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Starman Jones

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 3,549 ratings · 96 reviews

A classic novel from the mind of the storyteller who captures the imagination of readers from around the world, and across two generations

Science Fiction Grand Master

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

STARMAN JONES

It was a desperate time, when one's next meal and the comforts of home couldn't be taken for granted. Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his bel

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Paperback, 261 pages

Published March 1st 2005 by Pocket Books (first published 1953)

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Apr 21, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Another typical (great!) Heinlein YA novel about a farm boy who makes good. The main characters in this book aren't angels. They break the law - bad ones mostly - for reasons they think are sufficient (I always thought so) & reap the consequences afterward, but still come out ahead.

Max is a hillbilly & has an impossible situation at home. He runs away, gets fake ID with the help of a rough, but kind stranger. He gets a job on a space ship cleaning pet cages. Menial, but honest work that...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I like this dated novel. A human civilization that was pictured or imagined before our present level of computer and electronic technology was even imagined. A young man "inherits" somewhat informally a set of "astrogator's" texts and then sets out to get "sponsored" to get into the Astrogator's guild", the only way to become an astrogator, someone who plots the course of starships through deep space.

One of Heinlein's so called teen novels and a good read. It dates back to 1953 and as I said is...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Osho rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Books read in the past:

I think of this as the exemplar of Heinlein's writing in this period. The hero is a sympathetic lad with special talents, the mentor is old but not a lecherous coot, the plot complications involve interpersonal tension as well as external problems, the problems are both technical and alien-mediated, and the solutions require the protagonist to shoulder responsibilities and become a man. This is a fine young adult novel and one of two science fiction novels (the other being...more

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Feb 20, 2009 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I just read this book, and now on Goodreads see that I read it in 1988; this is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've read it. It's a good story, good quality sf for 1953. It's funny how Heinlein made the future seem so real in his books, but he's always got one leg stuck directly in the past (or perhaps half his body). In this future of starships, the main character still grows up isolated on a farm (which is one reason I identified with the thing when I read it when I was in the 7th or 8th grad...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, kids, science-fiction

An SF Juvenile originally published 60 years ago, 1953, & it shows its age in a few places, but was still a wonderful yarn with one of my favorite characters in it, Sam. Hardly the perfect hero or role model, he was a lot of fun & showed the main character, Max, the ropes.

The age of the story was most apparent in the technology. Max has to study a computer by opening a panel & tracing circuits. Logs were pulled out of the tables in books (Anyone else remember those?), problems were m...more

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Oct 24, 2012 sologdin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: douchebag-leaves-earth, speculative

Nutshell: bucolic twerp with plot-significant eidetic memory defrauds his way aboard spaceship, flirts with rich girl, has a big adventure, &c.

YA and pulpy, but moves quickly, with characteristic heinleinian asides regarding law, politics, and science. Some nifty geeking out on the science of FTL travel.

Some have said that the text lays out a critique of labor unions, which may be the case. But it's not unambiguous, as the setting involves less unions than guilds, a significant distinction....more

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Aug 01, 2012 Doug Turnbull rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Starman Jones was copyrighted in 1953 by Robert A. Heinlein and published that same year by Charles Scribner’s Sons of New York. The sixth of the Heinlein Juveniles, it is the last one to be fully illustrated by Clifford Geary.

It is also the first of his juveniles to postulate interstellar travel. All of the earlier books confined travel within the solar system. The protagonist, Maximilian Jones, or Max as he is known, comes from unspecified hill country, possibly the Ozarks, where he is living...more Starman Jones was copyrighted in 1953 by Robert A. Heinlein and published that same year by Charles Scribner’s Sons of New York. The sixth of the Heinlein Juveniles, it is the last one to be fully illustrated by Clifford Geary.

It is also the first of his juveniles to postulate interstellar travel. All of the earlier books confined travel within the solar system. The protagonist, Maximilian Jones, or Max as he is known, comes from unspecified hill country, possibly the Ozarks, where he is living with his widowed stepmother. When she remarries, Max leaves and through a series of misadventures, during which he meets and eventually teams up with a hobo named Sam, Max signs on as an ordinary crewman aboard the starship Asgard. Because he possesses a unique ability and through a series of unlikely events that only Heinlein could make believable, Max lands a job as a ship’s officer serving on the bridge. His adventures aboard the Asgard constitute the main body of the story and I’ll allow the reader to enjoy them.

As a novel, Starman Jones works on several levels. First it can be read as a simple adventure story and it works quite well as just that. The book can also be read as a coming of age story: Max starts out a boy and finishes as a man. And it can be read for the deeper human and sometimes political themes underlying the story. For example, the Asgard encounters an alien civilization organized along totalitarian lines. The ruthless brutality and exploitative character of the alien system is, I believe, an allegory for the communist and fascist societies of the 20th century during which Heinlein was writing.

This is one of the of the juveniles that fully develops a strong female character. Eldreth Coburn is the well to do daughter of a planetary governor and a passenger aboard the Asgard. During the course of the voyage, Max and Ellie become good friends and there is a hint of romance, at least on her part. A very intelligent and strong willed young woman, she does a skillful job of concealing those traits in the male dominated society set forth in the story. For example, she allows Max to teach her how to play chess. He wins all of their matches until late in the book when he discovers that she is a master chess player and could take him anytime and every time if she chose to do so. When Max and Ellie are captured by hostile natives on a planet misnamed Charity, Ellie proves both courageous and resourceful. Nearly all of Heinlein’s later juveniles as well as his adult books have such strong and likeable female characters. Prescient as he was about future technological innovation, he also foresaw women taking a more equal role in future society.

Starman Jones is also the last book to be fully illustrated. As in the previous books, Clifford Geary’s cover art and white on black interior drawings appear deceptively simple. However, the illustrations have a hidden complexity that conveys very subtly the sense that we are visiting a world very different than our own. Geary was a great talent and a fine artist, but I know of only one other book, a children’s book, that he illustrated. About this time, young adult fiction followed the already established pattern of adult fiction: that of not being illustrated. No doubt the intellectual rationale was that by not having suggestive pictures the narrative would better stimulate young imaginations. But I also have no doubt that there was an economic motive: at that time, illustrations significantly increased the cost of producing books. Hence, there were no more pictures. This is a trend I would like to see reversed and I am doing just that with my own stories.

This is a great book and while longer than Heinlein’s previous juveniles, it is a page turner and a fast read. The action flows naturally and carries the reader along with it. Although the science is farther afield than that of his earlier books, the space-time anomalies that allow for interstellar travel are analogous to the wormholes that are currently postulated; and those are based on conjectures put forth by Albert Einstein. Written with scientific rigor as well as universal human themes such as love, envy, jealousy and self-sacrifice, this book is all Heinlein all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FGyOw...
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Dec 24, 2011 Kristel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

A 1953, classic science fiction from the grand master Robert A. Heinlein is about a Ozark farm boy who travels to the stars when he is forced to run away from home. A not easy feat to accomplish because entering the trades is tightly controlled. You must pay large amounts of money and for an astrogator you must be recommended. Max Jones has learned from his uncle and his eidetic memory doesn’t hurt either. He becomes a stowaway on board a intergalactic spaceship. The pilot dies and the charts an...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Lis Carey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: f-sf

This Heinlein guy was pretty good at telling a story.

Max Jones is a young farmer, working hard to support his unlovable stepmother after his father's death, but he dreams of the life his Uncle Chet lived, as a member of the Astrogators' Guild. Chet had promised him that he'd nominate him for membership, but died while Max was still too young to join, and then Max's father, before he died also, made him promise to take care of his stepmother.

But when his stepmother remarries and she and her new h...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Loren rated it 4 of 5 stars

From ISawLightningFall.com

Reputations accrete in funny ways, and often we end up with a mental picture of a person or his work that's less than accurate. Take Robert A. Heinlein for example, the so-called dean of science fiction writers. Though Heinlein's career spanned nearly half a century, most folks today know him for the militaristic Starship Troopers, whose characters blasted not only intergalactic arachnids but Marxism as well. But theme-heavy SF doesn't compose the entirety of his oeuvre...more From ISawLightningFall.com

Reputations accrete in funny ways, and often we end up with a mental picture of a person or his work that's less than accurate. Take Robert A. Heinlein for example, the so-called dean of science fiction writers. Though Heinlein's career spanned nearly half a century, most folks today know him for the militaristic Starship Troopers, whose characters blasted not only intergalactic arachnids but Marxism as well. But theme-heavy SF doesn't compose the entirety of his oeuvre. Indeed, most everyone except his devotees seems to have forgotten that Heinlein began his career by writing juvenile fiction, a good example of which is his farmer-turned-spaceman adventure Starman Jones.

Ever since he was a child, Max Jones has yearned to go into space. His uncle, a space navigator (or astrogator, as they're called), used to regale him with stories of interstellar travel and let him peruse his manuals, thick compendiums stuffed with calculations used to guide spaceships through charted territories. But he had little hope of getting into the astrogator guild. After his father died, Max ended up working the family farm day in and day out, which left little time for anything but dreaming. Then one day Max's mother showed up with an unwelcome surprise -- a new husband, one Biff Montgomery, a man whose sole achievement lay in avoiding honest work like the plague. Now Max has to discover if he can break into a guild or, barring that, an actual ship. Apprentice or stowaway, either option sounds fine to Max. With Biff in the picture, it's off-world or bust.

There's plenty in Starman Jones that hasn't aged well. I had to suppress a smile when reading about Max cooking up biscuits and ham at his farm on one page and then calculating inverse cubes on his slide rule the next. Anachronisms abound, as one could rightly expect from a book coming out of the golden age of science fiction. But if you look past the outdated stuff, you'll find a novel with surprisingly strong bones. Heinlein's characterizations are quite deft, from a mysterious interloper who may or may not have a checkered military past to a headstrong ambassador's daughter with more gumption and savvy than is immediately apparent. And the action picks up nicely once Max makes it into the void. (Honestly, with the word "starman" in the title, was there ever any doubt?) Jones may be a little creaky in the joints, but it still gets along pretty well in the end.(less)

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Jul 13, 2010 Valerie added it · review of another edition

None of these editions seem to be the one I read.

The hero of this Alger-esque story has an identic memory. Whatever he reads, he remembers. He's told not to rely on this, as what matters to an astrogator (read: astronautical navigator) is knowing how to do (and check) the calculations. They have records, but to use said records without knowing how to check them is to perpetuate errors.

Turns out that the eidetic memory is not (quite) irrelevant, after all--but the initial advice was good, as the...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Valerie added it · review of another edition

Heinlein's anachronistic elements are often recognized when dealing with technical issues. Other aspects are less obvious. I've lived in the Ozarks area (the boundaries between mountain ranges are necessarily nebulous). I was once lost in a state park. I made my way out by following excessively bright lights to a prison.

That was some years ago, but things have gotten worse everywhere. There are no longer any places that get dark at night. (Possibly with the exception of Arizona, where the astro...more Heinlein's anachronistic elements are often recognized when dealing with technical issues. Other aspects are less obvious. I've lived in the Ozarks area (the boundaries between mountain ranges are necessarily nebulous). I was once lost in a state park. I made my way out by following excessively bright lights to a prison.

That was some years ago, but things have gotten worse everywhere. There are no longer any places that get dark at night. (Possibly with the exception of Arizona, where the astronomers have a fairly effective lobby). Researchers on nocturnal animals worry that the excess light will contribute to the dangers to species often already critically endangered. But just try to FIND any research on the impact of excess light on circadian rhythms (and on photosynthesis, as well). And if you DO find any, please tell me about them.

Heinlein's dystopian vision of a society controlled by hereditary Guilds seems to have been cut from whole cloth. I don't know of ANY source that even proposed such a thing.

Other aspects of the galactic civilization are essentially not developed at all. The ship's navigational problems are used as a pretext to avoid examining the society--but there's not much discussion of it when the ship is on its normal course, either.

One interesting note--Max's eidetic memory is quite rightly dismissed as a parlor trick. It turns out to be a useful trick with the loss of reference sources--but it has no greater utility than that. I disagree, however, with the notion that such parlor tricks are necessarily combined with autism. Heinlein even goes so far as to use the derisory term 'idiot savant', which is no longer used precisely because it's so dismissive and offensive. It's essentially a double whammy. People dismiss those who can't communicate well what they know (it's not really possible to determine what they DO know, because of the communications difficulties). Then when a few do find ways to communicate really quite remarkable abilties, they're doubly stigmatized.

Many people with otherwise quite ordinary talents have these 'stupid human tricks' special skills. Too often, however, because they fear such stigmatization (and/or exploitation), they suppress or marginalize their skills. In the book, Max is abashed when he realizes that what he can do is considered extraordinary, and he quite rightly fears that he will be ghettoized on account of it. His luck at finding people who can see past the stigma to the whole person beyond doesn't mitigate the fact that the society as a whole can't get past the 'freak show' mentality. (less)

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Apr 02, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, young-adult, science-fiction, coming-of-age, space, teenagers

I read a lot of Heinlein's juveniles when I was younger, but I missed this one and it was on sale from Audible, so it was nice to enjoy one of his earlier works, before he started getting old and wanky. Everything from Friday on was pretty much Heinlein getting his freak on, but his earlier novels are still sci-fi classics for good reason.

Starman Jones is your basic boys' adventure story: Max is a kid from Earth who runs away from home when his stepmother marries an abusive bum. He meets an amia...more

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May 09, 2009 Glenn Schmelzle rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Plot Summary:
A kid from a lower-class family with a love for space, Max runs away from home with his Uncle's astrogation (star navigation) manuals. He fakes his way aboard a passenger-liner starship. He finagles a job as steward's mate third class, but because of how he got onto the ship, because he's not part of a guild and not a college graduate, he has no hope of becoming a ship officer. With a eidetic memory, he's able to absorb the tables in uncle's books and recall the coordinates the ship...more Plot Summary:
A kid from a lower-class family with a love for space, Max runs away from home with his Uncle's astrogation (star navigation) manuals. He fakes his way aboard a passenger-liner starship. He finagles a job as steward's mate third class, but because of how he got onto the ship, because he's not part of a guild and not a college graduate, he has no hope of becoming a ship officer. With a eidetic memory, he's able to absorb the tables in uncle's books and recall the coordinates the ship for course corrections made at precise times during jumps through hyperspace. The upper-crust command crew sometimes let him on the deck, but they only know him as a congenial boy; they know nothing of his aspirations. Once during an astrogation calculation, he's overheard muttering the exact coordinates, without looking at a manual. He's soon promoted to an apprentice under Assistant Astrogator Simes, a move that's resented by the sinister senior officer. Simes transposes some astrogation figures on a routine transition; Max does the calculations in his head and detects the error. The aging captain doesn't heed his appeals and lays in the wrong coordinates, taking the ship so far off-course, they can't locate any known stars to guide their way back home. The error devastates the captain so badly, he has a nervous breakdown and dies shortly after.

With almost zero chance of finding their way back, the crew set down on an uninhabited world (so they think) and release the passengers to colonize it. Unfortunately, they learn that the planet is controlled by centaurs, who capture Max and his girlfriend, but thanks to ingenuity they eventually get back to the ship. Upon his return, Max learns that Simes had hid the astrogation manuals to make himself indispensable and then tried to illegally take command - he was killed in the struggle. Max is the only remaining astrogator, and as his the highest ranking guild beneath captains, he's promoted to captain, and he must get the ship off the planet and try returning to known space by reversing the transition. Thanks to his photographic memory, Max succeeds and gets the ship and its passengers back to known space.

Comments:
The main flaw with the book is that it's too dated. The most anachronistic part is the ship's computer, which can't add basic numbers. Heinlein has based shipboard technology on 1950s computers, so he grossly under-his predicted the pace of computer progress. We end up story set a hundred years or so in the future that relies solely on mathematicians (Astrogators) adding in their heads. So be ready to suspend disbelief. I think the book is also tied in too tightly with 20th century work ethic or military command-control structure. I don't think folks today would be wowed, like Max is, by his ascent through the hierarchy of a ship's crew.

Heinlein was (as usual) good at creating problems that his characters must work their way out of. But I had a problem with the explanation of how they were stranded on the planet, because they could simply reverse the calculations that took them off course. And that's how they ended up getting back.

Most of the characters are well done. There's an Artful Dodger character called Sam, a robber with a heart of gold, who helps Max in several places throughout the book. I liked how he made most of the adults reasonable; making good role models for Max. Again, with the exception here: his mother, who is lazy and resents having him and book alludes that she doesn't know who Max's dad is. While Max does well navigating through the adult world, think he's exposed to too many negative aspects of adulthood (wealthy/poor dynamic, elderly women nosing into his affairs). Think this overpowers the science in the book, which (suspending disbelief) is pretty intriguing.

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Jan 17, 2013 Tiffany Robbins rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a great book of star exploration as seen from a mid twentieth century writer. He’s very specific about the ships cockpit along with long hand math calculations and analog print outs. I appreciated it purely for its vintage sci-fi feel, though the story was grand as well.

I found Jones to be a very typical Heinlein hero – abused boy running off to make a better life for himself. Of course, he finds a girl in his explorations and for some odd reason she’s into him. He’s into her too, but o...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Dennis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. A lot of modern sci-fi themes and ideas can be traced back to this book; warp speed, possible parallel universes, etc. Good story and characters, geared toward young readers because it's more or less a coming of age story, but I loved it and I'm nearly 40. Hard to beat.

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Jun 18, 2010 Steve Moseley rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: kids

Shelves: sci-fi

Farm boy Max has dreams to grow up and be an astrogator (astronaut) like his uncle, but since he is a run-away with no money, and no credentials to get him into space; he must con his way in with the help of con-artist friend whom Max meets on the run named Sam.

This is a classic coming of age story, with enough twist and turns to stay interested in it. I especially like that the story contains some elements of redemption for its main characters, especially Sam.

For a Science Fiction book written...more

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May 21, 2013 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this today as much as I did when I read it in middle school. Great book for showing kids the importance of science and math, plus hard work and honesty pay off. Granted the main character does break some laws to pursue his dream of becoming a space pilot, however; the laws were unjust in that only the children of current guild members were allowed to learn astronavigation. Eventually, the main character comes clean, and the fair-minded people give him a chance. So the lessons of taking r...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Jan M rated it 4 of 5 stars

I finally have gotten back to my roots. This is pure Heinlein. The story deals with a young man in a big world who wants to fly spaceships. I love the way Heinlein makes his characters human but full of integrity and kindness. These characteristics help him make good friends and, of course, they all have great adventures. Add to that the touch of science (I really don't know how much of this is based on what is known, but I do believe it is a starting point). The optimistic tone is the best, whe...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Hyarrowen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult

This is the book that got nine-year-old me started on a fifteen-year science fiction binge, until the genre started to get darker and edgier (and duller). I loved the fast-paced story-telling and the wish-fulfilment; farm boy becomes... well, I'm not going to spoil it but it's a great ride.

On re-reading the book recently, I winced a bit at some of the attitudes towards women, but that was par for the course in 1953 and the female protagonist was a tough cookie, as were some of the other women....more

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Jul 30, 2012 Betty Cross rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my other fave from Heinlein's sci-fi for young readers (or "young adults" as they are now called). Young Jones lives with a bunch of ne'er-do-well distant relatives in the Ozarks, but there is a wonderful secret in his past -- his father whom he's never met was an Astrogator, possessor of the skill of travel between the stars, and has left behind one precious heirloom, his Astrogator's manual. Taking the book, Jones decides to run away and go into space. He gets his wish, thanks to the m...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Darth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: heinlein

This is one of the best pieces of sci-fi ever written.
The story is a moves right along, the characters are interesting and varied, and the action is as fast paced as you would want, without feeling like a Stel Pavlou book. Nothing against Stel, he just writes in an awful damn hurry. It bogged down a little for me on the unknown planet, the capture by the creatures seemed a bit much, but otherwise I dont know that I would change much if I Buettnered this tomorrow and rewrote it in my own homage s...more

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Jan 31, 2012 J.A. Dalley rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All Heinlein Fans

Shelves: science-fiction

This is among Heinlein's greatest novels. Though this book is very dated, it is fun to read about a massive passenger liner were the astrogators are using slide rules and punching numbers in binary into the computer. I think Heinlein was a little off in that prediction.
This is however another one of Heinlein's great juvenile novels. This book follows the adventures of Starman Jones as he runs away from home to be an astrogator and follow in the footsteps of his uncle. Things don't always go as p...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-9-season

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

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Jul 11, 2012 Jay Michaels rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

After reading The Door into Summer, I dug into my pile of Robert Heinlein paperbacks. Starman Jones (1953) held up pretty well to what I remembered of it from reading it in my teens and 20s.

I continue to be amused by Heinlein's preview of a future where humans are the weakest (but necessary) link in the starship/computer interface. However, his characters are likable in this coming of age story, in which the Farm Boy wants to go to Space, and actually reaches his goal... but not without a few n...more

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May 06, 2013 Merlin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Unlike most of Heinlein's juveniles this one has a plot.
As a rule his juveniles all have to be classed as 'coming-of-age' stories starring a gifted youngster who might have a history of getting in trouble, of the 'too smart for their own good' verity, but is generally naive. The story would just be a series of episodes involving no real danger but providing opportunity for limited growth.
This one though has a beginning, middle and end; it just comes rather abruptly. It is almost as if he hit his...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Alexander Khodyrev rated it 2 of 5 stars

A Heinlein juvenile. Pretty average sci-fi: predictable, simplistic and entertaining.

Obvious inspirations: "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms" for the aliens and Horatio Hornblower novels for naval (here space) customs. In both cases the novel does not quite live up to the originals, but one wouldn't expect it to.

Good sci-fi for when you want a quick entertaining read. Some Heinleinian philosophy about trade unions and liberties of the frontier.

Also: Jo Walton's review on Tor.com.

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Mar 24, 2012 Katharine Kimbriel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, science-fiction

I really enjoyed this in my green days, a hero who depended on brain power and biology as opposed to muscles. Heinlein always weaves an interesting story of the dark and bright side of a technological future, usually about how an individual can defeat odds and get their heart's desire. And although quirky his women/girls generally are not idiots or wimps.

Plus, no overt sex or bad language. So -- you probably know a teen who will enjoy this, if not for yourself!

Haven't re-read it yet, but I imagi...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Julia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, ya

Dated but held my attention. Some of the story is not credible (and not just because the science has been superceded. But I still wanted to continue reading. (view spoiler)...more

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Aug 18, 2012 MG Mason rated it 3 of 5 stars

Starman Jones is one of the lesser known of Heinlein's work. Coming in at a mere 200 pages, it tells the story of a stowaway on board a starship who has always dreamed of being a navigator. When he is caught and his obvious talent spotted, he becomes part of the crew and soon finds himself on command deck when his family tie is revealed.

Sometime later the chief 'Astrogater' dies and the ship is seemingly lost in uncharted space. The Captain cannot cope. They land upon the nearest habitable world...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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