Citizen of the Galaxy
by Robert A. Heinlein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert A. HeinleinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-17
ISBN: 1416505520
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books
Book Reviews of Citizen of the Galaxy
Book Review: A absolutely delightful SF novel
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a complex attitude towards Robert Heinlein. I absolutely love his juvenile novels while I generally find his adult, more serious novels offputting. Heinlein's politics became increasingly marginal as he aged, becoming more and more of a sexist and a crank. But his juvenile novels contained virtually none of his political preoccupations and the stories are consistently delightful. I recently reread HAVE SPACESUIT WILL TRAVEL and have now reread CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY and found both of them completely delightful experiences. While I find Heinlein's politics and gender attitudes (at least of the mature Heinlein) repulsive, when he isn't on a soapbox I often love him. But even then I never know for sure until I read him. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND is simultaneously one of the popular and critically reviled SF novels ever written (it is laced with serious literary errors and marks of bad writing, yet in the sixties it struck a common chord with many in the counterculture). On the other hand, I love THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and even yarns like GLORY ROAD, despite its leering attitude towards women, is fun.
What I like about Heinlein in contrast with Asimov and Clarke, the other two members of the Big Three writers of the late pulp era, is his narrative tone and his excellently rendered characters. If you read a novel by Asimov, you encounter some of the most poorly concocted characters imaginable. Clarke's novels have some spectacular ideas and marvelous metaphysical moments, but even his best characters are as cardboardish as can be conceived. You read Asimov and Clarke for ideas and not for the people, but Heinlein you can read for the characters.
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY is a fairy tale disguised as a SF novel. The roots lie in the countless fairy tale in which a prince is raised by peasants without anyone knowing his identity, especially the prince himself. In this one a young child named Thorby is bought by a beggar at a slave auction. Only the beggar isn't really a beggar and the slave boy isn't really a slave boy. On the one hand it is all terribly formulaic, but on the other it is all so magnificently well done that part of the joy in the reading comes from seeing Heinlein breath new life into the story. Seeing Thorby progress through his various adventures is delightful form beginning to end.
Although these were intended for kids, I have always thought that they were as easily enjoyed by adults. Heck, for adults with problems with Heinlein's politics, these are fun for adults in ways that many of the others are not.
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