Farmer in the Sky

Homesteading in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in what would become the United States of America was often dangerous. When you ventured into unknown territory, there were things you could not take for granted, so a small incident could become a total fucking disaster.

That's pretty much what happens in this novel, which was written in 1950 and is set in the future of an overcrowded Earth where farming has been farmed out (heh) to moons. Living on the moon has its risks though and this is a decent example of early sci fi and off-planet colonization.

Great 'golden age' science fiction. Spaceships accelerating to near the speed of light, colonies on Ganymede, food rationing on Earth, a very typical 'far future' story. YA in tone and writing style, as you'd expect from a Heinlein juvenile. I read this multiple times years ago, but have never owned it until now.

I quite enjoyed this one, but I can certainly understand how a teenage reader today could find it difficult to relate. It's not just the science and technology that we have already commented upon, but the values and attitudes are also from the 50s. Even when Heinlein introduces differences (see for example the casual relationship Bill has with his father) those differences are defined against 50s' customs (as is to be expected, of course), and in more than 60 years we have changed a lot.

This is a book about terraforming and about pioneers founding a colony on one of Jupiter's moons. Their plight and the hard work and harshness they endure reminds us a lot of the pioneers who colonized the west of the US, which obviously is the show more inspiration here. There are enough differences and science fictional flavor to capture the imagination of the target audience. There is also a lot of emphasis placed on scouting, which is part of the wholesome message of this old-fashioned YA story, but perhaps that is still relevant to at least some teens today, since the scouting movement is still going strong.

Anyway, once more the outlook is hopeful: with hard work and effort you can achieve your dreams and improve your lot, but here there is more harshness and tragedy than in any of the previous books. Perhaps it caught me in the right mood, but I particularly enjoyed the last part of the book and I have to admit I even shed a couple of tears.

I also appreciated how the personality of the main character was drawn. He is a nice kid and has a lot of good qualities, but he is far from perfect. He sometimes acts like an ass... I mean, like a teenager, he sometimes has a big mouth and thinks he knows much more than he really does.

There are some long expository talks about how ecology works, and about other scientific matters, but I missed an explanation of how exactly the "heat trap" that allowed people to live on Ganymede worked. I found it curious how Heinlein seemed to regard food shortages as an important future problem as the population grows, while he doesn't seem to be worried about energy shortages. Clearly he expected that we would find out how to use nuclear fusion, while he did not expect the improvements in crop productivity. (We still have food problems, though, and they can get bad if we don't keep improving productivity). There was a awkward conversation which showed clearly that Heinlein did not understand relativity at all when he wrote this. You could be charitable and say that it was the teacher character the one who didn't understand it, but I'm sure it was Heinlein.

And what the hell was that about the alien artifacts? It seemed to come out of nowhere.

All in all, a satisfying if old-fashioned SF story. show less

Farmer in the Sky is one of a series of juvenile novels for the kids of the time. Robert wrote about 12 of these before deciding he wanted to write more adult fiction. This book is told from the viewpoint of Bill, a boy who lives with his father in some far future, and from what I have been able to gather, from beyond the 22nd century.

Man has made it to the surrounding planets and has terraformed Mars and Venus and there is a base on the Moon. Not a lot of people are travelling though, with Earth suffering under a large population and keeping track of rationing to stretch the food supply.

With new ships, they are able to reach the moons of Jupiter and are looking for colonists. Bill and his father (he calls his father "George" rather show more than "Dad." I thought this interesting. Heinlein does have a way of letting us know of social convention within his fictional society which I really appreciate.)

Anyway, Bill has trouble with school, is a Boy Scout and is trying to get over the death of his mother Annie. He feels betrayed by George when George hooks up with a new woman, Molly. Bill gets mad and thinks George does not respect the memory of his mother. Of course this is silly, but that's how he sees it.

We see here that Bill has a lot of growing up to do.

Eventually we get to the point where they head off to Ganymede, one of many moons orbiting Jupiter. It took many years to terraform it and he is one of the first colonists. Most of the story goes over their adventures, near misses and the death of thousands, but oddly without getting really deep about it.

Spoiler: At the end, even though he has discussions with George, he decides not to go to MIT but to stay on Ganymede, despite the fact he needs the higher education to be an engineer. I couldn't disagree with that more, since he will never be an engineer and go off to colonize the other Jovian moons.

Bottom Line: Overall, a quick read. Lots more talking than action, and there are a few places in the book that could be a bit shocking to a young teen reading this. Overall, a fine example of a Heinlein juvenile novel, even if not his best. show less

I "read" an audiobook edition - if you could pick anyone in literature to give a swirly to, Heinlein's Bill would be the guy.



This protagonist and his narrative voice would be any voice actor's challenge because he is such a self-absorbed yet unself-aware, unlikeable guy that he grates on your every nerve.

plus the slang and curses and turns of phrase Heinlein creates to give the world its 50's on the moon flavor are enough to make you want to throttle the poor main character kid every time he opens his mouth or even thinks a thought .


all that aside, this story is still great speculative fiction, much of it put forward for young readers in such a way as to challenge myths of western expansion and manifest destiny while at the same time show more telling a story with some coming of age, tension & adventure. It's also an ode to engineers in a way which i always enjoy .

Perfect ? no . Perfectly entertaining & worth the read, yes ! show less

Um livro ágil e equilibrado sobre imigrantes que vão a colonizar Ganímedes, em Júpiter, abordando sua viagem, seus problemas, e a difícil missão de prosperar como fazendeiros. Não deixa de ser curioso o quanto esses humanos do futuro são tipicamente estado unidenses da década de 50, com todo o lado macho garoto escoteiro, patriarca engenheiro, dona de casa atrapalhada e vizinhos guerreiros, "sobreviventes". Mas creio que a escrita cativante e os episódios mundanos, mas futuristas, e as considerações sobre agricultura superam esse lado retrô, em um bom livro, com essa ressalva.

Vencedor do prêmio Hugo 1951 (retro-Hugo 2001).

Better. Lots of science in this fiction, and science conjecture, BUT...

I can overlook the overly heavy Boy Scout thread, given that the story was written for Boys Life magazine; I can shake my head, but still get past the odd yokelisms Heinlein inconsistently saddled his characters with ("victuals", "varmints", seriously?) but the twist at the end (and I'm not spoiling it here) is such a head scratcher that the book gets knocked down from four to three stars. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from a grandmaster, and one of the big three?