, and awesome. Same period, so it fulfills the challenge. Our plucky young teen protagonist (Roy Malcolm)in Islands in the Sky has entered the World Airways trivia show, with the grand prize a ticket to anywhere in the planet for a Wanderjahr, round trip, of course. He wins, and requests a ticket to the Inner Station as due to a technicality, it is considered a part of the earth. He encounters alien tentacled organisms, Space Pirates, meteoroid strikes, and other adventures. 😂🤣. (warning, I'm playing a trick on you. the alien tentacled organisms are NOT what you'd expect, nor the space pirates and meteor strikes. you'll get it when you read the book. 😈😈😈) Vastly more fun than Tunnel in the Sky, imho. You'll love it!❤❤❤
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Wait what? Arthur C Clarke wrote a fun book?!?!? Lol.
@User_Un_Friendly
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks Trust me on this. It's great. 🤩😉
@beargiles4062
2 ай бұрын
I know it's a personal peeve - but I've always been struck by how Walker was treated like a child when he got back to earth. Basically told to suck it up for a few years. Even if he was forced to return to HS, not go straight to college, he had still lived as an independent and self-reliant adult for several years at that point. His parents should not have treated him like a child. But nobody seemed to be bothered by this. I know there's a generational element to this. When the book was written you weren't an adult until you married or turned 21. Colleges had a lot more control over students due to 'in loco parentis', e.g., students had to live in doors and be home by curfew, etc. Anyone living with their parents was infantized to a pretty hefty extent. In contrast 18 has been the magic year for a few generations (since Vietnam war era), colleges have had a far more 'hands off' approach, and it's sadly not uncommon for college grads to need to return to their parents' home after graduation due to the high cost of housing and relatively low pay even with a college degree. Plus people don't rush into marriage or having children. The way he was treated may be too foreign for younger readers to feel a connection to. In my case, early 80s, I was anything but a wild child and my parents had flaws (from their own childhoods) and weren't the overcontrolling monsters that so many people had - but I had to move back in for a while after living near campus for a year or so and... no. just no. Parents can set some basic rules that would apply in any shared housing situation, e.g., limits on indoor smoking or noise after bedtime, but you don't treat someone who's lived independently for a while like an irresponsible 14-year-old. I hadn't returned because I was irresponsible - it was because I had to balance the time studying (physics major) and minimum wage jobs to sustain an apartment and something had to give. With more life experience I can see other options, but given those two choices most people would think it's more important to focus on finishing the degree than dropping the classload so I could spend more time on menial jobs.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I agree, I didn't like how the adults showed up at the end and "saved" the day.
@StevenEverett7
2 ай бұрын
I do remember reading Tunnel but have no other recollection of it besides enjoying it. You've mentioned on several occasions that you think Have Spacesuit Will Travel is his best YA book. I find that story to be very interesting, but my favorite is Rocketship Galileo. I've read it numerous times. I think I recall you saying you were reading Time Enough for Love in a previous video. Are you going to do a review on it?
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
At some point I will review Time Enough. It will be a challenging book to cover.
@Scott-i9v2s
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks Challenging? HECK *YES* !! One might consider having read "Stranger in a strange land" to be a prerequisite...
@User_Un_Friendly
2 ай бұрын
I too love Rocket Ship Galileo. The first edition hardbacks had wonderful illustrations. ❤🤩
@ilanahalupovich
2 ай бұрын
I got a D on my Lord of the Flies paper for arguing that Tunnel in the Sky is more likely scenario , because of the commuting sacrikage of comparing SF to the serious literature. St tgd time I was not aware of en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humankind:_A_Hopeful_History
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I would have given you a better grade Ilana!
@luiznogueira1579
2 ай бұрын
Good review! I think I recently saw a movie version of this on KZitem; if it wasn't this, the premise was basically the same. I know you really dig Heinlein, but... I never liked his juveniles, for some reason. His patronising tone, perhaps? Tried to read Have Spacesuit back when I was a YA, but It just didn't work for me.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I can see how this may not be everyone's cup of tea. Especially after it turns into Civics 101. And there's a movie????
@luiznogueira1579
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks It's clearly a low budget production, made for online viewing, I think. I'll let you know if I find out more.
@mass4552
2 ай бұрын
I always found this book a great read with its thoughts on surviving and the interaction of characters in a growing society based on how they see the society that they came from and their struggles to recreate it in a unique environment. I did find that the ending was weak and left things unresolved. Just "the adults showed up, took over and everything was fine." Not the best ending from a Heinlein book I've ever read.
@stuartwald2395
2 ай бұрын
I disagree; it was not that everything was fine when the connection was reestablished, but rather that the "adults" (civilians) thought they were naturally in charge and the students should listen to them. The same applies to the parents who cannot understand how he has evolved. The solution is that he needs to be a pioneer, to get away from the stultifying effects of "civilization" and return to the frontier.
@mass4552
2 ай бұрын
@@stuartwald2395 But nothing really happened after they were "rescued". He visited with family and then left to explore.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
I completely agree on the ending. It was almost like Heinlein wrote himself into the ending as the all wise father saving the day.
@Scott-i9v2s
2 ай бұрын
@@stuartwald2395 YES! EXACTLY! Like ALL of RAH's books, it had a STRONG ending. An ending that required more than just superficial thinking. The whole book became even-stronger throughout when I reread it after reading some of his later works like "Time enough for love", "To sail into the sunset", & "Job".
@Scott-i9v2s
2 ай бұрын
@@mass4552 Anything happening afterwards would have required a sequel. Which would have limited the breadth of one's ruminations on what RAH was expounding on in the book.
@douglasdea637
2 ай бұрын
Okay, so I took your advice and just finished reading Tunnel, my friend had it in his collection. It's okay, not great. The initial set up for the story just seems bonkers to me. Dumping teenagers onto an alien planet without informing them of the dangers... How many parents are going to agree to this? (That's similar to a problem I've always had with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Anakin's mother allows him to partake in the pod race. I wouldn't want my 8 or 10 year old kid to watch a pod race. Just insane.) But alright, past that the rest of the story is fine. I like that it didn't try to answer all the questions it raises such as the bones on the beach and the previous dwellers of the caves. I also liked that the bad guys/bullies, the McGowans, are essentially libertarians, despite Heinlein being libertarian. Although perhaps the term meant something different in the 1950s.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
It does have some minor issues. I also wondered about letting teenagers go onto a wild planet. And a number of this class get killed right out of the gate. But then maybe things are different in the far future? Thank you for checking out the video and the comments Douglas!
@peteroland5389
2 ай бұрын
Anyone think that Space Cadet might be on point these days
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Hah! I'll have to reread that one!
@wickedcabinboy
2 ай бұрын
I've read nearly all of Heinlein's books. Eventually I got tired of his style. I don't find many of them on used book shelves anymore.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
He can have a tendency to come across as lecturing.
@wickedcabinboy
2 ай бұрын
@@GrammaticusBooks - Yes, very much so. It began to feel like mere filler.
@DDB168
2 ай бұрын
Was the sister at least an adult? You have to wonder with Heinlein.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
Yes this time she was.
@pipe2devnull
2 ай бұрын
I think she was an adult and rather high up in the teleport organization.
@Rocketsong
2 ай бұрын
@@pipe2devnull She was a military officer. And yes, an adult and several years older than Rod.
@Larry660
2 ай бұрын
How do you keep the book on a science fiction focus when the science fiction is all about how they got there. Stranded on a deserted island/planet with minimal equipment is stranded. As I recall,a lot of the early portion of the book is about how relying on high tech can get you killed, because it makes you overconfident.
@GrammaticusBooks
2 ай бұрын
There was a focus on self reliance vs relying on technology. However, I thought there were quite a few missed opportunities for an SF plot line as well when the novel switched focus to civics.
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