Quasit's Daily Book Recommendations: "Space Cadet" (1948) by Robert A. Heinlein
Category: Juvenile/YA to adult
Genre: Science Fiction
I'm trying to avoid really well-known books with these recommendations. For example, I love "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955); if this was the world of Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" (1953) I would BE TLOTR.
But as an old reader, it's hard for me to judge what books modern readers are likely to know. "The Lord of the Rings" is probably an exception. But what about Zelazny's Amber books? Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy? Frank Herbert's "Dune"?
I don't know.
But one thing I DO know is that a lot of wonderful books are basically forgotten these days. I have an old friend who's a YA librarian; we've been on a lot of panels together over the years, particularly about YA and children's literature. He told me that the library doesn't have ANY of Heinlein's juveniles, because nobody has read them for decades.
That horrifies me. Heinlein's juveniles turned MILLIONS of young readers into lifelong science fiction fans. If the books aren't in libraries, where will the next generation of science fiction fans come from?
Beyond that, they're •such• good books. They deserve readers. And I pity young readers for not getting to experience them. By the way, Wikipedia has an article about them, at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinlein_juveniles .
The first Heinlein juvenile was "Rocket Ship Galileo" (1947). Frankly, it's not that good; it's pretty old-fashioned. Boys build a rocket and fly to the Moon to fight Nazis at their secret base. It's as corny as it sounds.
I'm not saying it's terrible, but it's definitely weak. Heinlein really hit his stride with the second book, though; "Space Cadet" is great science fiction AND a wonderful coming-of-age story.
Matt Dodson is a young man–or an old boy– who has been accepted as a cadet by the Interplanetary Patrol. It's an organization which preserves the peace of the planets of the solar system. We join him as he's reporting for testing and evaluation. He makes new friends and is introduced to the customs and traditions of the Patrol. He even makes an enemy, of sorts.
[Once he was given a handful of beans and a small bottle, and was told to sit down and place the bottle at a mark on the floor and locate in his mind the exact position of the bottle. Then he was to close his eyes and drop the beans one at a time into the bottle—if possible.
He could tell from the sound that he was not making many hits, but he was mortified to find, when he opened his eyes, that only one bean rested in the bottle.
He hid the bottom of his bottle in his fist and queued up at the examiner’s desk. Several of those lined up had a goodly number of beans in their bottles, although he noted two with no beans at all. Presently he handed his bottle to the examiner. “Dodson, Matthew, sir. One bean.”
The examiner noted it without comment. Matt blurted out, “Excuse me, sir—but what’s to keep a person from cheating by peeking?”
The examiner smiled. “Nothing at all. Go on to your next test.”
Matt left, grumbling. It did not occur to him that he might not know what was being tested.]
Matt gets to space, learns a lot, and is eventually assigned to his first few missions. They make for exciting, involving stories. Heinlein was a master storyteller in the tradition of Kipling; eventually his fame overcame his good sense and he started writing some pretty perverted stuff, but by then the juveniles were long over. At this point he was just writing really good, immersive science fiction for young adults.
The book is still in print (I hope), and also available as an audiobook and ebook from the usual suspects. It's not rare to find copies in used book shops. And of course it's available to borrow freely from the Internet Archive!
https://archive.org/details/spacecadet0000hein
Happy reading! 🤓📖
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