Review: Farmer in the Sky

[jeriendhal]

Interesting change of pace from what I remember about Heinlein. In particular the protagonist, Bill, is no superman, though he is a Boy Scout and in possession of a fair amount of smarts. But he's still a kid/almost man, and makes mistakes driven by a teenager's pride and stubborness, especially in the beginning.

There's a fairly dark turn in the last third of the book, which I honestly didn't remember my first time reading it, and hit me as an incredibly shock this time around. Characters we like, or at least sympathize with die, and there's no bringing them back, unlike Heinlein's later years, when nobody he liked was likely to suffer more than temporary inconvience.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Weird pacing on that one. Half the book is on the ship, which is a pity because I thought the terraforming bits were more interesting and the rocket science stuff was egregiously incorrect.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're willing to assume a total-conversion drive (like anti-matter, only better), it isn't too hard to swallow. I'm more inclined to take issue with the whole "air-shield" on Ganymede, and how no one ever thought to have a backup plan in case the main power plant went on the blink.

But yeah, the ground level (pun intended) guide to making dead rock into useful soil was quite fascinating.