Starman Jones

_This is one of the few books that I read as a boy that stuck with me all the rest of my life. While I never studied to be an "astrogator", this book did inspire me to study astronomy, navigation, physics, and calculus. It gave me a dream to build on. You see, the hero, Max, is a poor, rural kid from a highly dysfunctional and abusive family (actually, "white trash" is more accurate.) Being lower class, Max has no realistic chance of going to college or entering a profession ( a "guild".) Yet he not only escapes, he goes on to captain a starship. He succeeds entirely on his own against incredible odds. Instead of accepting a life of rural idiocy and poverty he literally remakes himself and his destiny from the ground up. _Whenever I was up against it in my own life I inevitably remembered Max. How many modern books provide an example like this for "lower class" kids? My only regret is that there wasn't an Astrogator's Guild that I could have joined. If Max could cut it, so could I...

Starman Jones is one of Heinlein's best, along with Space Cadet, Tunnel in the Sky, Time For The Stars...well it's one of his top ten best. The enthralling account of an orphan escaping abusive step parents by stowing away on a starship kept me reading and thinking and dreaming which continued the second and third time through. It's a well-written coming of age story and precursor to Star Trek combined, and I've never seen it done better than by Heinlein. Recommended for young readers along with any other Heinlein novel written in the 1950s. Rocketship Galileo, Citizen of the Galaxy, Between Planets...

This is one of the few books that I read as a boy that stuck with me all the rest of my life. While I never studied to be an "astrogator", this book did inspire me to study astronomy, navigation, physics, and calculus. It gave me a dream to build on. You see, the hero, Max, is a poor, rural kid from a highly dysfunctional and abusive family (actually, white trash is more accurate.) Being lower class, Max has no realistic chance of going to college or entering a profession ( a "guild".) Yet Max not only escapes, he goes on to Captain a starship. He succeeds entirely on his own against incredible odds. Instead of accepting a life of rural idiocy and poverty he literally remakes himself and his destiny from the ground up. Whenever I was up against it in my own life I inevitably remembered Max. How many modern books provide an example like this for lower class kids? My only regret is that there wasn't an Astrogator's Guild that I could have joined. If Max could cut it, so could I....

Heinlein's series of juveniles has never been matched by any other series writer for teenagers, with the possible exception of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which has much the same narrative drive and interest for both young people and adults. "Starman Jones" grabs the reader by the neck on the first page, and never lets you go. Although the science has become badly dated (NO science fiction writer predicted what computers would be like by the end of the twentieth century), the situations and surprises still ring true. Max Jones is a great Heinlein character, full of the grit and intelligence that so often marked his protagonists. Yet the character's humility and innocence also come through to the reader. I read this in high school, and loved it; I just reread it, and felt even stronger about this book. A great read.

Max Jones is blessed with an eidetic memory and dreams of becoming an "astrogator" (Heinlein's neologism for "starship navigator"). Every evening he watches the ballistic train streak by his property, bound for Earthport, the launching facility for the big ships, and wishes that he could go there. But Max is committed to supporting his father's widow by working their Ozark farm, and the requirements for getting into the Astrogators' Guild are strict; most slots are inherited from previous guild members. One evening, Max's stepmother comes home with a new husband, a shiftless, drunken lout who announces that he has sold the farm and threatens to beat Max up when he protests. Max has no recourse but to gather up his reference books on astrogation (left to him by his deceased uncle Chet, an astrogator), and flee for Earthport. But when he presents himself at the Astrogators' Guild hall, he is told that his uncle Chet never nominated Max to the guild before he died, and the reference books are confiscated to "protect trade secrets." Max is in a pickle. Written in 1953, Starman Jones is a solid work of craftsmanship, of interest both to adults and children. It outlines a crowded Earth in which satisfying, interesting work is truly scarce, locked into a strict system of guilds. Faced with that barrier, what is an ambitious, talented boy like Max to do? The book deals in large part with the ethical dilemmas created by this situation, and by Max's subsequent forgery of documents enabling him to land a position aboard the starship Asgard. In the mysterious, wily old starship crewman, Sam, Heinlein creates a memorable, complex character, much in keeping with the Swope Park hobo/hero Heinlein mentions several times in speeches and writing (A good account of this story can be found in Expanded Universe). All in all, Starman Jones is a fast-moving, yet weighty read.