Variable Star review

Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is about as close as you can come to a new novel by Heinlein. In some ways it's better than that. Heinlein is probably the most important of all science fiction authors. Few would say the best writer, but he did more to set the pattern for how science fiction should be done and what it was capable of doing than anyone. Having said that, Heinlein's last works were not his best. Even the most devoted Heinlein fan has to forgive much when reading them.

What Spider Robinson has given us here is the work of a disciple of Heinlein finishing what the master had begun. The end result has more profanity than a Heinlein story would have, but is otherwise very much in the mold of a Heinlein juvenile, though one with a rather dark ending.

There are many ideas from other Heinlein books here, including the concept of twin telepaths from Time for the Stars, many references to Nehemiah Scudder, a plot point from The Door Into Summer, and a lot of other stuff I might have missed. The story takes place in a different timeline than our own, one in which the September 11th attack led to the reign of the Prophet Nehemiah Scudder and in which the first Moon landing happened differently. Other than Scudder (who is only referred to) there are no characters from other Heinlein books.

As mentioned before, the book takes a dark turn towards the end. It is fairly light up until that point. The story puts the hero in a really hopeless spot and he gets out of it by what almost qualifies as a dei ex machina. Not exactly, but close enough. I didn't find that objectionable, but others might.

Other reviewers complained that the hero was just too talented and smart to be believable, but that is typical of Heinlein protagonists (and of science fiction in general).



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