Sunday, August 7, 2011

Sunday eBook Review: The Rolling Stones



Robert Heinlein, The Rolling Stones

Product Details from Baen's Books
Published 3/1/2009
SKU: 1416591494
Ebook Price: $6.00

1. Short review: 

2. Long review:
2.1. What I liked: The Rolling Stones is a classic science fiction juvenile; that is, a book that in today's lingo is called a YA.
Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park? Roller coaster.
This book gives great value for your money.

2.2. What I did not like: A couple of typos. That is literal: two typos.

2.3. Who I think is the audience: Young science fiction fans.

2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read? Yes.

2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book? Yes.

2.6. Other: Robert and Virginia Heinlein had no children, and that fact shows in this book.  The Stones have four children: the twins, Castor and Pollux; one daughter, Meade; and a four-year-old, called Buster or Lowell, depending on who is doing the calling. 
Castor and Pollux are bright.  Too bright.  These kids work out orbital mechanics that I would labor over, and one of my degrees is in mathematics, and I used to do math professionally for the Air Force.  These kids don't misbehave.  They define precocious.
Meade does little besides cook badly.
Buster beats his grandmother at chess and otherwise is nothing more than added mass to boost to Mars and the asteroids.  Well, he does a little more, but his character hasn't a tenth of the depth of the grandmother.  Come to think of it, neither does the mother, Dr Stone, have much depth.
The book was written for teenage boys; a condensed version was published in installments in Boys' Life magazine, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America.  Thus, it was slanted to Castor and Pollux to give its intended audience major characters to identify with.

2.7. Links:
Baen's Books, The Rolling Stones

2.8. Buy the book: Baen's Books, The Rolling Stones

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