The Rolling Stones

Rating:
Summary: Coming-of-age in Space!
Review: "The Rolling Stones" is a wonderful coming-of-age novel inside a family space romp. It has a loose-knit plot that mimicks an endless space adventure serial. The best part of the story is the rich set of characters in the Stone family: the red-headed, precocious teenage twins called Castor and Pollux, their older sister Meade, their younger brother Lowell , their grandmother Hazel (who carries a cough-drop dispensing sidearm), their mother Dr. Edith Stone and their father Roger Stone. The twins are the primary focus of the story but only because they get into the most trouble and do the most growing; however, the heart of the story is the family dynamics and some of the most enjoyable scenes occur when they all get into the act. The banter, wit and quips among this highly intelligent group are hilarious. Heinlein weaves this deftly with the hard science he is famous for. The novel instructs us on the details of space travel, navigation vectors, gravity wells and much more. Lastly, this short novella contains some classic gems of wisdom like the three stages of technology, the best way to earn money, who gets rich in a gold rush and what's more important than money. By far, the most well known quote is on the three stages of technology:

"Every technology goes through three stages: first a crudely simple and quite unsatisfactory gadget; second, an enormously complicated group of gadgets designed to overcome the short comings of the original and achieving thereby somewhat satisfactory performance through extremely complex compromise; third, a final proper design therefrom."

In conclusion, this short novel makes you wish you were aboard the ship called the "Rolling Stone" heading out with the Stone family towards adventure in the outer reaches of our solar system! Remember, a rolling stone gathers no moss.

Rating:
Summary: Breezy wonders
Review: A typical Heinlein book for young adults and yet one of the better ones. There are so many of them out there that a new reader probably won't know where to start . . . well this should be one of them. Heinlein manages to keep the action and dialogue moving fast enough so you don't think about the lack of a plot (it's more episodic than anything else) or how annoying the characters are to anyone but themselves. This ones about the Stone family, father and mother Stone, grandmother Hazel, sister Meade, baby Lowell, and twins Castor and Pollux. The twins always have ideas and this time they figure that they'll buy a spaceship, fix it up and go sell stuff out in the solar system. Except the entire family decides to go along and the fun of the story lies in the many weird things that they run across in their attempts to see the system and make a few bucks along the way. You get to see Mars (but not any Martians, darn) and Luna and the asteroid belt and all sorts of things, it's not a very deep book but you can't fault it for not being entertaining. The entire Stone family is entirely super-competant (even the baby can beat anyone in chess!) which can lead to some rather smug dialogue as everyone tries to outsmart each other in that typical Heinlein fashion but old readers should be used to that and new readers better just get used to it quickly or you're not going to get anywhere. Still the interactions between family members are rather fun, the sights are something to see and they just don't make books this fun anymore. Don't let the fact that it's a young adult book stop you, if you want some decent entertainment and a fast read, you don't have to look much farther than this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another classic for the sci-fi primer
Review: Anyone new to sci-fi should read the Rolling Stones as one of their first ten books; they won't be disappointed. It's such a marvelous work that any sci-fi buff would feel proud to have it in their collection.

Simply put, this book is high adventure, following a family from the moon to Mars and to the asteroid belts, and beyond. Blending the novelty of a space ride with father-knows-best sensibilities--which at times seem dated but are all the more charming for it--he shows us a strong family full of independent thinkers and people willing to forge their own road.

Fans of "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" (another excellent Heinlein for any primer) will note that the grandmother of the Stone family was Hazel Meade, the hard fighting kid from the Lunar revolution; this book takes place about two and a half generations later. And of course it's obvious that Star Trek's tribbles are literary descendants of Heinlein's flat cats, though I think Heinlein got more mileage with them.

What's really most wonderful about this book, though, is how it touches the imagination. The concept of running an interplanetary shipping business bringing luxury items to asteroid miners and sight-seeing bikes to Mars strikes a chord, as do the little things like home life aboard a space ship and the grandmother's caustic sense of humor. Whether you're a long-time sci-fi reader or new to the genre, don't pass this one up.