⇒ PDF Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein 9780765314932 Books

Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein 9780765314932 Books

Download As PDF : Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein 9780765314932 Books

Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein 9780765314932 Books

"Time for the Stars" is essentially a retelling of Magellan's catastrophic three-year circumnavigation of the globe. In fact, the fate of "Project Lebensraum," the title of the first systematic attempt to explore the near earth interstellar environment is comparable to that tragic voyage, at least in subjective/proper time, and in percentage of crew and ships lost.

The novel is compelling for its story, the strength of its characters, the remarkable efficiency in which the tale is told, its strong sense of history unfolding, and the impressive integration of its story threads. Moreover, when the science has to be right, it is. It is the best fictional introduction to Relativity theory I know of.

The story covers just over seven decades of tumultuous times. Like Magellan's voyage, the Project occurs on the edge of the transformation of one age to another. And also like Magellan's armada, these relativistic (i.e. high-velocity but slower-than-light) ships, are on their own. In fact, in one way it is even worse: they cannot even come to each other's aid.

Prepare for a rough ride. Despite the frequently humorous and optimistic tone of its narrator, Tom Bartlett, starship Lewis&Clark with its 80% fatalities over four years, is a death ship. It will suffer accidents, diseases, and violent attacks by local residents. As with Magellan's voyage, mutiny is an ever present danger. It will take a miracle, technological or otherwise, to save the survivors.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you haven't read Time for the Stars, here is your chance. If you have, read it again.


Tags : Time for the Stars [Robert A. Heinlein] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>This is one of the classic titles originally know as the Heinlein Juveniles, written in the 1950 and published for the young adult market. It has since been in print for 50 years in paperback,Robert A. Heinlein,Time for the Stars,Tor Books,0765314932,VIB0765314932,Science fiction.,Children's 12-Up - Fiction - Science Fiction,FICTION Science Fiction General,Fiction,Fiction Science Fiction Action & Adventure,Fiction-Science Fiction,GENERAL,General Adult,Science Fiction,Science Fiction - General,Science Fiction Fantasy (Young Adult),TEEN'S FICTION SCIENCE FICTION,United States

Time for the Stars Robert A Heinlein 9780765314932 Books Reviews

This is another one of those Heinlein 'juveniles' published by Charles Scribners that are no longer marketed as such. They never go out of print because they are such great stories.

Set in the future, Earth is overpopulated. An interstellar expedition is formed in order to identify and survey possible earth-type planets. At the same time, it is successfully demonstrated that telepathy is possible. To the astonishment of the researchers, telepathy is instantaneous and ignores the inverse square law. Distance is not a factor. A top secret project is formed to identify and recruit telepathic pairs for the expedition. Instead of waiting years for the fleet to report back, Earth can get the valuable information in real time.

Enter the Bartlett twins Tom and Pat. They sign up for the project. One will remain on Earth while the other goes with the expedition. However because of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald time contraction, the twin in space will age much slower than for his earthside counterpart.

What's the beauty of this book? It's a very strong character driven story. Tom and Pat are not Damon and Pythias. Tom has always been dominated by his brother in a million subtle ways. The relationships Tom forms with his fellow explorers are complex yet realistic. Heinlein understands the personal dynamics of shipmates from his time in the U.S. Navy.

Heinlein also understands the problems of exploration. The simple fact is exploration is an extremely risky business. Your superior technology may not help if your numbers are few and you're far from home.

I'll end this before I give up much more of the story. You will find it a fast and entertaining read.
What a nice surprise. I have read a lot of Heinlein's books over the years, but for some reason, I never came across Time for the Stars. Some of Heinlein's stories are antiquated beyond readability, some hold up with a strength that makes it worth reading all of his work. This story is not his best, but its well worth picking up.

The foundation of this story is first rate. It deals with twins that can communicate telepathically with each other. A 'Federation' decides to explore nearby stars and wants a way to communicate with the ships it sends out over the light years. They send out one of the twins and keep the other on Earth. The twins communicate with each other. One aging decades as the other ages months due to Eisenstein's relativity. This is such a good idea, its concept overwhelms any struggles the rest of the story has.

On the downside, Heinlein in his early work has a strange way of looking at men and women. Women are very much stuck in the Leave it to Beaver world. The men fall into a WWII military hierarchy world view. The characters do not get well developed, but this story does have the protagonist take a very un-Heinlein-esq morose edge.

If you have read Heinlein in the past and have enjoyed works such as Starship Troopers or Citizen of the Galaxy, you will like this book. If you haven't read Heinlein before, this is probably not the best introduction to the author and I would suggest trying one of the aforementioned titles instead.
I had the paperback copy of this book and really wanted a hardback copy. I found this one and it has been well taken care of and is in excellent condition. Easy to read and follow a long.
"Time for the Stars" is essentially a retelling of Magellan's catastrophic three-year circumnavigation of the globe. In fact, the fate of "Project Lebensraum," the title of the first systematic attempt to explore the near earth interstellar environment is comparable to that tragic voyage, at least in subjective/proper time, and in percentage of crew and ships lost.

The novel is compelling for its story, the strength of its characters, the remarkable efficiency in which the tale is told, its strong sense of history unfolding, and the impressive integration of its story threads. Moreover, when the science has to be right, it is. It is the best fictional introduction to Relativity theory I know of.

The story covers just over seven decades of tumultuous times. Like Magellan's voyage, the Project occurs on the edge of the transformation of one age to another. And also like Magellan's armada, these relativistic (i.e. high-velocity but slower-than-light) ships, are on their own. In fact, in one way it is even worse they cannot even come to each other's aid.

Prepare for a rough ride. Despite the frequently humorous and optimistic tone of its narrator, Tom Bartlett, starship Lewis&Clark with its 80% fatalities over four years, is a death ship. It will suffer accidents, diseases, and violent attacks by local residents. As with Magellan's voyage, mutiny is an ever present danger. It will take a miracle, technological or otherwise, to save the survivors.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you haven't read Time for the Stars, here is your chance. If you have, read it again.