Variable Star

I am pretty amused by all of the people saying, in effect, "Well! It's definitely not Heinlein!" No kidding? For real? And how many of you did it take to come to that consensus? More to the point, did any of you read the Afterword to see what Spider was up against while writing this novel? It's absolutely not Heinlein, it's Spider Robinson writing in Spider Robinson style. Heinlein's influence and Spider's conscious effort at writing in the Heinleinian (?) style are both readily apparent if you don't open the cover of the book with critique in mind. Is it so hard to read a book just for the sake of reading and enjoying it? I took immense pleasure in going back in time. Heinlein's tone and theme is there running in a natural harmony with Spider's style. I gave this 5 stars for the simple facts that: A) It was a great read! B) It took me back to when I first started reading Science Fiction and Heinlein happened to be the second author I got hooked on. Andre Norton was the first. And I was 8. My advice to anyone considering this book: Buy it. Buy it for itself. Buy it for reading enjoyment. Don't expect it to be a polished up manuscript straight from the Master's hand; it ain't. Buy it to enjoy a break in time.

What an incredible melding of two of my favorite authors. The book was everything I could have hoped for, and it brought me to tears a number of times seeing new dialogue in Heinlein's style. I've long thought Spider Robinson was the perfect author to carry on Heinlein's torch and this book just made that much clearer.

A lot of reviewers seem to be arguing and speculating over things such as what Robert Heinlein would have thought about 9/11; or how much of a succesful Heinlein "pastiche" this book is. It seems to me that this is completely missing the point. First of all, the 9/11 reference is only one paragraph in a 308 page novel. Secondly, this IS NOT A ROBERT HEINLEIN NOVEL, not even a Heinlein pastiche. It can not be, nor does it claim to be. Those who expect it to be such can only be disappointed: Heinlein is dead. In reality this is an honest novel cowritten by 2 of Science Fiction's masters. It is as much a Spider Robinson novel as a Heinlein novel. It contains the best of both and the worst of neither and must be judged independently on its own merits, as any other co-written novel would be judged. I've really missed good SF. I've missed being able to buy a new Heinlein novel, a new Arthur C. Clarke book, or a new Isaac Asimov novel. For me, reading this book recaptured that feeling, that excitement, and that joy. This book is fun, intelligent and clever, it's well written, and reading it was an uplifting experience. It's good SF.

First Robinson book I've ever read and as a die-hard Heinlein fan I though I would be disappointed with someone else writing one of his books. I was pleasantly surprised and did not put it down. Me and the BF have been trying to read it at the same time and fighting over time with it. Excellent!

Most people who have reviewed this book, and probably all who've purchased it, were expecting a brand new Robert Heinlein book. As much as it pains me to point out the obvious, that's not what you're getting. But that's not such a bad thing. As the author, Spider Robinson, points out in the Afterward, he was asked to write a Spider Robinson book - not a Robert Heinlein book. In this, he has succeeded masterfully. The reference to 9/11, and the ensuing 'Terror Wars' are classic Spider fodder - but not something you would expect from RAH. I admit, I even found those references a touch out of place. However, they do not spoil the book. No-one can write a Robert Heinlein book - only Robert Heinlein could, and he's gone (hopefully rescued at the last moment by a certain dimension-shifting spacecraft and her crew). That does not detract from the quality of this book, or it's enjoyabilty for those of us who miss him terribly. At its heart, this book does have the ring of a RAH story - triumph against long odds, unconventional bad guys, and a decent (if not quite RAH-level) hard-to-soft science ratio. In the end, it's not about the science anyway - it's about the people, and the people of this story are believable in the same way the Master made them. In giving this book five stars, I am being slightly generous - I would like to deduct half a star (total) for the very minor preachy bit, just because it didn't seem to fit the rest of the story, and for the associated intermingling of Heinlein's history with ours. But I'd much rather give it five than four. Don't avoid this book because of reviews. If your prime interest in life is picking nits, buy something else. The only way you'll get something closer to the Master's work than this is to take up a serious study of channeling the dead - but you'll have a long way to go to be better at it than Spider Robinson.