Starswarm

It has been a while since I read this book for the 3rd time but I still remember it well. I know that www.jerrypournelle.com has commented on it a few times that he was intending to write a Heinlein juvenile book. Well, he suceeded ! Great read, great concept and excellent flow. The first time that I read the book I could not put it down until I finished it at 4 am (much to my wife's displeasure !).

In his foreword, Jerry Pournelle pays homage to the late great Robert Heinlein and the "juvenile" science fiction books that hooked so many into the genre. I certainly remember them with fond affection before Heinlein turned his talent along other paths, and re-read them to this day.Starswarm is indeed a book very much in the style of those books, complete with the adolescent protagonist, his loyal friends, adults of superior intelligence, ethics and ability, and of course a swag of strange creatures and a talking computer.There are echoes of "Citizen of the Galaxy" here, as well as from any number of other Heinlein juveniles, but the plot is Pournelle's own, underscored with more computer knowledge than Heinlein ever had, and it is as compulsive a read as any of Pournelle's other books.I enjoyed it immensely, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes these "coming of age in the space age" novels.

Starswarm is one of my favorite books. It is the story of a boy with a computer chip implanted in his head. The chip keeps him company and helps him with homework. But as he gets older, and finds out new things about the chip and who put it there, he is caught in a thrilling adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

In his introduction to Starswarm Jerry Pournelle pays tribute to Robert Heinlein, as an inspiration when Pournelle was an adolescent reader and science student; and later as a mentor and friend. I will pay tribute to Pournelle: Starwarm could have been a Heinlein book. All of the elements of vintage Heinlein are there: the young protagonist who is different from his peers, the science that is out-of-reach for now, but conceivable for tomorrow. I have always enjoyed Pournelle as a writer in his own right. After reading this introduction, as I read Starwarm I remembered Citizen of the Galaxy and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I have missed science-based science fiction a la Robert Heinlein and enjoyed finding it again in Starswarm.

An enjoyable read. Written as a juvenille, this one is fun for all ages. An obvious tribute to Heinlein, half the fun of this novel is picking out the links with the master's classic work like The Star Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy, Time for the Stars, and others. Yet this is an original novel, not a boring pastiche or faded copy of other works. It offers an excellent and original presentation of an alien life form/civilization, as well as an exciting plot. RAH would have loved it, and been glad to call it his own. One of the few works I've read to recapture the magic of the originals.