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Have Space Suit—Will Travel

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 12,293 ratings · 367 reviews

A classic novel from the mind of the storyteller who captures the imagination of readers from around the world, and across two generations First prize in the Skyway Soap slogan contest was an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon. The consolation prize was an authentic space suit, and when scientifically minded high school senior Kip Russell won it, he knew for certain he wou...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 8th 2005 by Pocket Books (first published 1958)

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Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

146th out of 2,946 books — 12,407 voters

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein

Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

Your Favorite Heinlein Novel

5th out of 43 books — 134 voters

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Apr 20, 2011 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audiobooks, sci-fi-fantasy, ya

PUBLISHER: R.H., we just got done reading your new book, and I have to say, bravo. This is your best one yet! The young boys of 1958 are going to love it. Heck, I love it. The whole setup was so clever, with the boy entering a jingle-writing contest for soap to win a trip to the moon? My wife really got a kick out of that -- i told her about it when she was washing dishes last night and she couldn't stop laughing! She sure does love soap commercials.

And having the boy win a spacesuit instead of...more

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Jun 04, 2007 Illyria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf, 2007

A librarian friend of mine suggested this as my introduction to Heinlein and I was not disappointed. Apart from the delicious technical details of making a spacesuit work; faster than light travels to Pluto, to the Magellanic Cloud, and beyond; the horrors of being held hostage by an alien race that views other sentient beings as animals; another alien race with indefinable, changeable physical form and the ability to convey the kind of warmth, peace and comfort of being mothered feels like; thi...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Henry Avila rated it 4 of 5 stars

Clifford "Kip" Russell, a teenager ,wants to go to the Moon.Set in the future, when Lunar bases have been established(this is a science fiction book). Centerville High Schooler, part time soda jerk, from a poor family, enters a soap company contest,literally sending thousands of slogans.First prize for best entry, is a trip to Luna .Mildly disappointed winning the second prize , an old Space Suit.His eccentric father DR. Russell, lets his son do anything he wishes ,as long as it doesn't cost the...more

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May 30, 2012 sologdin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative, geocentric-aliens, douchebag-leaves-earth, attorney-for-all-humanity

Kinda episodic, sorta YA, definitely pulpy.

Picks up considerably toward the end with some intergalactic jurisprudence and genocide inflicted per court order. The tribunal admits that it is not a court of justice, but rather a security council (232). Narrator is cast into the role of attorney for humanity. (This is where, incidentally, Star Trek : The Next Generation got its opening and closing frames.)

Certainly can see that Adams took books like this one as the primary target of his mockery in...more

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Mar 09, 2009 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children, science-fiction

Sometimes you find a book at exactly the right point in your life. I was fortunate enough to read Have Space Suit - Will Travel when I was a geeky 12 year old boy, and I loved it. If YOU'RE a geeky 12 year old boy, there's a fair chance you'll love it too! He enters this cut-out-the-coupon-and-complete-the-slogan competition (a lot of description of how he intelligently maximizes his chances) and wins an old ex-NASA space suit. He fixes it up, and there are some great passages showing how much f...more

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Jul 16, 2008 Kristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books, science-fiction, young-adult

I decided I needed to break it into two parts - one, the story itself and two, Heinlein’s tirade against society.

Have Space Suit Will Travel is set in the 1950's and is one of his juvenile pieces of literature. Kip Russell dreams of going to the stars, and when Skyway Soap has a contest for best lingo with the prize being a trip to the Moon, Kip collects and submits 5000 entries. He doesn’t win the trip to the moon, but a space suit instead. If he returns the space suit to Goodyear by September...more I decided I needed to break it into two parts - one, the story itself and two, Heinlein’s tirade against society.

Have Space Suit Will Travel is set in the 1950's and is one of his juvenile pieces of literature. Kip Russell dreams of going to the stars, and when Skyway Soap has a contest for best lingo with the prize being a trip to the Moon, Kip collects and submits 5000 entries. He doesn’t win the trip to the moon, but a space suit instead. If he returns the space suit to Goodyear by September, he will receive $500. But Kip upgrades and fixes said suit over the summer and when out on a walk on night (in the suit) is abducted by aliens.

Kip fins himself on one heck of a space adventure involving “wormfaces”, the Mother-Thing, and his genius side-kick, 10 year old PeeWee. He finds himself on the Moon, Pluto and eventually beyond the Milky Way Galaxy in front of a galactic court to defend the human race. It was this part of the story that was fun and adventurous. I didn’t perceive this as a “coming of age” book that is so common in scifi and fantasy, but just a light space opera aimed at young adults.

Where the book became annoying was Heinlein’s tirades against the states educational system. He denigrates the public education system (one of his common themes in his books), and Kip is smart enough to teach himself advanced mathematics, geometry and physics but yet must “settle” for going to the local state (read - inadequate) college because he isn’t good enough to get into MIT. I do get tired of Heinlein’s diatribes against the ills of 1950's society (Starship Troopers is another fine example - great book, hidden agenda). But if it really bothered me, I wouldn’t be reading Heinlein.

The other issue I had with the story were the long, and I do mean long, graphic descriptions of how a space suit works, or Kip describing in mathematical terms how he is going to escape (again, part of Heinlein’s soapbox), and so on. Perhaps I’ve become rather shallow and jaded, but if I were a young adult, this book would probably bore the heck out of me. As an adult, I could appreciate (I didn't say 'like') his social commentary and what he was trying to get across.(less)

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May 17, 2013 Zulu rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: hugo

I enjoyed this pretty well. It had enough tension to keep me turning the pages--I turned off the light pretty late a couple of nights!

That said, it doesn't do much in terms of character or plot, does it? There are three main characters: Kip, Peewee, and Mother Thing. Kip and Peewee sound entirely the same, with the exception of Kip's occasional condescension towards Peewee. Mother Thing sounds like a stereotypical mother, which is in fact what zie is. Nobody really changes or develops or is forc...more I enjoyed this pretty well. It had enough tension to keep me turning the pages--I turned off the light pretty late a couple of nights!

That said, it doesn't do much in terms of character or plot, does it? There are three main characters: Kip, Peewee, and Mother Thing. Kip and Peewee sound entirely the same, with the exception of Kip's occasional condescension towards Peewee. Mother Thing sounds like a stereotypical mother, which is in fact what zie is. Nobody really changes or develops or is forced to become more than what they are. They're geniuses to start with, and so they intelligently and cheerfully deal with the situation that they're in. Kip, of course, is the prototypical Heinlein protagonist, who's smart and hardworking and better than any of his contemporaries and whose morals and ethics are just that much more developed because...reasons? I guess? He looks down on everyone who's trapped in their circumstances, anyway.

The plot is very...direct. No real twists. The bad guys are bad, the good guys are good. The bad guys get punished, the good guys go home and are rewarded. No one is emotionally compromised. The adventure was very pulpy--one bad turn after another--rather like Tarzan (and I like me some Tarzan, so nothing wrong with that!). People always getting into and out of messes, and then spending time explaining the math behind what they just did.

The reason I would call this science fiction is because it posits that humans aren't the center of the galaxy. We're kind of irrelevant prey to the bad guys, and irrelevant period to the nicer aliens. Although, of course, Heinlein undercuts this at the end when it's revealed that humans are developing incredibly (and perhaps dangerously) quickly. Kip stands up to the 'good' aliens when he's on trial, probably in a very foolhardy manner, but we're meant to admire him because he's got pluck. Very "so there, in your face, immensely advanced civilization, I sure showed YOU." Yes, I'm sure you did, Kip. There, there.

So it was fun, if superficial. I believe it won the Hugo in 1959, Heinlein's second. I wonder if his other Hugo-winners had more depth? (Stranger In A Strange Land had depth, at least, even though I recall wanting to throw it out a window.) I shall find out.(less)

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May 04, 2013 David Sarkies rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Sci-fi Fans

Recommended to David by: I found it in a book shop

Shelves: sci-fi

I must say that when I read the first few pages of this book it had me in hysterics. Particularly with the way Kip's father did his tax returns (by working it out in his head, then throwing a heap of money into an envelope and posting it off). Heinlein, in opening this story created a rather excentric family living in Centreville in what is known as small town USA. However, when I say excentric, it is because Kip's father used to be a top scientist for the US government and then quite due to al...more I must say that when I read the first few pages of this book it had me in hysterics. Particularly with the way Kip's father did his tax returns (by working it out in his head, then throwing a heap of money into an envelope and posting it off). Heinlein, in opening this story created a rather excentric family living in Centreville in what is known as small town USA. However, when I say excentric, it is because Kip's father used to be a top scientist for the US government and then quite due to all the diplomatic rubbish that he pretty much got sick of dealing with.
However this book is not about his father but it is about Kip and his dream of going to the moon. This seems to be way out of his reach because, despite his father having immense influence, it does not seem that Kip will be able to get into a decent college. It is also interesting to hear Heinlein's indictment of the US public educational system even here, because the Centreville school is something that people like to go to, and they have fun going there, but it is hardly the type of school that will prepare you for an Ivy League education. Mind you, this is moreso today, where unless you are going to a prep-school, don't think of being accepted into an Ivy League School.
Anyway, Kip stumbles across a contest where he can win a trip to the moon, however after doing everything that he can to stack the odds in his favour, he ends up winning a space suit, which he then spends most of his holidays getting into a better condition. This works out well because one evening, while wondering through the paddocks on his farm, he is kidnapped by aliens, uncovers an invasion plan, and then is whisked off to the Megellanic Cloud to be put on trial on behalf of the rest of his planet.
This is a classic example of speculative science-fiction, something that I have come to expect from the classics of the genre written around this time. It differs a lot to what we see in our Star Wars, Star Trek soaked society of today. The aliens that are encountered tend to be of such a level that it is difficult for us to understand what is going on, and also they tend to have socially evolved significantly beyond our petty desires to control and oppress. This is not the case with all the races we encounter, as is indicated with the creatures that Kip refers to as wormface.
I found it somewhat interesting though that despite the intergalatic court finding that the people of Earth to be a violent and barbarous race, they still saw fit to teach them advanced mathematics and also allow them access to Wormface's technology. It is clear that the Wormface were an advanced race of aliens that still had violent and dominating tendencies, and they were put out of action because of this, however while humanity was found to be in a similar position, giving them advanced technological knowledge is hardly likely to change their social attitudes.
This is the interesting thing about advancement because, and I think Heinlein recognises this in this book, technological advancement does not necessarily mean social advancement. We might be able to have a portable computer in our pocket that can pin point our location on the Earth with surprising accuracy, however if our neighbour is still starving and we do nothing about it, then we are truly not an advanced race. Similarly with our desire to dominate others. We might be able to travel around the world with supersonic speed, but if we use that technology to bomb the crap out of other humans on rather flimsy pretenses (namely that we simply cannot get along) then are we truly an advanced race? I think not.
To me technological advancement means absolutely nothing if it does not move alongside with social advancement. Granted we may have this vague notion of human rights, but as Zizek indicates, what they human rights end up being, to us Westerners, are excuses to live selfish lives. The right to privacy is in fact the right to cheat on your wife, and the right to bare arms is the right to kill people that you feel threatened by (even if that threat is only perceived). Then there is fear, an advanced race has a mature understanding of fear (that is respect) however we seek to imprison others by using fear, whether it be on a government level or on a spiritual level. The church are experts at using fear to control the masses, as is the government.
I guess this is what some of these speculative science-fiction texts are exploring, the nature of what it means to advance. Even back in the 1950s we were patting ourselves on the back suggesting that we were truly advanced. We had fought our way through two World Wars to see the idea of democracy (with its rather mis-interpreted idea of freedom) prevail over the dictatorships, however it has been suggested that what that amounted to was that one dictatorship – the dictatorship of the wealthy – prevailed over the totalitarian dictatorships of the nobility. As I have mentioned previously, World War II was not the triumph of good over evil, but the triumph of the lesser evil over the greater evil.(less)

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Dec 06, 2012 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 17, 2012 Melissa Prange rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s, fiction, scifi, young-adult

Cliff Richards wants nothing more than to go into space. When he announces his aspirations to his father, his dad assists him in getting the education he will need to get into a good college and work toward his goal. Unfortunately, all their hard work comes to naught when Cliff fails to get into Caltech or any other top tier school.

Things begin looking up when a soap company offers a trip into space in exchange for coming up with their new slogan. Cliff and his neighbors get to work collecting s...more Cliff Richards wants nothing more than to go into space. When he announces his aspirations to his father, his dad assists him in getting the education he will need to get into a good college and work toward his goal. Unfortunately, all their hard work comes to naught when Cliff fails to get into Caltech or any other top tier school.

Things begin looking up when a soap company offers a trip into space in exchange for coming up with their new slogan. Cliff and his neighbors get to work collecting soap wrappers for the cause. Cliff sends in hundred of submissions, and the night of the announcement, he realizes his was the winning slogan. He, however, doesn’t win the trip to space. Several people submitted the same slogan and only the first person to submit it got the trip to space.

Cliff gets a consolation prize instead—an obsolete spacesuit. Thankfully, Cliff is a whiz at mechanics and engineering. He rigs up the suit so it is fully functional. He loves the suit, but soon realizes he will have to sell it if he wants to be able to pay for tuition at the state college in the fall. Before he sells it for parts, he takes one last “spacewalk” around his home in the suit. He practices his call signs during the excursion and, surprisingly, gets an answer from a girl named Peewee.

Peewee’s stolen a spaceship from the moon and is looking for help. She lands near Cliff, drawing the aliens on her tail right to him. Before he can work out what’s happening, he’s been abducted and taken to the alien’s base. He must figure out how to escape before he and Peewee are turned into soup.

And that’s just the beginning of Cliff and Peewee’s intergalactic adventure. They meet aliens from all over the galaxies, visit Pluto, live with Vegans, and save mankind in the course of the book.

Cliff was a relatable main character. He had faults, but he was brave and strong when it was necessary. I was annoyed that he thought of Peewee as his charge at the beginning, but he soon learned to recognize her as an equal and that was a relief to me. Of course, Peewee was really the more interesting character of the two. While Cliff was the boy next door, she mostly certainly wasn’t average. Peewee was a brilliant girl with a bad temper, and I just loved her. I would read an entire series about her. I can’t say the about Cliff. He was the sort of good, faulty boy you’d find in the Chronicles of Narnia. Not my taste, but, at least, I didn’t actively dislike him.

Overall, Have Space Suit—Will Travel reminded me a lot of A Wrinkle in Time. There were genius children, tesserats, and disturbing aliens. Of course, Heinlein’s novel is a lot less philosophical than L’Engle’s series. While I believe A Wrinkle in Time is literature, Cliff’s story was most certainly not. It’s fun, amusing, and clever, but it isn’t a serious work. Still, Have Space Suit—Will Travel is a good read. It’s great for children and teens, but adults can definitely enjoy it too.
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Jul 17, 2012 Zeo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The thing is, this isn't just written for kids - it's specifically written to very smart kids whose surroundings aren't nurturing that, and suggesting possibility and how to get there. It's a fun space story, yeah, but that's only half of it; if you were a kid unfamiliar with (or simply clueless about how to approach) physics, math, engineering, medicine, or the idea of studying a foreign language, you'd be able to get from this book enough to at least suggest you could (and should!) do somethin...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Oleg Kagan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Have Space Suit-Will Travel is the last of Robert Heinlein's juvenile novels and it fits with the successful precedents set by its predecessors. Like many of the other juvies, Have Space Suit-Will Travel has a young, reasonably intelligent, male protagonist who goes on a journey into outer(in this case WAY outer) space and becomes a more confident person because of it.

While there was nothing extraordinary about Have Space Suit-Will Travel, other than it being a Hugo Award nominee in '59, there...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Tom Burkhalter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nowadays this would be tagged "young adult" fare, but I read it in 5th grade. It was, actually, the first book I ever ordered through a book store. I didn't realize at the time that RAH was writing about "alien abduction" -- not sure that I knew, in 1965, what a "UFO" was anyway. But RAH was always his own man as a writer, and this book is well-crafted and well-grounded in science and technology. I learned some of my first physics (the use of the formula s=(1/2)at-squared) from this book, as wel...more

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Sep 30, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Heinlein fans, Precocious 10-year-olds, Boys who want to be spacemen when they grow up

Shelves: science-fiction, aliens, hard-sf, young-adult, audiobook, space, teenagers

One of Heinlein's early juveniles, this one has all the elements seen throughout his juvenile series: a plucky boy hero who's always wanted to go to space, precocious girl heroine (who fortunately is too young to be mooning over boys), Father Knows Best who turns out to be a hidden genius and former Very Important Person in the government, and interesting 50ish aliens.

The thing I like about Heinlein's juveniles is that they still hold up pretty well 50 years later, if you can ignore all the refe...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Krista rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read it in a day; wondered aloud how the world has changed that a book like this could have been published in a magazine for boys. I mean, there was math, for cripes sake! And physics! And mechanical engineering! And no gratuitous violence!

There was violence, yes, but Heinlein seems to think math is more exciting than gore; indeed, his palpable excitement concerning all things mathematical was almost contagious. Almost. His in-depth descriptions of mechanical properties were engaging, if only to...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: All ages

Shelves: books-from-1958, children-s-lit, sci-fi

This is another of Heinlein's "juveniles", written for a Young Adult audience. Clifford is a young man who wants to go to the moon. In a tradition that spans Ray Bradbury to Stephen Spielberg, Clifford fools around in his mid-western basement, upgrading a space suit he bought by mail order. For some reason I love that. Imagine FedEx showing up in front of your house to deliver your new space suit!

One day he is trying it out in his backyard and winds up in space. With a ten-year-old girl named Pe...more

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May 13, 2011 Darth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: heinlein

I know you arent ever supposed to speak poorly about RAH - but this is probly his weakest effort so far...

I am a HUGE fan of RAH, and I have enjoyed most of what I have read up to here. There were just some things I couldnt get past in this one.
I have read a lot of RAH, and I know the era they come from and I grant indulgence when he makes a goof on some technical point, that he couldnt have known about due to the era he was writing in...
But the "frigid winds of Pluto" a sentence or three after...more

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Robert Brown Read it again. The passage about the wind on Pluto reads, "All I knew was that it got so cold IN THE WINTER that it didn't have any gas or liquid--jus...more
Mar 27, 2013 07:31pm

Darth WOW - BURN !!
You sure got me, boy have I been put in place - THANKS!

Heh heh heh, don't take me too seriously, I can be a bit of a goof. Actually I am...more
Mar 27, 2013 09:32pm

Robert Brown Well, you have to remember that the book was written around 1957. Pluto was only discovered in 1930 and in 1957 we still thought it was about the same...more
Mar 27, 2013 09:53pm

Apr 12, 2010 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kip Russell is working in the soda shop hoping to earn some money for college. He enters the Skyway Soap contest that promises him a trip to the moon, a place he’s always wanted to go. He calculates that he can increase his chances with more entries, so he enters a few thousand. His reward is not the grand prize, but a prize nevertheless, a used spacesuit. The spacesuit turns into Kip’s summer before college hobby. He patches it up, uses the air compressor in the garage to pressurize it, adds a...more

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May 09, 2009 Glenn Schmelzle rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Young adults

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Here's a quick plot summary: Kip Russell won a spacesuit as 2nd prize in a contest. Though worn-out, he painstakingly fixes it up as he imagines getting into a good college and eventually going into space. Coming to grips that he'll have to pay for college tuition and that he's unlikely to ever get to space, he sells the suit. Kip puts it on and goes out for one last night-time walk. Just for fun, he calls out on the space frequency and actually gets a response. Next thing, a spaceship lands in...more Here's a quick plot summary: Kip Russell won a spacesuit as 2nd prize in a contest. Though worn-out, he painstakingly fixes it up as he imagines getting into a good college and eventually going into space. Coming to grips that he'll have to pay for college tuition and that he's unlikely to ever get to space, he sells the suit. Kip puts it on and goes out for one last night-time walk. Just for fun, he calls out on the space frequency and actually gets a response. Next thing, a spaceship lands in front of him and he sees a fatigued alien creature emerge, only to collapse. A second ship lands, an entity grabs Kip and next thing he knows, he's one of 2 hostages (the other is an with an 11-year-old girl) on a spaceship heading to the moon. From there he goes to Pluto and then Vega to try to rescue his newfound friends and defend humanity's record when it's put on trial by powerful aliens.

Kip is from the midwest, so there are many nice elements of individualism. He's not a genius, just a normal, smart kid. He's also, as a teenager, subjected to standard issues at that age. He deals well with these because the spacesuit acts as his outlet. I really liked how Kip won the suit and rehabilitated it – this is the part that so perfectly showcases the hands-on problem-solving that grabs young readers.

I also liked the alien MotherThing & how she was saved by Kip near the end of the story. I wasn't so fond of 11-year-old PeeWee, but her strong will adds a dash of 'sibling rivalry' to the plot progression. The post-climactic ending is quite a 'Deus ex Machina' contrivance thanks to PeeWee's father.

There are some Robert Heinlein constants in here: agonizing over human forms of government & humanity's pros & cons as a member of cosmic civilization. Except for the trial scene, the dialogue kept moving so these rants were tolerable.

This book's ordinary setting (barring the near-future premise of Moon colonization and supposed simplicity of fixing a spacesuit) makes it a better juvenile book than many of the fantasy books around today.
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May 04, 2009 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

This is classic bootstrap Heinlein SciFi fantasy.

The book starts out Norman Rockwell enough as soda jerk Kip Russell builds out an old space suite. He is every inch the pre-engineer. He does every calculation twice in two different ways. He knows all of the parts and how to make them if he can't buy them. Then the next thing you know, he is kidnapped by a passing alien and is swept off to an adventure on the moon. There, he attempts a rescue of a tweenie Peewee and the Mother Thing. Ending up,...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1900s-1950s-era, science-fiction, space-adventure, spaceships

There's considerable charm in the opening of this book, and it's likely to entertain kids and adults as the story follows small-town boy Kip on his quest to reach the moon. Kip has little money, few connections, and the odds seem against him, but his methodical determination sees him entering competitions, and then repairing a decommissioned space suit. This section of HSS-WT is, I think, the best part of the story. Who can't connect with the idea of having big dreams and scant chance to fulfil...more There's considerable charm in the opening of this book, and it's likely to entertain kids and adults as the story follows small-town boy Kip on his quest to reach the moon. Kip has little money, few connections, and the odds seem against him, but his methodical determination sees him entering competitions, and then repairing a decommissioned space suit. This section of HSS-WT is, I think, the best part of the story. Who can't connect with the idea of having big dreams and scant chance to fulfil them? The story is set in the near-future, with a space station and moon base, but faces all the limitations which make star travel both expensive and unlikely. Heinlein nicely balances scientific discussion with story as Kip repairs his space suit, and leaves the reader thinking: these are things worth knowing.

The story then kick-starts into a fast-paced and dramatic space adventure, which is still entertaining, though a rather different sort of story, and leads up to a not uncommon SF plotline (view spoiler). It's a satisfying enough ending.

Kip is the usual sort of Heinlein hero – intelligent, modest, honest, and stuffed full of lessons on the importance of self-reliance (though occasionally inclined to jump to conclusions, not to mention making the worst "save the race" speech ever). He encounters Peewee, a precocious eleven year-old girl genius, described by her father as "an amoral little wretch". Peewee was "poking around where I shouldn't, doing things they told us not to do" and got caught up in something important. Though probably wearying to actually be around, she's definitely a highlight of the book.

It's not uncommon for Heinlein to write exceptional women (ie. women who are vastly superior to other women, 99.99% of whom are complete idiots). Among his alien races, the females are, as often as not, depicted as active movers in their societies – leaders and scientists. [Though even the alien female in this book – a kind of intergalactic policewoman – is given the name "Mother Thing", and is valued primarily for showering everyone she comes across with lashings of mother love.]

Among human women, there are various varieties of idiots, and exceptional women who grow up to marry exceptional men, whereupon their brains dribble out of their ears.

There are three human females and one alien female given time in this book. Kip and Peewee's fathers are genius scientists. Their mothers are the people who make dinner, say things like "Don't bother your father", exclaim in disbelief at adventures, or are simply quietly supportive. Kip spends a lot of time discussing his father's intelligence, eccentricity, and the powerful role he played in shaping Kip. His mother is described thus:

I have talked more about my father, but that doesn't mean that Mother is less important – just different. Dad is active. Mother is passive ; Dad talks, Mother doesn't. But if she died, Dad would wither like an uprooted tree. She makes our world.

Now, on a general level this is no big deal – that's just his Mother's personality. Until you get to the end of the book and discover that Kip's Mother – that passive, silent woman who has been shown doing nothing much beyond 'mothering' – was once his genius mathematician father's star pupil.

Exceptional women in Heinlein's books all too often exist to provide a suitable mate for Heinlein's exceptional men. It's clearly indicated in the text that Peewee is likely to grow up and marry Kip and one shudders to think of Peewee – precocious, amoral, adventurous child! – condemned to have her brain dribble out of her ear.(less)

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Dec 03, 2012 Burkay Yalnız rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

heinlein okumaya görece en tasasız kitabından başladım, zira 'yabancı bir ülkede yabancı'yı mutlaka ve mutlaka okumam gerektiğini de bu kitaptaki kıvrak zekalılıktan anladım. ayrıca heinlein'e teşekkürler, asimov'a ve pkd'e verdiği destekler için! bir nevi vefa borcu bu.

adam önce buyurdu, sonra yalvardı. "ama dr. russell, meslekteki geçmişinizi biliyoruz. doğru dürüst kayıt tutmamak için hiçbir özrünüz yok."
"ama tutuyorum," diye alnını gösterdi babam. "burada."
"yasalar yazılı kayıt istiyor."
baba...more

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Aug 09, 2012 J4n3 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi, young-adult, re-reads-2012

This was a re-read and I had forgotten how much I liked that book. It's one of those books that, had I read them at age 12, I would have read at least a 100 times in a row. The story is very fantastical. Sure, a lot of people seem to mind the many mathmatics in it (I don't understand half of that, I nearly failed my maths exams when I graduated from highschool) and the long explanations about space suits, but to me, even after all those years, it's still pushing the right buttons to keep me read...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Jimmy Corvan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has the highest ratio of feline buttf*cking on the cover to feline buttf*cking in story of any book I've ever read.

On to the actual review...

Having read Have Space Suit-Will Travel years after it was originally written, reading this book now felt a lot like playing an NES era RPG for the first time, now. While I certainly loved NES RPGs as a kid, fact of the matter is, they are just formulas for what would later be greatly improved on in years to follow. Have Space Suit-Will Travel fel...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-ya, sci-fi

An innocent romp back to glory days of the good ole' U.S.A., where it would be inconceivable to have space suit components built by companies other than Goodyear, York and Lockheed, let alone manufactured anywhere outside of America.

Cliff Russell is a high school student whose one goal in life is to visit the moon. When a soap company offers a free trip to the best submitted soap slogan, Cliff uses his position at the local drug store to sweet talk customers out of 5,000 soap wrappers used as en...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Alex Yoshioka rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Have Space Suit-Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein is a sci-fi novel following the exploits of Kip being abducted by aliens and having to save his own life, his new friends and eventually an entire species. There is a strong theme of perserverance throughout the story in his pre-abduction life, in his fight for survival and in many other aspects.

Kip had said,"a tough prep school back east can drill you so that you can enter Stanford, or Yale, or any of the best- but you can pick up false stand...more "Have Space Suit-Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein is a sci-fi novel following the exploits of Kip being abducted by aliens and having to save his own life, his new friends and eventually an entire species. There is a strong theme of perserverance throughout the story in his pre-abduction life, in his fight for survival and in many other aspects.

Kip had said,"a tough prep school back east can drill you so that you can enter Stanford, or Yale, or any of the best- but you can pick up false standards, too-nutty ideas about money and social position and the right tailor. It took me years to get rid of ones I acquired that way." (26) This shows Kips ability to apply himself to a task, in this case his habits of passive life, until it eventually gave way. His perserverance is also seen in the collection of soap wrappers. He had the desire to win a contest to recieve a space suit and went out to take all of the wrappers from his neibors, friends, and even people who he did not remotely know at the time. To get things done, no matter how long it takes, shows this theme of perserverance.

Later on, Kip is abducted and held prisioner in a dungeon. The dark, dismal atmosphere did not dimay him too much ever after suspecting that the other "prisioners" were being eaten. "He said,'The fat one was missing',flatly" (181), both showing the shock or horror of his situation and at a near loss for words. Instead he pushed through the dark and planned and survived until he was saved by his friends "Peewee" and The Mother Thing. This trial to hold on even though you see no sight of escape or hope, shows this determination to perservere and live on to save himself and his friends.

Towards the end of the book, Kip encounters his final and greatest challenge. While it had no harm upon himself, his decisions and thoughts would be what decided the fate of the entire world. Kip once again felt the hopeless situation yet he continued to ponder what he would say to the aliens to keep his home, family, friends, everything, safe. "The best things in history are accomplished by people who get 'tired of being shoved around.'" (213) This final mental need of perserverance shows the pressure of keeping on for not only yourself, but for the well being of others. Knowing that he may be the cause for the deaths of millions, he can only move forward and continue living.(less)

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Mar 04, 2011 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites

I have fond memories of this book, having read this around 8th or 9th grade. Well, not really "memories" (to be honest), but vague feelings of having enjoyed this book. I remembered the basic premise: boy gets space suit, ends up in space. The specifics had long been lost. Having finished, I still love this book. Granted, the plot is cheesy, but it was (and still is) a children's book.

Heinlein has a way of capturing "fun", and sprinkling this book's pages with a liberal helping. You can feel Kip...more

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Oct 21, 2010 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

(sigh...) Why don't they write them like this anymore? The witty repartee, the snarky wit, and the pop-cultural references (to the 1950s), all with a little bit of hard science thrown in, made this book great despite the somewhat cheesy plot. Kip's main goal in life is to go to the moon, so while he's working on one day becoming an engineer, he enters a jingle-writing contest whose first prize is a moon trip. Instead of the trip, he wins a space suit. And one day, as he's wearing his space suit,...more

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May 19, 2013 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read a few negative reviews of this book and it occurs to me that they are written by individuals without a sense of adventure who can't enjoy good clean fun.
I especially enjoyed how Kip's adventures are a result of his resourcefulness, intelligence, preparation, and goals. Too many books have "heroes" who are simply thrust into adventure without any real personal merit beyond the mystical assurance of their worth and potential. Mr. Heinlein showed us Ki's worth and potential before he was...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Smilingplatypus rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

I listened to this title on audio book, and I'll admit that I chose this particular novel because Full Cast Audio recorded it. I don't read a ton of sci-fi, but FCA always produces superb audio books, and this was no exception. It has great voice actors, great production quality, and an obvious love for the source material.

As for the book itself, it was enjoyable. The story is fun, and I could see teenage boys, especially ones interested in science or engineering, really loving it. There is eno...more

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About Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American novelist and science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he is one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard science fiction".

He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first SF writer to break into mainstre...more

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