From the Bookshelf of Aspiring Martians…

I never read any of the Heinlein juveniles when I was growing up (that I recall, anyway). And not many Heinlein books are available as e-books. But this one was, so I plunged in with relish. I wasn't disappointed, because it was exactly what I had always heard RAH's juvenile works described as.

This book was first published in 1949 and is set in some unnamed year in the future. What I found intriguing and jarring was not the overcome-by-time science (intelligent Martians, canals filled with ice,

I never read any of the Heinlein juveniles when I was growing up (that I recall, anyway). And not many Heinlein books are available as e-books. But this one was, so I plunged in with relish. I wasn't disappointed, because it was exactly what I had always heard RAH's juvenile works described as.

This book was first published in 1949 and is set in some unnamed year in the future. What I found intriguing and jarring was not the overcome-by-time science (intelligent Martians, canals filled with ice, enough air pressure to forgo pressure suits) but rather the communications and entertainment technology that was still stuck in the 40s. Colonists have to wait for Deimos to be in the sky to relay radio signals, because there are no communication satellites. (I guess Arthur Clarke hadn't predicted them yet.) Phones are attached to buildings. The teenagers don't carry their music with them. All of these changes are relatively recent, and yet are so fundamental to how we live today that RAH's future world seems positively primitive.

But that's part of the fun of reading old SF: both seeing what was predicted that didn't come true and seeing what did come true that was completely unforeseen. I can simultaneously satisfy the hungry-for-wonder child within meand the somewhat cynical adult I have (somewhat regretfully) become.