Time for the Stars

Time for the Stars is one of the lesser Heinlein juveniles, with much of the good and bad that comes with that micro-genre. It's a fine read that would be much better if it ended two pages sooner. Pat is a twin, growing up in an overcrowded and poor family on an overcrowded and poor Earth. In the initiating drama, it turns out that Pat and his twin Tom have a telepathic link, and this rare link is absolutely instantaneous. Telepathic twins are the key to space exploration via near-lightspeed torchships, while also serving as a neat illustration of the twin paradox caused by time dilation. The twin who undergoes acceleration will appear not to age against the one who stays behind.

So the good news is that it's a Heinlein juvenile. It's show more quick, it's fun, it does a solid job explaining the scientific conceit at the heart of the story and having an optimistic attitude. Space exploration is cool and full of father figures, but it's also incredibly dangerous, and every planet the crew lands on takes a toll. Pat is also slightly deeper than the psychological puddle that narrates most of these stories, even if it's literally lampshaded in a psychoanalysis session. And while there are creaky 1950s gender roles, lots of women show up as competent experts. It's a far cry from the active misogyny of some period fiction.

The bad news is that the story is too quick. Things that should sting a little more, like a plague that wipes out half the crew, or an attack by aquatic aliens which halves the crew again, don't land with much impact. The story undercuts its theme of heroic sacrifice, and a near mutiny lead by Pat, by having the torchship rescued by a next-generation FTL cruiser. They're returned to a world which has passed them by, less than a footnote rather than the grand explorers they expected to become, even if FTL telepathy inspired the breakthrough to FTL drives.

And then there is the final turd in the punchbowl. To quote Erika Chappell, "Robert A. Heinlein [is] the father of hard science fiction, weirdo libertarian nonsense in science fiction, and putting your kinks directly into science fiction. 2 outta 3 ain't bad." So when the redhead twins showed up on page 15, I chuckled. When the story ended with our narrator's busty great-grand niece, who he'd been telepathically communicating with since she was a kid, proposing marriage to him, I about tossed the book out a window. I can think of at least three Heinlein stories off the top of my head, which conclude by using technology to transform the perfect little girl into the perfect wife in a way that is not technically incest, but definitely morally feels like incest. And I really didn't need that in my light science-adventure story. show less

I think of all of the classic science fiction writers, Heinlein wears the biases of his time on his sleeve more than anyone else. In most of his books, there's always some passages that make me cringe a little bit but that doesn't stop the story from being awesome.

I love the setup for this story and the follow-through. What a great way to approach both telepathic abilities and FTL travel. This is a great adventure story that does a great job at having a lot of the action occur off the page, without seeming anticlimactic.

Originally posted at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/time-for-the-stars/

Time for the Stars is one of my favorite Heinlein Juveniles, and I like his juveniles better than his books for adults, so I guess that makes Time of the Stars one of my favorite Heinlein works. Itƒ??s got everything that makes his stories so much fun to read, especially for kids. Likeable heroes, sweet relationships, real emotions, a touch of romance, a bit of physics, spaceship travel and exploration of distant planets. (And also, as usual, thereƒ??s a hint of incest ƒ?? romance with a cousin ƒ?? and a few complaints about taxes. It is a Heinlein novel, after all.)

In Time for the Stars, twins Tom and Pat join an experimental scientific show more study to see if telepathy might be a viable way for Earth to communicate with her exploring spaceships. Itƒ??s thought that if telepathy could work for anyone, it would be identical twins. Tom and Pat are excited to be involved, but they know this means that one of them will get to explore space while the other one has to stay home to be the other end of the telepathic line. This fact has a lot of ramification for the brothers. First of all, the boys have to decide who gets to go. Second, the one who leaves will probably never see his family again. Third, the boys will now age at different rates because of relativity, so even if the one who leaves ever comes back, he will be much younger than his twin.

All of this gives Time for the Stars an emotional texture that makes this story feel weightier than your average YA SF adventure. Also, Time for the Stars is not just a story about exploring space ƒ?? itƒ??s about family, friendship, loneliness, love, guilt, and the power of the human mind. In fact, I think Heinlein spends more time exploring the brain than exploring distant galaxies.

Time for the Stars is an entertaining and moving YA space adventure that will probably please most adults as well as kids. I listened to Barrett Whitener narrate Blackstone Audioƒ??s version. I thought his voice, tone, and cadence were perfect for this emotional story. show less

I'm ambivalent about this one. I enjoyed it a lot and at the same time thought it quite flawed. Some thoughts:

* We seem to have lost the coming of age element that I loved so much in books like Space Cadet or Farmer in the Sky. We don't have here a wide-eyed youngster who has to work hard to realize his dreams and at the same time matures, earns other people's respect and becomes a man. Instead Tom Barlett, the first-person narrator, is already important because he, along with his twin brother Pat, is a telepath, and since telepathy happens to be instantaneous he is used as a valuable faster-than-light communication device with Earth in an interstellar exploration ship. He doesn't need to work for it, it's just who he is. However, there show more is a coming of age element here, because this is the story of how Tom gets out of the psychological influence of his dominant twin brother.

* This is also a story about how, because of relativistic effects, time for travelers in a slower-than-light spaceship traveling near the speed of light passes much slower than for people at home, so that people on Earth age decades while those on board only age a few years. This is an effect I'm very familiar with (intellectually, I mean, not in practice), so I suspect it has less impact on me than on the teenage readers in the target audience who might be less familiar with the concept. However, it was well done, exploring the sense of alienation as the people you used to love and your world changes while you remain the same. Because of this, the story seemed to me bleaker than the other Heinlein juveniles I have read.

* The bleakness is accentuated because
it turns out that all their efforts and sacrifice were for nothing, once faster-than-light travel is achieved. I know in the book they say that it was still important because it proved that telepathic communication was faster-than-light, but that could have easily been proved beyond any doubt within the solar system

* The space exploration and adventure components are not bad, but they are almost an afterthought. It's not what Heinlein is most interested in, in this novel.

* I thought it was unusual the way the twins were portrayed. Normally twins are portrayed as having a strong bond and being very loyal to each other. Here their relationship is more complex and less exemplary. I kind of liked that. Also, the main character is not as likable as the protagonists of other Heinlein juveniles, although most of the time he is a decent fellow.

* The book doesn't seem too aged in the technology department (we don't dwell on the absence of computers, for example, like in some of these books), but it feels clearly aged in the attitudes department. As usual in these books, we have competent women in important scientific roles. However, there's the attitude that women must be protected from risk (only when they are completely sure that a planet is safe are women allowed to leave the ship), and also that wives should look up to and, more or less, accept their husbands' authority. Also we have one of the most unromantic romances ever.
I'm not too bothered that Tom marries a distant relative, but where the hell did that romance come from? "Hey, I'm finally back after so many years" "Great, let's get married." I mean, OK, they had communicated telepathically, but that came absolutely out of nowhere, and it's a bit creepy that some of that communication was when the bride was still a young girl.

* Heinlein seems to have the idea that emigration to other planets can be a way to deal with the overpopulation of Earth, but that makes no sense. It's like trying to deal with rising sea levels by taking buckets of water out of the ocean. Also, his grasp of relativity is not good: he seems unaware, for example, that the closest to the speed of light that ship is traveling the harder it is to accelerate it more, or that both twins should have perceived the other one as slow when the ship is travelling at relativistic constant speed. There are other things that seem sloppy to me, like how the telepaths are all surprised and outraged when they are not allowed out of the ship, but they already knew that, because they had been warned repeatedly before taking off that they were too valuable to be allowed to explore any planets. Or how
at one time it is said that in case of finding a world with alien intelligence they were ordered to leave and let a later mission establish diplomatic relationships, but when they actually encounter intelligent beings (who react in a hostile manner) it is mentioned that later colonists will have to be prepared to deal with them... hadn't we established that a world with intelligent aliens was not open for colonization?


* And what about
the mutiny thing? When did it become a military spaceship? I thought it was a scientific mission. Still, it provided a nice moral dilemma for Tom.



In spite of the flaws, and even though large parts of the book have little action, I found it very readable and entertaining. It would not be the first I would recommend, but Heinlein is a really skilled storyteller. show less

It seems odd I haven't read this one until now. I started this because I needed a book to take on tour, and didn't feel like carrying the heavy hardback I'm in the middle of reading.

The Long Range Foundation funds unlikely ventures, one of which is space travel to distant stars. One issue with this is communication with ships light-years away, and they scramble a project to find telepairs - mostly identical twins - after the discovery that telepathy is instantaneous breaks quietly.

Tom and Pat are one of several identical twins who have to decide who goes to the stars and who stays. Time for the Stars is in many ways a typical Heinlein "juvenile" novel - stock Heinlein characters, with many of the Heinleinesque tropes, such as red hair, show more twins, and an obsession with the long view. But stock Heinlein stuff is almost always damn good stuff.

The author follows the element of human beings functioning as communication devices to a fascinating end: People have lives apart from the noble exploration of the stars, particularly the telepath left behind on Earth and has to interrupt work or a date or class to take a message. And messages that may seem vital to those on a starship may not be as important to a child being called to the table.

I think I still have four or five Heinlein juvies I haven't read yet... show less

Tom and Pat, identical twin teenagers in an overcrowded future Earth, discover they have a valuable talent: like some other twins and a few other non-twin pairs, they can communicate with each other telepathically and, indeed, have been doing so for years when they thought they were whispering. The marketability of this skill is that it's instantaneous, not subject to the speed of light, and so they are recruited for a mission of exploration--one will travel the stars at near-light speeds while the other stays at home, growing old, receiving messages from the voyager.

The actual space voyage is far from the most interesting aspect of the book--sure, there are space adventures, but these are rather briefly described and take something of show more a backseat to other ideas. The relationship between the brothers gets a lot of attention, especially early on--which one, if either, really wants to go to space, how one has always dominated in their relationship, and how Tom (the first person narrator) learns to understand their relationship. Later in the book, the characters confront the consequences of being this kind of pioneer and whether their sacrifice is worthwhile. You don't have to be into "hard" science fiction to enjoy this novel. show less

I read this book as a teenager and have always remembered it. Something about the use of twins and telepathy appealed to me. I didn't remember its name or author though but with the wonders of Google now I was easily able to identify it. Luckily my public library has a copy. And I really enjoyed rereading it. It's still a really good story although I'd completely forgotten the end where technology has overtaken the explorers.
And I was completely astonished by the short section in the middle where the psychology of what the unconscious mind can do if it doesn't want something is discussed between the psychologist and one twin. Incredibly apt for my life at the moment.