Between Planets by Robert A Heinlein - Book Review

Published in 1951, Between Planets is a basic science fiction adventure, but because Robert Heinlein writes it; it is not basic. In Heinlein's day Venus was still pretty much a mystery and so he was able to cast it as a jungle/swamp planet inhabited by various creatures and aliens. Even though it is juvenile science fiction, the publishing went off without a hitch and it became a reasonable success.

The basic plot revolves around the main character Don Harvey as he is unwittingly drawn into an interplanetary war between the Federation of Earth and Venus. Harvey was born between planets and so has dual citizenship both on Earth and Venus. The story is a great boy to man story where the backdrop is both space and an alien world. With the help of friends, including a dragon from Venus named 'Sir Isaac Newton', he discovers how important a simple plastic ring can be as he tried to deliver it to his parents on Mars and gets sidetracked to Venus.

The book explores the politics of interplanetary relationships and how the idea of 'home planet' can change depending on where you were born. It is also another book about human-alien relationships and the possibility of a major breakthrough in technology and how it would affect the world. It is also a great view of how some thing might change and some things would stay the same despite technological advance and interplanetary colonization.

This book has many Heinlein themes. The idea of freedom and rights being sacred and the faults of colonialism are present. The human race is not alone and does not have the inherent right to dominate everyone else in the universe is also there. Not many of Heinlein's moral issues come out as this is a juvenile book, but the hint at how space travel would change family and relationships is there.

Rating: Four stars. Solid Robert Heinlein but the story seems like Space Cadet redone a little. Even so the story telling is great and the science a little more solid this time.