Tag Archives: phil giunta

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein

Citizen of the GalaxyFor as long as he could remember, young Thorby had been a slave—until he lands on Jubbal, one of the Nine Worlds of the Sargon Empire, and is purchased by a beggar named Baslim. It is not long before Thorby realizes that Baslim is no simple mendicant, but a spy and one who despises the slave trade. Once Baslim educates Thorby in reading, writing, mathematics, and even a bit of espionage, he frees Thorby from slavery and adopts him as his son.

In the event of his death, Baslim commands Thorby to carry a special message to the captain of the first Free Trader vessel that landed on Jubbal. Baslim uses hypnosis to allow Thorby to memorize the message in an unfamiliar language.

After Baslim is finally arrested and executed by Sargon police, Thorby makes his way to the spaceport where he approaches Captain Krausa of the Sisu and delivers the message. As it turns out, the Free Traders owe a special debt to Baslim and as such, Krausa follows the old man’s instructions and adopts Thorby into his family. Thorby becomes a crewman aboard the Sisu—but only temporarily, for Baslim also wished to have the Free Trader captain turn over Thorby to a Hegemonic military vessel where he would have the opportunity to discover his true lineage. Baslim suspected that Thorby had been abducted from a Terran family.

When Thorby is finally reunited with his family on Earth, he learns that he is heir to a fortune… but not everyone has his best interests at heart. Worse, the company once owned by his parents might now be indirectly involved in the same detestable institution from which Baslim had liberated him.

Citizen of the Galaxy is one of Heinlein’s juvenile SF adventure novels, what we would today categorize as young adult. It is a delightful “rags to riches” tale that allows the reader to experience a wide range of lifestyles and family structures through Thorby’s eyes as he evolves from slave to adopted family member of Free Traders to an enlisted man aboard a military vessel and finally, the head of one of the wealthiest corporations on Earth.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein

An Illinois farm boy with a photographic memory, Max Jones runs away from home after his widowed mother marries the town loser, whose only goal is to sell the Jones farm for quick cash.Starman Jones by Robert Heinlein

Max decides to head for Earthport on the hope that his late Uncle Chet, a career astrogator, had nominated Max as a future member of the Astrogator’s Guild as he had promised before his death. Along the way, Max encounters a congenial homeless man named Sam who ends up stealing Max’s government ID card and a set of astrogation books given to him by his uncle.

At Earthport, Max is further disappointed to learn that Uncle Chet never registered him for membership in the Guild. Shortly after, Max meets Sam in the street just outside the Guild Hall. After a brief confrontation, Sam decides to take Max under his wing and together, they stow away aboard the space cruiser Asgard using forged identifications.

Aboard the Asgard, Max finds himself in familiar territory. As Steward’s Mate, he is assigned to the care and feeding of pets and livestock being transported from Earth to an off world colony. It isn’t long before Max befriends a precocious and brash young lady named Ellie and her talking spider puppy, Mr. Chips.

During the voyage, a series of circumstances permits Max to be promoted to an Apprentice Chartsman and then to Astrogation, where his photographic memory allows him to make computations with inhuman speed based on charts and tables he long ago memorized from his uncle’s books. However, Max’s rapid rise through the ranks pits him against a resentful senior officer who makes his life difficult at every opportunity.

After an astrogation mishap sends the Asgard leaping to a completely unfamiliar part of space, the captain orders the ship to set down on a serene Earth-like world that the passengers eventually christen “Charity”—a compliment that turns out to be a deadly misnomer. Will Max and the bridge crew calculate the proper path back to known space or will they and the passengers be doomed to wander this strange area of the galaxy in search of a new home?

Published in 1953, Starman Jones is counted among Robert A. Heinlein’s twelve “juvenile” SF novels—what is known today as “young adult.” I haven’t read a Heinlein juvenile novel yet that failed to entertain. They’re an absolute trove of fun and imaginative space adventures. Character development, pacing, and plot are all masterfully crafted. As renowned SF anthologist Groff Conklin once said, “Nobody but nobody can beat Heinlein in the writing of teen-age science fiction.”

I completely agree.

 

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft

This anthology of seven eerie, suspenseful tales by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft includes three that involve his famous mythology of the Ancient Ones—especially the monstrous entity, Yog-Sothoth—as well as the grimoire of black magic known as the Necronomicon. The Dunwich Horror by Lovecraft

“In the Vault” – After finding himself locked in a tomb, a despicable, cantankerous undertaker successfully escapes by stacking six occupied coffins to create a platform, allowing him to reach a small opening above the door. However, just before crawling free, his leg punches through the lid of the top coffin, leaving him with wounds that were not merely inflicted by jagged wood…

 

“Pickman’s Model”  – An artist of the macabre develops a new and startlingly realistic style when he begins painting demonic figures too grotesque to be displayed in public… but where did he find this latest inspiration?

“The Rats in the Walls” – After restoring the cursed, ruined estate of his ancestors, a young man begins hearing rats scurrying in the walls. An exploration of the cellar reveals an opening to a large chamber, the contents of which divulge the true and terrible history of the property.

“The Music of Erich Zann” – Each night, on the top floor of an apartment building, an elderly violinist plays a haunting, otherworldly melody… and receives a response from somewhere beyond our dimension.

“The Haunter of the Dark” – Robert Blake takes an unhealthy interest in the ruins of a long-abandoned Gothic church whose distant spires are visible from his apartment window. After venturing across town, Blake learns that local residents fear the church and do not speak of it. Undaunted, Blake presses on and finds a way inside. While exploring, he encounters an artifact that conjures frightening visions of the Ancient Ones—one of which is soon unleashed.

“The Dunwich Horror” – In the isolated, backwoods village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, the primitive Whateley family welcomes a grandson named Wilbur, born of Lavinia and an unnamed father who  is believed to be the ancient creature known as Yog-Sototh. Other villagers become fearful of Wilbur’s rapid physical development and inhuman countenance—not to mention the strange growling and rumbling from the surrounding hills that began after his birth. Following Lavinia’s unexplained death, Wilbur and his grandfather begin boarding up the windows of their home as if to imprison something inside. After the deaths of Old Man Whateley, then of Wilbur, the invisible creature bursts from its confinement to wreak havoc on the village. Three professors from nearby Miskatonic University undertake a mission to destroy the creature using the Necronomicon, the grimoire of black magic that initially spawned the beast.

“The Thing on the Doorstep” – Edward Derby, an intelligent, but weak-willed young man with an interest in the macabre, marries a homely, eccentric woman named Asenath who is reputed to have a beguiling effect on others. It is claimed by some that once captured by her stare, they found themselves gazing upon their own bodies through Asenath’s eyes. It isn’t long before Derby undergoes a bizarre and dangerous change of demeanor…

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein

It is the early 1960s and the United States is on the verge of nuclear Farnham's Freehold by Robert Heinleinwar. To prepare for this, Hugh Farnham constructed a fully stocked bomb shelter beneath his house years before. On a night when Hugh’s daughter, Karen, invites her friend Barbara to the house, the local radio station in their Midwestern town begins transmitting warnings of a possible nuclear strike. Hugh’s son, Duke, is skeptical that either side would commit such an act of suicide. He considers the bomb shelter an overreaction on the part of his father—until the radio station issues its first bomb warning during a round of bridge (a game that features prominently throughout the story).

All hands rush into the shelter where the pragmatic Hugh assumes the role of a supreme commander, giving orders and demanding unswerving obedience as he tries to get the situation—and his alcoholic wife, Grace—under control.

After a series of blasts rock the shelter—resulting in minor injuries to the occupants and superficial damage to the shelter—the family ventures outside expecting to find the radioactive remains of their obliterated neighborhood. Instead, they find themselves surrounded by a serene woodland paradise unblemished by even the slightest mark of humanity. At first, the area is completely unfamiliar, until Hugh, Duke, and the Farnham’s servant, Joe, begin scouting the area and recognize natural landmarks. To complicate their dire survivalist predicament, both Karen and Barbara announce that they are pregnant.

Hugh and Grace’s marriage was disintegrating long before this catastrophe and on a day when Grace decides to leave Hugh and the shelter to strike out on her own (albeit with Duke to protect her), the entire lot are captured by a group of dark-skinned humans in a flying craft unlike any they’ve ever seen… and from that moment on, the fate of the Farnhams takes more than one otherworldly turn.

Heinlein spares no details in this well-paced adventure, from the graphic descriptions of births (both human and feline) to a thoroughly developed caste system of a future Earth that is at once fascinating (reverse-racism, adherence to a diluted form of Islam) and disturbing (benevolent dictatorship, cannibalism, female servants labeled—and used as—sluts or “bedwarmers”).

Although Farnham’s Freehold sparks much debate among hardcore Heinlein fans and general SF readers alike for its political and sociological views, it was not my favorite of Heinlein’s works by far. The story itself did not appeal to me and sometimes I find Heinlein’s portrayal of his female leads to be doltish, naive, or unrealistic and nowhere was this was more evident than in the character of Barbara.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Robert A. Heinlein’s Assignment in Eternity

Assignment in Eternity by Robert HeinleinArguably some of Heinlein’s best short fiction, Assignment in Eternity offers four fantastic tales including:

“Gulf”  – A secret agent named Gilead is rescued from captivity by a clandestine organization of highly trained supermen and women. Although they seem nefarious at first, Gilead soon realizes that they are, in fact, noble and agrees to join them. After being trained in their ways, he undertakes a mission to stop a weapon of mass destruction.

“Elsewhen” – A university professor engages five students in an experiment to travel to across space and time merely by the power of hypnotism, opening portals to strange and distant worlds, one of which is engulfed in war with an alien race while the other is a serene  paradise of godlike beings.

“Lost Legacy” – A physician, a psychologist, and a parapsychologist manage to tap into their latent abilities of clairvoyance, telepathy, levitation, and telekinesis. Soon after, they find themselves drawn to Mount Shasta in Northern California where they encounter a group of mystics who have long ago mastered such abilities and are waiting for the right opportunity to reveal themselves to the world in the hopes of setting humanity on a path to enlightenment. First, they must overcome evil forces as ancient and powerful as they, forces who wish to keep humanity ignorant and servile.

“Jerry was a Man” – A wealthy couple visits a genetic engineering firm where animals of almost any configuration can be manufactured. During a tour, the wife encounters a polite, elderly ape named Jerry who can speak, but is on death row as he has outlived his usefulness. She is appalled and demands to adopt Jerry, against the company’s policy. The situation escalates to a court hearing for the purpose of determining whether Jerry is entitled to the same rights as humans.