Conference noted::sf

80.0. "Heinlein: Rocket Ship Galileo" by VAXWRK::MAXSON () Mon May 28 1984 15:51

	"Rocket Ship Galileo" - R.A. Heinlein
	Published by Del Ray/Ballantine, (c) 1947,1974 # 345-26068-6

	The Galileo Club is a collection of three eighteen year old boys who
	are fascinated by the new science of rocketry (circa 1947). One day
	while test-firing a model rocket, a long-missing uncle arrives - an
	atomic scientist who wants to recruit the lads for the first trip in
	an atom-powered spacecraft to the moon. Improbably, the boys and their
	parents all agree to postpone college and to risk life and limb in
	a great endeavor - the first lunar landing. But as the Dr. and his
	young assistants retire to the desert to build their marvelous machine,
	strange things are happening: unusual visitors, acts of sabotage -
	will they really be the first men on the moon? All aboard Rocket Ship
	Galileo for the answer...

	Opinion: This is one of several RAH juveniles, others being "Farmer in
	the Sky", "Starship Trooper", "Podykayne of Mars" and others. The
	highly ambitious plot and characters are unbelievable to this cynical
	adult mind, but might actually pass muster for a teenager. The story is
	badly dated, full of Russians and Nazis and other post-war hysteria;
	but the science is relatively serene and plausible. The book is free
	from sex and largely free from chauvanism, in that there are no major
	female characters; unless that in itself constitutes chauvanism...

	Not recommended for those above fifteen years of age, but a fine book
	to pass on to youths.

First sf book I ever read, when I was 13. Seemed like I enjoyed it, have
concentrated on sf ever since. Forgot about the "post-war hysteria", prob-
ably was too naive to realize what it was then. Recently was startled
to find an original edition selling for $300 at a con. Ah, if I'd only
hung on to the one I read...

Thanks, RAH

jdo

Even though it is obviously aimed at the juvenile audience, it still can be
interesting reading. (After all it is fiction, so why do things always have
to "relate" to our real world???)

		I dunno about RSG...Try Starship Troopers.

				sam

I *have* tried STARSHIP TROOPERS. *Three* times to be exact. None of those
times was I able to get past about a third of the book.

---jerry

Then read Haldeman's "The Forever War". It is the same concept as Starship
Troopers, but is less jingoistic, more cynical and BETTER!!!!

An old cynic
Nigel

You're too late, I *have* read it. Three times (how coincidental), one of
the times being the separate sections as they were published as novelettes
in ANALOG. And you're darn tootin' it's better! Personally, I feel that THE
FOREVER WAR is one of the three best sf novels ever written (unfortunately,
I haven't cared much for other Haldeman work).

--- jerry