Between Planets

OK, everyone seems to love this one, but I didn't. Mark does a good job of explaining what I liked about it: It's another coming-of-age told from the point of view of a boy who is growing up and finding his place in the world (or in the Solar System, in this case). While the basic premise is the same, Heinlein keeps things fresh by finding new kinds of stories. In the last book (Farmer in the Sky) we had settlers/pioneers. This one is a tale of war and espionage. There's a lot of action, the required romantic interest, secret messages, space ships... I also appreciated how much the main character grew up and changed in this one. By the end of the book he is basically a different person, an adult rather than the boy he was at the show more beginning.

The war that had been foreshadowed in previous books is finally here, and the two sides are Earth (or the Federation) and the newly-declared Venus Republic. For Heinlein, Venus here represents the Thirteen Colonies that declared independence and became the US, while the Federation represents... well, the oppressive colonial power (think the British Empire) mixed with some of the libertarian Heinlein's favorite enemy, the government that becomes so big and successful that it removes people's freedom. Heinlein takes it for granted that our sympathies will also be unquestionably with Venus, but I take a much more cynical view of war.

The book seemed to me heavy-handed from a political point of view, taking sides too uncritically and, what's worse, it affects the quality of the story. It really strained my suspension of disbelief at times. For example, we have the space station orbiting Earth that functions as a passenger hub for all people arriving and leaving earth and, at the same time, for storing all the Earth's atomic weapons. Don't even ask why the Federation would want all its weapons stored at the same place, where it can easily be destroyed or taken by a surprise attack and, in case the security nightmare isn't bad enough, the base serves also as a very busy passenger hub, which the enemy can get to without raising suspicions! Really, that whole thing is very convenient for the story Heinlein wanted to tell, but it's so absurd that it took me right out of the story for a long while. The scientific part of it was also very hand-wavy and implausible. Scientific progress just does not work that way.

The romance is more wish-fulfillment than a real relationship, because Isobel is not allowed to show an ounce of personality, other than instant devotion and loyalty. Perhaps here this is more noticeable than usual, but to be fair this is a problem with more than one of these juveniles. Developing a romantic interest is part of growing up for most people so it seems right to have some of that in a coming-of-age story like this, but to do it justice you need to spend a lot of time on it, and Heinlein's readers were interested in action and science fiction, not in romance.

I found it a bit more difficult to like Don Harvey than other of Heinlein's boy protagonists. He is just so eager to fight in the war (and, as an unavoidable consequence, kill enemies). Even after finding out what war is like he is still eager. One could argue that in Space Cadet, which I liked a lot, the main character is also training to be part of a military organization, but in Between Planets everything seemed to me much more ideologically charged, while the Space Patrol seemed more benign and high-minded (and its mission was to prevent war, not to start it).

And speaking of the Space Patrol, where the hell is it? We commented that these books seemed to be set in the same Solar System, with some small inconsistencies natural in a series of books like this, but this one is huge: the mission of the Space Patrol would be to prevent this war, and in this novel they are not even mentioned. Even in Farmer in the Sky, which took place in a completely out-of-the-way Jovian satellite, they were mentioned, but here they do not seem to exist. What's up with that?

So, all in all, I appreciated Heinlein's virtues, but his flaws seemed too noticeable to me here, and I did not love this one. These books are all quite short and fast to read, though, so that's an advantage when you are not loving the story. show less

Another delightful Heinlein juvenile. Compulsively readable, picked it up when by 10 year old finished, and then blazed through it. As with much Heinlein, both shallow/light (interplanetary war! talking dragons! lost civilizations!) and surprisingly deep. I can't recall a kids book from the past decade where characters matter-of-factly accept that you need to kill yourself before being captured by the secret police.

I have been rereading, as I found them, the Heinlein juveniles that I grew up on. This seems to be the last of them. I am inclined to think it is the best -- certainly the best at maintaining a steady thread of narrative tension throughout. It also contains its due share of Heinlein's anti-racist message, which is quite clear when you translate the good guys' respect and understanding for non-human cultures into terrestrial terms.

It is also, I think -- SPOILERS -- the clearest statement in the juveniles of Heinlein's libertarian tendencies. The Macguffin around which the story revolves turns out to be -- TOTAL SPOILERS -- the key to technology that gives a secret cabal of scientists the power to overthrow an interplanetary government. show more You can believe if you want that rule by techies is what we need to get us out of our present straits; but looking at the recent performance of the magnates of Silicon Valley, I beg to differ. show less

Don Harvey was born in free-fall to an Earth-born father and Venus-born mother, making him a citizen of the Interplanetary Federation with no single planetary allegiance. While attending school on Earth, Don is suddenly called to Mars by his parents just as the colonies begin rebelling against Earth's rule. Before he leaves, a family friend gives him a mysterious ring.

His transport ship is diverted to a Venusian space station, overtaken by rebels. Stuck on Venus without usable funds, he is forced to adapt, find work, and eventually join the Venusian guerrilla fighters when Earth invades.

Throughout his journey, Don's possession of the ring puts him in grave danger as Earth's secret police pursue him. The ring actually holds advanced show more scientific data that could turn the tide of the war. Along the way, Don befriends a talking, highly intelligent Venerian dragon and other local, lovable alien creatures called move-overs. show less

Between Planets was Heinlein's second novel published in 1951 and seems to have been aimed at a young adult market. It is an adventure story set sometime in the not too distant future when man has colonised Venus and Mars. Don Harvey a space born teenager is at school on earth, he was brought up on Venus, but his parents who are scientist work on Mars. Don is in his final year at school when he receives an urgent recall from his parents to join them on Mars. He is instructed to meet a scientist friend of theirs before he boards the space rocket. There is talk of a war between the colonists on Venus and mother planet earth. Don is given a ring by the scientist who then disappears in mysterious circumstances, Don struggles to catch his show more ship to Mars which is anyway diverted after a space station is blown up. Don ends up on Venus where sundry characters take an unusual interest in his ring. Don's main characteristic is his stubbornness, which gets him in and out of trouble.

Featuring a teenage hero puts the book in the young adult market, but Heinlein's story runs smoothly enough with a well written plot. Don grows up when he is forced into military service on Mars and finds himself at the centre of an espionage story when he is hunted for his ring. A Venusian landscape of swamps, thick fog and mud banked lagoons provide a suitable territory for a hunt and the highly intelligent Venusian dragons add spice to an interesting story. An enjoyable read with no overt racism or sexism. 3 stars. show less

It reeks of the 50s and was aimed at juvenile readers, but this planetary adventure is fit for sci fi readers of all ages.

It’s been a few years since I read this one for the first time, but I'm quite sure that one of the first SF books I ever read was "Between Planets". Why do I know this? Because I didn't know what a Geiger counter was when I first read it. It seems quite strange by today’s standards to remember the pre-Internet Universe of the 80s where I might be interested in what a Geiger counter was and had no practical way to find out! I could have searched in an encyclopedia the next time I was in the library, but I was too young to think that, and I'd have slipped my mind anyway. In the early 80s, as a teenager I gobbled up his stuff like manna from the skies. I just wanted to be a part of the Lazarus Long family, and have some hot chick offer show more herself to me for “Many Hours of Pleasure…” I also thought Valentine Michael Smith had the dream life! Literally tons of dough sitting around the house, and women who were so into sex they'd starting 'doing it' right on the living room couch in front of everyone who happened to be there. Who wouldn't want that? I sure did! And being more than a little nerdy at the time, I found myself captivated by giant Rolling Roads, Star Beasts, Martians, Waldos, and larger-than-life magnates who gambled it all to go to the Moon to wreak havoc. I read and re-read many of his books well into my 20s and 30s, so entranced by those aspects (I still do as you can see by reading the reviews I wrote in 2018 and now 2019). Heinlein is usually bashed to the extent that people are bashing Shakespeare when they point out that “The Merchant of Venice” is anti-Semitic or that “The Taming of the Shrew” is misogynistic. If that is fair cultural criticism, so is talking about Heinlein's “weird” women issues which is also nonsense (vide “The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn for a good analysis on Heinlein’s Women). show less