Home > Robert Anson Heinlein

They do not build them like that any more. - Actually one of the more technical correct representation. The gantry goes all the way to the bow. The astronauts did not have to float through the smokey combustion chamber to reach their quarters.

The hero in some sort of bubonic plague outfit. Strange flora and fauna abound. The only thing truly terrestrial is the skullduggery of the introduced lowlife. A money grabbing drill sergeant turned headmaster fits the bill. The Enid Blyton team will take it all in stride. The young rebels take refuge in the Sierra Madre of the Martian outback (it is not playing hookey when the welfare of the colonists is at stake). - Semi-retraction: one can nearly identify the tropical flora. The one with the variegated, lanceolate leaf, sagittate base, should be Alocasia lowii. Less showy, lower left-hand corner, a leaf cluster of African violets.

Most Scribner covers were done by Clifford Geary but the style of this one (the nearly Japanese precision shown in the outlines) is somewhat different. That might conceivably be due to the unconventional mummery. I did half suspect that it was done by Thomas W Voter but ISFDB and Wikipedia both credit Clifford Geary.

Harvest moon on terraformed Ganymede. The stars in the sky seem to indicate that the sun has already set. (Did somebody miss the ringing of the Angelus Bell.) - The restrictions of a mono chromatic dust jacket (it is hard to count black as a color) are skillfully overcome. Making a virtue out of necessity. Minor flaw: Jupiter does not sport any convection banding. A penny-farthing in the foreground would do justice to the difference in spotlight size.

Warning to prospective pilgrims: Quarantine regulations are strictly enforced. All 6000 colonists on board the fast spaceship Mayflower will be scrubbed down. Autoclaving once removed. Diplomatically: it is the thought that counts. Less facetiously: it is never revealed how a Ganymedian house built form natural stone can be made quakeproof. No timbers, no bolted joists.

Mini-plot: Bill proves to everyone, himself included, that he is no quitter. A fair amount of air time is set aside for father-sun relations.

Out on a 'roof' watching the world wheel by. It does not take the astrogators very long to discover these kind of flat roofs are eminently suitable for bicycle repair work. What the picture does not show: the hundreds of nuts and bolts, not to mention sundry paint pots, which will orbit the 'flying classroom'. (Kästner reference, just a book title that came to mind.) The cabrioles never get out of hand. An on board 'Rickover' sees to that (motto, you have to understand non-Euclidean tensor calculus in order to fly that thing). The given examples of space know how (hands on experience section) are more on Kästner level. Incidentally, you can probably equilibrate a wobbly bicycle wheel in outer space but there should be side effects (a fly-wheel is a fly-wheel, however flimsy).

A holiday snapshot. A resort town will be close by. The 'water tower' is a sure indicator. - The cover should depict two teenagers (same height) and their exobiotic pet. The actual story is about rising through the ranks. From mulligan stew to dining at the captain's table in 10 easy steps. The action is fast-paced and captivating. The story is in some respect a Mark One version of Double Stars. Walking the straight and narrow in a rather curved segment of space.(An unlikely chain of events makes Jones the only available number cruncher on board. The details are somewhat sketchy but natural logarithms in binary form have to be fed into the navigation system. In PC terms, carrying owls to Athens. It would amount to a Lotus Formula One joystick challenge in quick reflexes without the number crunching. There is no room for error if you have to prepare for a hyperspace jump.)

The short story 'Misfit' (1939) reads like a draft version of Starman Jones. Seabee Libby (actually Corpsman Libby of the Cosmic Construction Corps) shames his betters and nudges an asteroid single-handedly into the target orbit after a gyros breakdown. Enviously, piece of cake if you can reel off the correct natural logarithm to the x'th decimal place of any given number. The used error correction algorithms for the controlled explosions are not revealed (steering by the pants of your mental distributor, so and so much gunpowder for the starboard tube every 5 minutes?). (Ion thrusters would probably be used today for the indicated task. Fine tuning permitted. Less nail biting that way.)

Off-hand: a team of airborne window cleaners trying their hands at lion feeding. Not that a book should be judged by its cover. The variable angular momentum devices, technical term 'harness flyers', are vouchsafed by the script. Cops use them too. Slapstick part, somewhat enhanced: Ominous knock at the roof. Who can it be. Let us wait for the grand chimney entry. Obliquely: to be worth one's weight in soot. The problem of how to define intelligence is also treated in the short story 'Jerry was a man'. 'Jerry was a man'. Selfsame courtroom showdown. Slightly different denouement. Deviousness triumphant.

Nitpicking: Johnnie cannot sell Hroshia (the star beast) to Perkins because he has already sold her to Bettie (co-ownership concept for the very least). - How is is possible that the highly intelligent Hroshia is unable to grasp the concept of a glass window after living for over 200 years on earth. Lacking language skills have nothing to do with it.

Without double-checking: Heinlein's 'young adult' books were initially published in the UK by Gollancz. Roughly contemporaneous with the publications of Scribner's. I marshaled everything I could find into one set (fold out). Consulted (mother load) > Pool Heinleinia / Flicker. 'Space Family Stone' is a variant title of 'The Rolling Stones'. The Red Planet picture is less artistic but more Lowell correct than Scribner's.

The somewhat different piggyback ride. Two young adults on the lam are rescured by three legged geese. St Christopher outdone. Off the cuff: De Chirico inspired treatment. Add a rabbit head with quivering nostrils if you are good at casting hand shadows. - One of the few cases where a secondary cover artist did come up with an independent composition. (Most of Borchert's other covers are less audacious. Geodesic space stations like the mislaid abacuses of doddering accountants.)

Isfdb lists Bernhard Borchert as artist. (Somewhat puzzling: another fantasy painter and book illustrator by that name died in 1945.)

(Most fighter pilots will dismount before any kind of engagement.)

> Link: Astro's Museum (a Starwar's Hall of Fame with a Heinlein annex) Yagi wisdom: the net is a prime example of Gersham's Law in reverse. There is always a better picture somewhere.

Darrell K Sweet did many of the covers for the DEL REY paperback editions of Heinlein's 'young adult' books. The 'Starman Jones' and 'Farmer in the Sky' covers are however by Rick Sternbach and Lee Rosenblatt. There is also no 'Starship Troopers' cover from DKS. (Different publishing history due to rating issues.) Other artist which did Heinlein covers for DEL REY include Barclay Shaw.

The DKS covers did come with opaque and transparent title layout. Both version can be clicked for Space Cadet (thumbnail click and text click respectively). Personal verdict: the transparent outlay looks more attractive. I cannot give any reason for the rather crude paper & scissor masking.

The autochthonous population supports the freedom struggle of the students. (The trifurcate body plan is standard. The third leg should make cardwheeling a rather spectacular affair.) Deja vu: the fluffy stowaway will act as character witness during tribal adoptation procedings. (Text click for variant cover.)

The casual Ganymede look. Some enigmatic aspects. The nature of the farm tool escapes. I can make out a handlebar. (Just conceivably the handheld version of an ultrasonic stone crusher.)

Do I detect an overspill from Recluse. (Selfsame period costume.)

The novel features a steganographic sub-plot. The formula for a secret weapon (a combined shield and death ray based on a new kind of particle physics) is absconded in a cheap notion counter ring. One niggling question: the ring passes inspection when the secret services of a repressive earth strip-search the suspect. Purloined letters are always overlooked. Slight correction, there is a mail service related twist and a second strip search. Main point: the clueless courier (the less he knows the better) is given his exit visa. Somewhat hard to explain (it isn't) why a non-affiliated grifter (mainstay, black market currency exchanges) of the break away Republic of Venus tries everything to obtain the ring. He could freelance for Earth but nothing is mentioned. It is gut feeling versus gut feeling. The true value of the ring is only revealed in the last chapter.

The family who tinkers together stays together. Junkyard spaceships are on the menu. The flying fuzz balls are an indigenous Martian life form (half cat, half Rose of Jericho). As long as it curls up. Some didactic tie in: on grains of rice and cats and chess boards. - David Gerrold ('The Trouble with Tribbles', of Star-Trek fame) acknowledges some indebtedness to Heinlein.

Cyber tech motive. Various perspective errors (non rotated sleeve chevrons, unhinged shoulders, cardboard groin, unbalanced attaché case). Add bland expressions and sausage fingers. The cover was soon discontinued. Books at $ 2.25 and above did sport a Sternbach composition. Maliciously: back to art work for shooting galleries.

The head looks like a double exposure error. I suspect few photo studios will carry neck supports in star beast size. (Text click for the Omnibus Edition.)

A technical glitch turns a survival exercise (the ultimum Fort Boyard merit badge) into a constitutional field experiment. The results are somewhat mixed. Not all charters work as intended. WYSIWYG. Some parts resemble William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies'. The socio-economic experiment ends as abruptedly as it has started. Reassessment of the situation in the night of the howler monkeys. The adults return and the costume party is canceled (and that just when everyone starts to get the hang of it). The look over the fence softens the blow somewhat: the hero will one day become a trek boss in his own right.

With quarterstaff and Delorean landing craft. Exotic wild life abounds (worlds teaming with downdraggers and cave bears). Actual plot: Return to Ithaca. Einstein's Twin Paradox serves as front (as if any other operational definition of time - ether, treacle, shoe boxes - would not have created its own twin paradoxes). The mutiny issue becomes mute when an advanced earth repatriates a decimated explorer team through an improvised psi window (it is either psi-windows or wormholes). Just one of those deus ex machina solutions. The demobilisation is anti-climatic. Fringe benefit: multi-generational dating.

The plot is patterned on Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Some question marks. The underprivileged hero (raised in underground catacombs, no less) still enjoys all the benefits of a well-rounded education. His personal tutor is an inspired, world class counter intelligence expert. Groomed for the usual finishing school (educated guess, West Point something). The begging episodes could be described as slumming (easy field work credit for undercover work). Suffering for the shake of art. And even without that, mendicant orders did also indulge occasionally in the said activity.

(Text click for the cover without title overlay.)

Save the possum (actually a first contact cover). The balance is tilted towards friendly extraterrestrials ever since Flinx started the Commonwealth. (Text clique for Omnibus edition.)

The recipe for attracting an alien spacecraft is surprisingly simple: You don a surplus space suit, stand in a cow pasture and monitor all available radio frequencies. (When did deer antlers and druid circles go out of fashion.) - The novel (word count 74455) dates from 1958 but this cover looks more recent.

That is not what I meant when I said "Go fly a kite!" (By memory: The space frolicking is Chuck Yaeger supervised. We all learn better with somebody looking over our shoulders.)

Three seconds after blast off. The particular camera angle would have required second rocket.

I am not well informed on brain washing but you cannot go through life without a certain B-movie exposure (Rosemary's Baby?). More textbook correct, North Korean POW camps. Somewhat flippantly: and what if those North Korean narodniki simply used the occasion as a welcome opportunity for a scotfree Berlitz course. Rule of thumb: the length of the interrogation will be directly proportional to the prestige rating of the language at hand. Asserting yourself, now that is a different matter.

Comic relieve: everyday withcraft with which I am more familiar: why will any computer program automatically try to file everything in third party created folders (usually on the C: disk) and never where you want it, i.e., in the open folder at hand. Is it truly so difficult to stay focused.

The sixth moon in the URANIA title is a Titan reference. Know their hives. Titan is today so well known that the old designation Saturn VI (or still earlier Saturn IV) makes no longer much sense. There is Copacabana, there is Kauai and there are the gracefully curved methane shorelines of Ontario Lacus (and Mike was not there).

The cover by Curt Caesar could qualify as loan rendition.

A B-movie theme: mind control by prolific, extraterrestrial slugs. Cold War backdrop. Hal Clement's version (Needle) is probably the more original treatment of the subject matter. Asimov did also delve into the subject matter.

The cover shows the final assault on the prophet's stronghold. The armored personal carrier dwarves everything. The 'conning tower' anchors the very cirrus clouds. Always as good omen (it becomes a mere gun turret if you scale it down far enough - from Sphinx to kitten). It is unclear if the carrier has stopped (open hatch) or if it is still moving (billowing dust). The white brassards are not strictly necessary. The attacking 'Cabbalists' are in uniform. Some reservations: Prophet or not, the first guy who uses a cudgel to earn unearned income is always a genius. The fool's lounge follows. Why should it be any different in the revealed history market. The ius primae noctis outrage is rather dated. The novel is a Sixth Column doublet. Religious fervor is checked by religious fervor.

As a first impression: The ascend to the mountain ashram (mother-child group).

A routine investigation uncovers far more than anyone expects. A husband and wife team of private investigators are drawn into a Dantesque inferno. Their persistency is in the end rewarded. They are allowed a glimpse of the underlying fabric of reality. Just as outline: a botched creation, even as a rusty ship (a floating coffin once removed), is in constant need of repair. Art critics of opposing schools and varying degree of self awareness are at large to remedy this. The used technique is likened to retouching. Evil (personified as the sons of the birds) can use artistic defects as portals. The world during major retouching session defies reason and can only be perceived as apocalyptic fog. (Car windows have to be kept closed during these suspensions of real-time. A reboot is only permitted after the all clear.) - The zopilote is a symbol for the irrational in Max Frisch' 'Homo Faber' novel (1957).

(Text click for a Russian cover (collected works). Shaman power is evoked. An actual title would clinch it (Expected: Неприятная профессия Джонатана Хога)

Jack (Gordon) and company have shinnied up a bean stalk (sort of) and now have to deal with Igli. (Hint, paint your own face on one of the giant's limbs.) Most covers (BEAN, NEL) show a shafted (or at least pincushioned) dragon (the text specifies however a two pronged attack, hero, front end, squire, back end).

Artillery duel at bayonet range. The hairdoes are impeccable.

How to corner the world market in lazy tongs. The evidence for inventiveness born out of need is actually not all that strong. Few dialysis machines are designed by actual outpatients. The Waldo plot, its logic stays, is flawed in another respect. There is no need for building up muscle mass if you can tap directly into a ley line enriched super space to augment your strength.

Magic Inc. The novel castigates dumping practices and demonstrates the need for anti trust laws. Brick and mortar (middleman) viewpoint. The events in the magic kingdom (battle of the archangels) shadow the terrestrial goings-on (lobbying).

I always wondered how a Miro or a Mordillo lander would look. Guardedly, there is no shortage of Vernier thrusters. Whatever you can recruit from a dart board. Variant title, adventures of a spacefaring samovar. (By artistic affiliation: what do I need space stations when I can tilt a cupboard full of china.)