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[QUOTE]dustydigger - 2015-02-05  6:05 AM

One of Heinlein's fun ''juveniles''. Don Harvey,warned by his parents on Mars to leave his schooling on Earth before there is war between Earth and its Martian and Venusian colonies,is asked to collect a package from a professor friend before leaving Earth,which leads to his arrest and the mysterious death of the professer. There is a seemingly valueless plastic ring which is returned to him by the ominous security officers,and he takes it off on his travels to Mars,via space station and Venus/. On the spaceflight he aids a stricken Venusian ''dragon'' andwitnesses the destruction of the military space station by the rebels. Landing on Mars he is overtaken by the war,and is surprised that Earth is searching for him and his ring,which eventually proves to holdvital breakthrough technology about weapons and speeding up spaceflight.
Don sees a friend murdered by the Earth troops,and escapes from a prison camp,wading through vile stagnt swamps full of mud lice. He falls in with rebels and becomes a guerilla taking part in dangerous raids. Eventually he meets up with the brilliant Dragon,again and passes on the ring,which gives the edge to the rebels.Oh,and there is a light little romance too,though the not very sharp Don barely recognises it!
I really enjoyed this book full of action and adventure,but with nuggets intriguing enough to keep the interest of adults. I was glad that it was written at a time when all the data we had on  Venus was by telescope etc,and authors could still have fun inventing strange environments and could still have venusian ''dragons''!
This was,as is common with Heinlein juveniles,a coming of age story-,but with some more serious shadows. The ebullient practical but rather obtuse young man we meet at first comes through hard times,and that has impact on him,though Heinlein touches only lightly on it for his young readers eager for adventure. On Venus he sees a friend shot dead,and in a prison camp though he escapes when an outage makes the electric fence be useless he gets over in time but sees  a fellow prisoner fried as the fence comes on again. When he meets up with rebels their leader is frank about their aims,to make the lives of the small earth force unbearable and expensive inn terms of men and equipment. ''We will sneak in at night and cut their throats,and sneak out again for breakfast'' and we can assume when Don joins them he is involved with this,though its not very explicit - ''He learned the ways of the guerilla - to infiltrate without sound,to strike silently and fade back into the dark....those that learned survived,those that did not,died....He aquired deep lines around his mouth.lines beyond his years,and a white puckered scar on his left forearm.''
On a later occasion,when reunited with allies someone tries to bully him into giving up the ring calling him a young boy,and suddenly,seemingly out of nowhere a knife is pressed against the mans stomach.,and he insists on being regarded as an adult. At one point he thinks about his parents,but admits to himself that somehow he can not conjure up any emotions. None of this sort of thing is standard in juvenile fiction,and as |I said,it makes for enjoyable reading for adults[/QUOTE]

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dustydigger

Posted 2015-02-05 6:05 AM (#9523 - in reply to #9162)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge

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I finished my 1951 read, Heinlein's Between Two Planets,good fun.Rockets with fins? Check. Sliderules? CheckI dont mind outdated science,I just assume I am reading a book set in an alternate world,where this stuff is perfectly acceptable. Here's my report
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One of Heinlein's fun ''juveniles''. Don Harvey,warned by his parents on Mars to leave his schooling on Earth before there is war between Earth and its Martian and Venusian colonies,is asked to collect a package from a professor friend before leaving Earth,which leads to his arrest and the mysterious death of the professer. There is a seemingly valueless plastic ring which is returned to him by the ominous security officers,and he takes it off on his travels to Mars,via space station and Venus/. On the spaceflight he aids a stricken Venusian ''dragon'' andwitnesses the destruction of the military space station by the rebels. Landing on Mars he is overtaken by the war,and is surprised that Earth is searching for him and his ring,which eventually proves to holdvital breakthrough technology about weapons and speeding up spaceflight.
Don sees a friend murdered by the Earth troops,and escapes from a prison camp,wading through vile stagnt swamps full of mud lice. He falls in with rebels and becomes a guerilla taking part in dangerous raids. Eventually he meets up with the brilliant Dragon,again and passes on the ring,which gives the edge to the rebels.Oh,and there is a light little romance too,though the not very sharp Don barely recognises it!
I really enjoyed this book full of action and adventure,but with nuggets intriguing enough to keep the interest of adults. I was glad that it was written at a time when all the data we had on Venus was by telescope etc,and authors could still have fun inventing strange environments and could still have venusian ''dragons''!
This was,as is common with Heinlein juveniles,a coming of age story-,but with some more serious shadows. The ebullient practical but rather obtuse young man we meet at first comes through hard times,and that has impact on him,though Heinlein touches only lightly on it for his young readers eager for adventure. On Venus he sees a friend shot dead,and in a prison camp though he escapes when an outage makes the electric fence be useless he gets over in time but sees a fellow prisoner fried as the fence comes on again. When he meets up with rebels their leader is frank about their aims,to make the lives of the small earth force unbearable and expensive inn terms of men and equipment. ''We will sneak in at night and cut their throats,and sneak out again for breakfast'' and we can assume when Don joins them he is involved with this,though its not very explicit - ''He learned the ways of the guerilla - to infiltrate without sound,to strike silently and fade back into the dark....those that learned survived,those that did not,died....He aquired deep lines around his mouth.lines beyond his years,and a white puckered scar on his left forearm.''
On a later occasion,when reunited with allies someone tries to bully him into giving up the ring calling him a young boy,and suddenly,seemingly out of nowhere a knife is pressed against the mans stomach.,and he insists on being regarded as an adult. At one point he thinks about his parents,but admits to himself that somehow he can not conjure up any emotions. None of this sort of thing is standard in juvenile fiction,and as |I said,it makes for enjoyable reading for adults

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