欧宝娱乐

I decided I needed to break it into two parts - one, the story itself and two, Heinlein鈥檚 tirade against society.

Have Space Suit Will Travel is set in the 1950's and is one of his juvenile pieces of literature. Kip Russell dreams of going to the stars, and when Skyway Soap has a contest for best lingo with the prize being a trip to the Moon, Kip collects and submits 5000 entries. He doesn鈥檛 win the trip to the moon, but a space suit instead. If he returns the space suit to Goodyear by September, he will receive $500. But Kip upgrades and fixes said suit over the summer and when out on a walk one night (in the suit) is abducted by aliens.

Kip finds himself on one heck of a space adventure involving 鈥渨ormfaces鈥�, the Mother-Thing, and his genius side-kick, 10 year old PeeWee. He finds himself on the Moon, Pluto and eventually beyond the Milky Way Galaxy in front of a galactic court to defend the human race. It was this part of the story that was fun and adventurous. I didn鈥檛 perceive this as a 鈥渃oming of age鈥� book that is so common in scifi and fantasy, but just a light space opera aimed at young adults.

Where the book became annoying was Heinlein鈥檚 tirades against the states educational system. He denigrates the public education system (one of his common themes in his books), and Kip is smart enough to teach himself advanced mathematics, geometry and physics but yet must 鈥渟ettle鈥� for going to the local state (read - inadequate) college because he isn鈥檛 good enough to get into MIT. I do get tired of Heinlein鈥檚 diatribes against the ills of 1950's society (Starship Troopers is another fine example - great book, hidden agenda). But if it really bothered me, I wouldn鈥檛 be reading Heinlein.

The other issue I had with the story were the long, and I do mean long, graphic descriptions of how a space suit works, or Kip describing in mathematical terms how he is going to escape (again, part of Heinlein鈥檚 soapbox), and so on. Perhaps I鈥檝e become rather shallow and jaded, but if I were a young adult, this book would probably bore the heck out of me. As an adult, I could appreciate (I didn't say 'like') his social commentary and what he was trying to get across.