Amazing story (Have Spacesuit Will Travel - Robert A. Heinlein)

Member Name: raypdaley182

Product:	Have Spacesuit Will Travel - Robert A. Heinlein
Date:	10/08/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good action, real page turner

Disadvantages: Women aren't welll written

Clifford "Kip" Russell is the product of one of Robert Heinleins "alternate realities" or futures that never happened, he is a young man at the end of his High School years fast approaching the move towards finding a college to pursue his studies but he has a dream - he wants nothing more than to go to the Moon.

As a story that was written in 1958 before the space race even started the science this is rather badly dated as a mixture of 1950's postulated ideas of "things to come" and clearly Heinlein thought America would progress faster into space than they actually did in reality. It's difficult to sumise this story without giving too much or a lot away but I will try my best.

Kip gets a chance at his dream when the Skyway Soap company run a competition to win a trip to the moon purely by sending in a soap label with a slogan about Skyway soap on it. And as Kip is an employee at a local drugstore he seizes his opportunity and enters as many times as he can. You learn about his boss and his parents, the stuff about his father is rather interesting so I won't spoil it too much.

You also learn about one of the local characters, Ace Quiggle who I am sure went on to become the basis for characters like Biff Tannen in Back To The Future. You'll probably see what I mean and agree with me if you read the book.

Kip doesn't actually win first prize in the Skyway competition as that would make his life and the story far too simple so he wins a runners up prize of an actual Spacesuit that he fixes up and nicknames Oscar. As his summer draws to a close and Oscar is fully rigged out for space Kip realises he will have to sell Oscar to pay for college tution so decides to suit up one last time for a final walk before crating the suit up and sending it back for the money Skyway had offered him.

And that walk is the start of his epic adventure just from messing around with a radio receiver he had built into his suit, he meets Peewee who we later discover is Patricia Reisfield, the young daughter of a famous scientist. We also meet the Wormface aliens who are trying to kidnap people and possibly capture Earth as a food source as well as The Mother Thing from Vega who is an intergalactic cop trying to stop Wormface and his cronies.

Kip & Peewee are captured and taken to the moon where they have an epic and very dangerous escape only to be recaptured and taken to Pluto (back when we still considered it a planet), from there their adventures and travels get weirder and crazier. Right up to the point of Kip, Peewee and a Roman Legionary having plead for the survival of Earth.

Kip is very firmy cast as the unlikely hero or knight errant constantly saving Peewee who is firmly stuck in a "damsel in distress" role, Heinlein was a bit of a male chauvanist in his attitudes to women and children in general. Reading how he portrays Peewee and the Mother Thing even despite her cop role she is still viewed as a lowly employee low down in the rank structure of her organisation which Heinlein further reinforces later with characters like Professor Joe and the "Father Thing".

The book is an excellent read, so much so that I first read it aged 9 then spent the next 25 years trying to find my own copy of it. Its just that good, the story and the way it is told stuck with me so firmly and fondly I persued the book until I found another copy. I would say it is more orientated towards male readers but I think female sci-fi fans would like Mother Thing, Peewee isn't all that bearable as a rather badly written preteen.

I can't find any reference to Heinlein ever having had children which is perhaps why Peewee is believable as a precocious child she isn't very believable as a young girl, Heinlein obviously had no problems writing about boys and young men drawing on his personal experiences I assume.

The book is still as enjoyable and readable today, I've re-read it umpteen times and no doubt will read it many more. I'd say it was an ideal gift to the male sci-fi reader from 8 to 80, women might find it mildly amusing for the rather weak portrayals of the female characters.

(this review also appears on Ciao)

Summary: Go into space with Kip & Oscar!