Starman Jones

Was as advertised and on time, Very satisfied. Would order again from this company in the future.Haven't read this book since I was a kid, was the last one I need for my collection of Heinlein books for my grandson.

Heinlein's material is seriously dated, but nonetheless, his books are just fun to read. I could analyze this, that, or the other, but I prefer just to enjoy the story. And he's one heck of a story teller with quite an imagination. Not everyone groks this concept.

I grew up on Heinlein's juvies. Like a good many in this cohort, I know Wheeler, Martin, Rivera and Dahlquist and I can hum the Ballad of Rodger Young.
Starman Jones is different. Jones comes from an aggressively dysfunctional family background unlike almost any other in RAH's books for the juvenile taste. It's unpleasant and I can't see the necessity for dwelling on it as backstory to what follows.
Getting into space is extraordinarily complicated. RAH has frequently had his characters go around fixed procedures. But Jones is helped through a maze of certifications and time-in-space requirements, at some length. Again, except for the enjoyment of the puzzle, it didn't seem necessary.
The circumstances which bring Jones to ultimate command seemed forced.
The last item which bothered me is that divergence from a common trope of juvenile adventure novels. Usually the protagonist starts out by him or her self. Eventually, a partner shows up, entering from some other circumstance. They combine, work competently through the rest of the problems in the book and by the end, they are obviously an item or the implication is that they will shortly be an item.
Instead, the female who works with Jones toward the end of the book refers to her more or less useless boyfriend back home. He no more could manage what Jones is accomplishing than he could fly. So we think the couple are on their way. Not so. We hear a letter from her about how she's happy with Mr. Loser.
Was this meant to illustrate the loneliness of command? Was she not happy anticipating the distance from her that command requires? Was Jones too much man for her?
All in all, a different book and not particularly interesting.

Starman Jones is one of the best of Robert Heinlein's juvenile science fiction stories. It was originally published in the 1950s and contains quite a lot of classic Heinlein elements, including his political attitudes. It's a riveting adventure story with likeable characters, and even though much of its technological details now seem extremely quaint, it's still a good read.

Young Max Jones is stuck on a farm with his mother and step father, miles away from anywhere he wants to be. He's smart and ambitious, and he hopes someday to follow in the footsteps of his deceased father and become an astrogater, helping star ships sail across the galaxy. When conditions at home become intolerable for him, he sets out on his own. His adventures lead him into interstellar space on a giant passenger liner. In classic Heinlein style, something goes terribly wrong on board the ship and Max and his fellow travelers find themselves marooned in a strange new world in what could be an entirely different galaxy or even universe.

Starman Jones is a good, intelligent, read which will tweak the fancies of young people fascinated by science and the prospect of the unknown.

Despite their age, Heinlein's "juvenile" science fiction will appeal to contemporary readers of all ages. Yes, the technology is dated, but when the writing is this good, suspension of disbelief is easy, and you can read the story as a kind of alternate history.

Characterization is strong, and Heinlein's plotting, although somewhat simplistic, creates a driving and engrossing narrative. The story is also imbued with what some might see as old-fashioned values, but these suit the genre. When we see young people making something of themselves without resorting to violence or magical powers, the novel retains gritty verisimilitude; these are characters you can identify with. Other values that Heinlein foregrounds are contemporary, such as the novel's emphasis on meritocracy over inherited wealth and power, and the inclusion of a strong female character.

Marvelous story; I am amazed that this and other Heinlein juveniles have not been remade on the big screen. I'll take Max over Katniss any day.

Max Jones would prefer to emulate his late uncle the astrogator who flew to Beta Hydrae rather than his deceased father the Ozark farmer. Still he feels obligated to work the land to keep a roof over the head of his widow Maw; but any chance he has he reads and memorizes his uncle's astrogate texts. When Maw marries lazy Hillman Biff Montgomery, Max leaves the farm hoping to earn his way onto a space vessel though his chances are zero as that requires money or influential contacts with the Astrogators' Guild; he has neither.

Max meets Sam who looks at the lad's astrogate books that he totes with him. Sam steals his books, but when they meet again near the Guild Hall, he helps both of them become crew on the Asgard starship. Due to his Uncle Chester, Max becomes an apprentice to the astrogator cell. The Astrogator head Dr. Hendrix suddenly dies; while another member of the cell Mr. Simes and the ship Captain Blaines blow the coordinates sending them into unknown space. Simes blames Max who had tried to intervene before the error.

This engaging reprint of a 1953 young adult science fiction thriller is an exciting outer space thriller. The crew passes the test of time as Simes for instance failed to correct the captain out of fear for his job. Max is a terrific protagonist who holds the story line together whether he goes to Chicago, flies in space, tries to save the crew with a reverse calculation or meets Eldith. Although the on board computer is ancient history with its size and limitations, sub-genre fans will be flying in space with Starman Jones.

Harriet Klausner

Wow, what a nice little sci fi story. I'm just so glad that Heinlein lived in this world and wrote so many enjoyable books. Starman Jones falls into his juvenile period, where he writes for youngsters. This doesn't mean that you wont enjoy them as an adult.

Heinlein played with this story scenario in a few of his books. I'm thinking of Citizen of the Galaxy and there are probably a couple of others. Here, he has a kid, Max, who is leading a hard life. He dreams of going to the stars. What transpires follows a path of rags to riches. Thats it. Simple. But elegantly enchanting at the same time.

This book was published 60 years ago. Two sociological points really stood out for me. One is that women in society and the rolls they play are VASTLY different today than they were in 1950. I like to think of Heinlein as a progressive fellow, but his idea of what it meant to be a woman was so backward, it was kind of shocking. Secondly, its sort of amazing how far computers have come. The whole plot of Starman Jones revolves around a kid who could do complex mathematical problems in his head. Something that any computer could do millions of times faster.

I guess I have a third sociological point to make. That is Heinlein was very liberal. I make that assumption based upon his work. He portrays a future society that has seemingly almost choked to death on unions and workers rights. Its a bleak place. I don't think that Heinlein intended to call out socialism or the New Deal in a negative light, but here it reads as pretty gloomy.

If you think about it, Heinlein's future could sort of be summed up as the New Deal carried forward 200 years. Contrast him to an author like Gibson who's Neuromancer captures a world overwhelmed by freetrade capitalism. Maybe unintentionally, both authors have created a glimpse of "what-if's" that works primarily as a warning in regards to completely following one political movement or another.

so... a simple story. A good story. A story you will probably have a good time reading even though it is dated. I can't imagine any author ever writing from such a viewpoint again. This is sort of like a time capsule gussied up in the form of a sci-fi novel. THIS IS NOT Heinleins best work. He has 10 that I would recommend before this. It just goes to show the strength of this authors writing. No sci-fi author has come close to matching Heinlein's prowess.

Starman Jones - Robert A. Heinlein [2014-05-03 - 524 - SF novel]

"Starman Jones" by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-88) is one of the young adult novels he wrote in the 1950's. In this coming of age story we trace the career of young Jones from his running away from home, gaining a birth on a space ship under false pretenses and his eventual elevation to Captain!

As you would expect reading this book today one find it's space travel concepts very dated, many plotting inspirations seem overly familiar but, Heinlein can still engage the readers interested by with his excellent narrative skills. This is the most "juvenile" of his earlier novels, but still readable in all but a few sections. Heinlein stretches adult readers creditability with some of his plot convolutions, but one could easily imagine that a young teen in the 50's would be enchanted with story.

A guilty pleasure for Heinlein fans!

I have been a fan of Robert A. Heinlein since I was 8 years old. This book is from what many consider his most creative period. The so-called juveniles he wrote for Charles Scribners Sons had an immediate and lasting impact. None of them has ever been out of print. This is despite their awful titles and their original target audience.

Maximilian Jones is from a poor family. The star of the family was his late Uncle Chester who was a member of the Astrogator's Guild. Max runs away from home with his Uncle's astrogation manuals with a vague notion of following in his Uncle's footsteps. Along the way he meets with and is robbed by another tramp, Sam.

In a interesting twist of events, this thief becomes the best friend a man ever had. Between the Max's brilliance and Sam's avarice and cunning,their mutual loyalty, and series of fortunate and unfortunate events, Max achieves his goal.

Obviously a novel written during the fifties has dated technology. The ships computer is two steps above Eniac. There are effectively no female crewmen. But none this detracts from a fine story. Along the way lessons are given, regarding leadership, friendship, responsibility and of all things rule of law.

Having read this as a child, I did not understand everything at the time that I read it. But as I grew older the lessons learned helped me in life.

The book is still an excellent read even if you're an adult. Personally I have gone so far as to track down an old library hardcover with the original illustrations.

When I was a young lad I read everything that Robert Heinlein wrote, and that was a lot. In the 1950s Heinlein was far and away the most prolific writer of what have come to be called "juvenile" SF books -- essentially science fiction novels aimed at youngsters. Many of these books have gone on to become minor classics from which many derivative novels have sprung. Certainly Heinlein's writing influenced many young people to imagine a human future in space and understand the importance of science, engineering, and mathematics. This novel is such a one. I recall after reading this novel contemplating my C+/B- grades in math and vowing to do better. A book that can inspire that has a lot going for it.

"Starman Jones" is the story of a youngster in a poor rural family with no future except to labor in grinding poverty and ignorance. But he rejects this prospect and vows to rise above his class to become an Astrogator -- the navigator of a starship. This story, which I found inspiring at the time, is about Starman Jones' climb against horrendous odds to become a starship captain.

As others have noted, the science in this novel is highly dated; this is true of most or all of Heinlein's works, most of which after all were written before the invention of the microprocessor. Characters use slide rules and computers are big, clumsy, and do not do all that much. No matter. This novel still retains its zip and deserves the reader's attention. Recommended. RJB.

Starman Jones (I1959) is the seventh SF novel in the Juvenile series, following Rolling Stones. In the previous novel, the Stone family bought a spaceship and went traveling across the Solar System.

In this novel, Maximilian Jones was born in the Ozarks and raised as a farmer. Still, he has two advantages that most people don't have: he has an eidetic memory and his Uncle Chet was an astrogator.

Sam Anderson is a man who lives by his wits. When Max met him, he was living as a hobo, but he had a checkered and sometimes valiant past.

Eldreth Coburn is a colonial girl with an influential father. She wanted to marry a local boy, so her father sent her to Earth.

In this story, Max is surprised one day when his stepmother comes back to the farm early and with a new husband. Biff Montgomery is a burly, but no-account, hillman. Max has never liked him and avoided him like chiggers. Max has been taking care of his Maw because his father -- just before he died -- asked him to do so, but Max figures that she is now the responsibility of her new husband.

Max leaves the farm with minimal supplies, his uncle's astrogation books, and one library book. He will mail the book back as soon as he can, because stealing a library book is a heinous sin. To avoid his new step-step-father, Max heads out cross-country following the Ring Road and through its tunnel.

After awakening, Max realizes that he has just barely avoided getting caught in the tunnel by an unscheduled train. The hypersonic vehicle would have killed him without leaving a mark on his body if it had arrived just a minute earlier. His hearing returned in an hour or so.

Later, Max is attracted to a campfire and meets Sam. After eating some of Sam's mulligan and telling his story, Max rolls up under an overhang and goes to sleep. It had been a long and eventful day. The next morning, he awakes to find Sam gone with his ID card and the astrogation books.

Max hitches a ride on a freighter and reaches Earthport the next day. He goes to the Astrogator's Guild and asks whether his uncle had named him as his successor before his last voyage. The Guild administrators pass him on to the Guild Secretary, who tells him that his uncle had not nominated anyone for membership.

The Secretary tells Max that he is the second man to approach the Guild, but the first willing to give them his fingerprints. Max immediately thinks of Sam. The Secretary does give him a small sum -- but enormous to Max -- of money for return of the books and sends him on his way.

Sam comes back into his life, gets him a fake membership in the Stewardship Guild, and a berth on the starship Asgard. His job on the ship is stableman, which fits his past experiences. Max knows how to get along with animals and to clean their stall and cages.

Among his charges is Mister Chips -- an extraterrestrial six-legged spider puppy -- whose owner is Eldreth. Ellie stays away for the first week -- she was sick when brought aboard -- but she is finally able to sneak down to see Chipsie and finds her with Max. After an initial confusion, Max, Ellie and an Chipsie become friends and play 3-D chess together (Chipsie moves the pieces).

This tale takes Max and his friends to the stars. Max enjoys working on the ship, but is constantly reminded that his paper are false. Sam is planning on jumping ship at Nova Terra and Max decides to go with him. But then a jump puts the ship into unknown space, with no way to return.

This story gives Max an opportunity to fully develop his skills as a astrogator and to take responsibility for people other than his stepmother. Most of the story is about his relationships with other people on the ship, but there are moments of violence and fear.

This book is similar to Time For the Stars and other spaceship stories by the author. But Max is a crewmember rather than a passenger, much like Between Planets. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Heinlein fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of interstellar travel, shipboard affairs, and interpersonal relationships. For those who have not previously read this series, the initial volume is The Rocketship Galileo.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I reread this book recently after nearly thirty years since my first reading, as a high school student. I was amazed at how much I remembered. It must have had quite an impact on my young mind because so much of it came back as I read. Unlike the story's protagonist, my memory for past reading is abysmal.

This story is wonderfully crafted. I had to check the publication date a couple of times, because I've read far less convincing descriptions of FTL travel in more recent novels. The drama and interplay of the crew and officers on the ship is excellent, particularly so for a young man learning his way in society.

In my opinion, the conversations between the protagonist and his female love interest are of a different character. These seem stilted, awkward, and less credible. Heinlein has been taken to task for this in other venues so I won't belabor it here. I have to wonder if my own early lack of success communicating with the opposite sex was influenced by his juveniles, but I suspect the problem is more widespread and genetically based.

Speculation...

Spoiler Warning: The following reveals some plot elements. Stop reading further if you haven't read this book, and plan to.

At the end of this novel, an intelligent species of centaur-like beings bent on the enslavement of humans has examples of our "advanced" technology, plus two complete sets of Astrogation Manuals. These manuals were hidden, but the planet has various species of creatures that excel at spying on humans.

I have to wonder if the Grand Master wasn't planning a follow-up novel in which an older Starman Jones (or descendant) is tasked with helping to defend our civilization from these aggressive creatures.

"Hello, Spider Robinson? Ready for the next round?"

Starman Jones is a 5-star selection for young readers of science fiction, but mature readers will also find plenty to cheer about in this upbeat novel. Heinlein recounts the rags-to-riches story of Maxwell Jones, born to a poor dirt farmer, but destined to pilot the glorious vessels that travel the stars. Leaving behind his callous stepfather and uncaring stepmother, Max hooks up with a world-wise drifter whose conniving gets them work aboard a spaceship. The series of events that follow make for a fascinating story as Max ponders his options: should he climb the ranks while hiding his secret past, or plan his escape to a new life on a new planet? Meanwhile, Heinlein introduces us to the ship's memorable company, and describes the ship's organization with captivating detail. While working as a steward's mate, Max befriends a wealthy passenger named Ellie, who is attracted by his honesty and naiveté. Ellie is a fairly typical Heinlein grrl: cute, friendly, but tougher than she looks, used to getting her own way, and disinclined to let others know just how smart she really is. Ellie uses her wealth and position to get Max a chance at a promotion, and his natural gifts take him the rest of the way. While Max's rise from farmer to steward's mate to chartsman, etc. may seem excessive, and certainly fraught with coincidences, Heinlein wants to show an example of how persistence, hard work, and a willingness to take risks can pay big dividends. Moreover, when Max breaks the rules, he winds up paying for it, and becomes a man in the process, just as Sam winds up paying dearly for his mistakes. Max and Sam play off each other wonderfully, and keep the reader interested in their story. There are some exciting adventures on an uncharted planet, and plenty of suspense involving the science of astrogation. The science in this novel hasn't aged very well--Heinlein puts astrogational computers on board, but still requires human beings to do most of the mathematics -- but his knowledge of ship's hierarchy and routine give this book a closeness to life that many such novels lack. Above all, Heinlein is telling a morality tale, and the very skill with which he recounts his story makes it convincing.

Max Jones is blessed with an eidetic memory and dreams of becoming an "astrogator" (Heinlein's neologism for "starship navigator"). Every evening he watches the ballistic train streak by his property, bound for Earthport, the launching facility for the big ships, and wishes that he could go there. But Max is committed to supporting his father's widow by working their Ozark farm, and the requirements for getting into the Astrogators' Guild are strict; most slots are inherited from previous guild members. One evening, Max's stepmother comes home with a new husband, a shiftless, drunken lout who announces that he has sold the farm and threatens to beat Max up when he protests. Max has no recourse but to gather up his reference books on astrogation (left to him by his deceased uncle Chet, an astrogator), and flee for Earthport. But when he presents himself at the Astrogators' Guild hall, he is told that his uncle Chet never nominated Max to the guild before he died, and the reference books are confiscated to "protect trade secrets." Max is in a pickle.
Written in 1953, Starman Jones is a solid work of craftsmanship, of interest both to adults and children. It outlines a crowded Earth in which satisfying, interesting work is truly scarce, locked into a strict system of guilds. Faced with that barrier, what is an ambitious, talented boy like Max to do? The book deals in large part with the ethical dilemmas created by this situation, and by Max's subsequent forgery of documents enabling him to land a position aboard the starship Asgard. In the mysterious, wily old starship crewman, Sam, Heinlein creates a memorable, complex character, much in keeping with the Swope Park hobo/hero Heinlein mentions several times in speeches and writing (A good account of this story can be found in Expanded Universe). All in all, Starman Jones is a fast-moving, yet weighty read.

I wish I could start off with something suitably self important sounding like "Heinlein is yet to be fully appreciated" or somesuch nonsense that tries to encapsulate someone's career in a few pitiful words. But, alas, Heinlein has mostly received his due over the years and as more and more people discover SF, they realize what the grand majority of us already knew: this Heinlein guy knew what he was doing. Even a novel like this, which Heinlein probably could have churned out in his sleep, stands head and shoulders over just about everything that went on in those days. Even today it remains a solidly entertaining read, with enough elements to keep adults interested while managing to capture the attention of the young adult set. Here we have Max in the "wide eyed naive boy" mode, starting from nothing with only his dream to go into space and become a astrogator. There's nothing utterly ground breaking about this novel but Heinlein keeps everything moving smoothly, mixing his mostly one note characters well, the dialogue breezes along and everyone gets some good lines in. He depicts ship life in a way that Star Trek would be hard pressed to copy fifteen years later and throws in enough other wacky stuff to keep the plot spinning nicely, even the left field stuff doesn't feel as jarring as it can sometimes get. The entire package as a whole is very satisifying and while this is Heinlein treading water a bit and working his formula, it was a formula that worked and if you've run out of truly essential Heinlein books to work through, you can't do worse than this. In fact I would take this any day over I Will Fear No Evil or Friday . . . and I mean that. Don't believe me? Read these and then read this and try to tell me otherwise. A fine example of the master in his prime.

I believe this is the first science fiction novel I ever read -- shortly after it came out, when I was in [...]. It certainly hooked me on adventure stories about space and aliens, and it increased my interest in future technology, . . . as it was understood at that time, with slide rules and printed logarithm tables, and with huge "computing machines" filled with wires and tubes. Max Jones, the hero of the story, is a self-confessed hillbilly who yearns to get into space. (The author seems to feel the animal-powered cultural isolation of the Ozarks in the mid-20th century would continue into a time of extra-solar colonization, in a rather hidebound society run by inherited guild membership.) He comes under the questionable influence of an ex-spaceman and, through forgery and chicanery, gets his wish as a low-ranking steward's mate on a commercial star liner. But Max also has considerable talents as a mathematician -- plus a very handy eidetic memory -- so he's shortly being pulled up the ranks into the ship's control room itself. And as the emergencies begin to stack up, Max, naturally, becomes a hero, even as he confesses to his earlier fraud. It's a better-than-average yarn, with good dialogue, a worthwhile moral, and engaging characters. Even with the lack of "modern" technology, it's still worth recommending to adolescent readers.

I'm not a total sci fi geek although I do consider myself a fan. And I've never been into this era of sci fi space stories (grew up with Star Wars and V). Therefore I've managed to avoid reading anything by Heinlein until recently.

I heard someone rave about this book, and when I read the first page I was hooked. I'm almost 40 and yet I found the teenaged main character totally likable, realistic and relatable. For that reason alone, I would highly recommend this book as a gift for a teenager going on a family vacation.

After the gripping turns in the first few chapters, I realized that this was a formulaic book, but formulaic in the sense that it was an concise distillation of character and suspense, raising beyond the confines of the formula.

Max - the hero - at first studies the astrogation guild books. By poring over them he internalizes the information and formulas. Later, he transcends known astrogation when he has to find and use an uncharted, invisible space hole in an unknown galaxy where fiendish alien creatures hunt humans. Similarly Heinlein gives the impression that he has studied the craft of somewhat pulpy scifi, and by internalizing and mastering the technique is able to elevate and advance the genre.

Obviously written by someone who knows story.

Starman Jones is a science fiction story suitable for both adults and young adults. We follow Max Jones in his adventures and misadventures on the Star Ship Asgard as he rises through the ranks by a combination of ability and luck to become an astrogator, but when the ship gets lost he gets captured by aliens.
After his rescue he finds that he is the only person left who has even a remote chance of getting the ship back on course.
The story was first published in 1953, so some of the science is dated. Heinlein's method of getting up to the speed of light is not compatible with physics either as it was understood at the time, or now; this applies to most of the methods used in science fiction stories.
The computers in the story are laughable compared with present ones, but the story would have to be greatly different with modern computers.

_This is one of the few books that I read as a boy that stuck with me all the rest of my life. While I never studied to be an "astrogator", this book did inspire me to study astronomy, navigation, physics, and calculus. It gave me a dream to build on. You see, the hero, Max, is a poor, rural kid from a highly dysfunctional and abusive family (actually, "white trash" is more accurate.) Being lower class, Max has no realistic chance of going to college or entering a profession ( a "guild".) Yet he not only escapes, he goes on to captain a starship. He succeeds entirely on his own against incredible odds. Instead of accepting a life of rural idiocy and poverty he literally remakes himself and his destiny from the ground up.

_Whenever I was up against it in my own life I inevitably remembered Max. How many modern books provide an example like this for "lower class" kids? My only regret is that there wasn't an Astrogator's Guild that I could have joined. If Max could cut it, so could I...

Many people still maintain - even today - that the legendary Robert A. Heinlein's best works remain his "juvies" - the books he wrote for teenagers during the 1950's. And they definitely do have a point. The books may have been written with that demographic in mind, but they can be enjoyed by anybody. They're universal. Although there is nothing ground-breaking in this novel - and it is even, for Heinlein, arguably formulatic - it is still a fun read. Heinlein's writing style is such that anything - and I mean ANYTHING - he writes is worth reading, and furthermore, will be entertaining. His dialogue is always top-notch - some of the cleverest writing since the heyday of Oscar Wilde - and it makes all of his books breezy and fun to read through. This is no exception. Although I would not say that this is one of his best juvies, it is still quite a good one. I think it IS a good book for a young science fiction fan to start out on, too, especially; it portrays a normal, everyday kid - indeed, a hillbilly - who fulfills his dream of going out into space. It has a good moral, and there's a heart - a solid foundation - to the book. Coupled with Heinlein's always engaging dialogue and sheer narrative drive, this book is a wonderful read for all ages.

I have the honor of owning a First Edition of this book from 1953. It is not in great shape as far as the cover, and the dust jacket has long since disappeared.

And, I just reread the story of Starman Jones. If you are younger than I am, you will read for the story as I have often done. But this time, I fell in love with poetry of Heinlein's words when he is at his "scientific" best for the time period. The rhythm of his writing, his word choice in describing a future of space travel so very far from the real world of 1953, is hypnotic and for a brief moment, you travel with Heinlein, not the characters of the novel.

I am not going to be a spoiler and tell new readers about the storyline, but if you are interested in the art of writing, This will be an enjoyable quick read.

Max Jones is a young farmer, working hard to support his unlovable stepmother after his father's death, but he dreams of the life his Uncle Chet lived, as a member of the Astrogators' Guild. Chet had promised him that he'd nominate him for membership, but died while Max was still too young to join, and then Max's father, before he died also, made him promise to take care of his stepmother.

But when his stepmother remarries and she and her new husband sell the farm out from under him, he runs away, taking his uncle's astrogation books with him. The books get stolen from him by a deceitfully helpful conman, and then he discovers that his uncle had died before nominating him for the guild, and all his dreams seem crushed forever. But then he meets that charming conman again, who decides that they can help each other get what they both really want—a berth on a starship. For Max, it's a berth as a steward's mate, and he's tending farm animals again, but he's on a starship, and he's a plucky, resourceful, just plain likable young Heinlein hero, who makes you buy into every improbable plot twist along the way to his dream.

Once again, great fun.

Update, May 2017: Rereading this decades after originally reading this is interesting. It's still a fun story, with the plucky, young Heinlein hero who makes you buy into all the improbable plot twists. It is, of course, very dated in a number of ways. The improbability of star travel depending on a set of printed books of numbers and equations has often been commented on. The social dynamics of Heinlein's world has been the subject of lots of commentary and discussion, most particularly the often quite rigid gender roles, especially in the "juveniles," i.e., Heinlein's young adult novels. It's worth noting that he often (but far from always) subverts those roles somewhat. For instance, in this book, Ellie rather testily points out to Max that women are dealing with the reality of the rules they live with. Another woman, an appallingly predatory creature, sheds that behavior when the ship hits a real crisis and there are more important things to do than play social games.

And yet Heinlein never really questions those basic social roles, even as later in his career his expectations of what jobs women can hold expands considerably.

No, what really struck me this time is Heinlein's unquestioning assumption that starships and hyperspeed trains will exist side by side with dirt farmers relying on mule traction, cooking over an open fire is a mundane necessity for poorer farmers, and the hobos who would have been regularly encountered during the days of Heinlein's early adulthood.

It's a world largely unchanged, not from the 1950s, but to a great extent from the 1930s.

However, another thing that caught my attention this time is the way characters, major or minor, may be described in terms revealing that they are ethnic or racial minorities, with the fact having zero plot significance. Dark skin or an epicanthic fold are treated merely as mundane items of physical description, part of the normal range of humanity, just like brown hair or green eyes. There's a loud, tiny segment of contemporary sf readership that claims to revere Heinlein and yet thinks this is controversial when today's writers do it.

It's still great fun to read--at least for someone who first read it in the early 1960s. No guarantees for Gen Y or millennials, who grew up in an entirely different world than I did! Because pretty much everything I just mentioned as anachronisms were still real things that people knew about when I was a kid, even though less common than when Heinlein was.

For my fellow Boomers, you'll wince at some of the datedness, but for my mileage, it hasn't had a serious visit from the Suck Fairy.

It is to be regretted that some of the other reviewers on the store.com gave away spoilers. It is also unfortunate that Heinlein has received a lot of press for some of the worst things he wrote for an adult audience, such as _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_. His genius was in his "juvenile novels" -- the stories he wrote for serialization in boy scout magazines, later published as books.
Max Jones dropped out of high school to support his lazy irresponsible stepmother by working on their farm, which has few amenities that would not have been commonplace in 1850. But he dreams of becoming an astrogator aboard a starship like his late Uncle Chet who instructed him in that profession. When his stepmother marries a man who is uneducated and cannot appreciate his ambition, Max leaves. The world being badly mismanaged, he must hitchhike to the city of Earthport to find out whether he has been appointed his uncle's professional heir.
What happens over the ensuing chapters I will not divulge. Heinlein was a graduate of the Naval Academy, where he learned some of the laws in force aboard ships. While Max is serving aboard a ship that has become lost and set down on an unknown planet, with no realistic hope of finding its way home, the First Officer explains to the passengers and crew certain legal rights and obligations that apply in such an emergency. A passenger objects: "There are no laws HERE." The First Officer corrects him, saying the law goes where the ship goes. That sets the context for a climax several chapters later, involving legal, moral, political, and psychological aspects of leadership in an emergency.
The book dramatizes the role of intelligent purposefulness in human life. A scene occupying about the first four pages of the second chapter is a beautiful example: Max is alone facing difficulties and using his head.
The book has various readily identifiable flaws, which it would be easy for me to list. Those don't matter at all.

Starman Jones isn't one that I'd recommend for the sci-fi primer; if you're new to the genre there are just too many good books to read, and a lot of them are other Heinlein novels. But for a person who's past that point and is just looking for more good books, this one's worth it.
I guess I'd call Starman Jones a "formula" Heinlein novel. Its main character is a boy who dreams of becoming an astrogator, who gets his chance the hard way. It's full of a lot of the same types of characters, including father/mentor types like the ship's captain, and has those same hard life lessons and idealism that exemplify his other books. Still like every book Heinlein wrote, there is a uniqueness to the story of this one that makes it worth reading.
Like other Heinleins, there are a few dated elements. In Starman Jones, his habit of consistently writing computers as big, clunky things incapable of more than simple calculations pops up in force because it becomes an important element of the story. Still that dating gives it some charm and adds a little sense of what-if to the tale. As a Heinlein fan I find it easy to forgive his few misses at foresight and squint past the rougher spots to read the story for what it is. But that's why I say this shouldn't be a first Heinlein for anyone; it's not a good introduction to his work and won't be as fully appreciated by someone who hasn't read and enjoyed his more classic books.
This book will satisfy younger readers (and older ones) well, but I'd still recommend "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", "Have Space Suit--Will Travel", "The Rolling Stones", and "Tunnel In The Sky" (all by Heinlein) before this one to anyone who hasn't read them yet. People who have read and appreciate those books will find this one more enjoyable for it.

This was not one of the readily-available Heinlein Ace paperbacks with the horrible covers. I have the late-60s Dell paperback, really neat John Berkey cover. As a result, although I have obtained Scribner hardbacks to replace the Ace paperbacks, I am keeping this pb. Good story, read umpteen times. The setting, starship cruise liner, gets recycled for the novel Friday.

The book is a really, really good example of a science fiction author setting a story a hundred years or more in the future, but not predicting correctly technology 15 years into the future. A major plot point is the protagonist's ability to memorize logarithm tables so that the starship crew can interpret the binary output of the navigation computer. Can't remember if the computer actually used vacuum tubes. It must have had kilobytes and kilobytes of drum memory, too.

Strangely enough, although the author relied on relativity as a plot point in "Time for the Stars" for a similar setting, he completely ignores it here.

If only my kid was interested in reading my (older!!) Heinleins...

I haven't read the book -- I listened to a recent audiobook version while on a drive across the country with my family. Strangely enough, my 15-year-old son, who is a science fiction and fantasy fan as long as there are explosions and fights, got bored and quit listening. But he, like me, is more of a visual learner than an auditory one. I can only listen to audiobooks if I am driving or doing something else that keeps me from reading.

But my 13-year-old daughter loved it. In part, it is undoubtedly because she is a girl, and like many girls more focused than boys on relationships. And like most of Heinlein's best, that is what this book is about: personal, social, professional and legal relationships. There's not a lot of action, which is not to say Heinlein doesn't capably build tension as the story unfolds. But most of the story is devoted to the exposition of how a space-faring passenger/cargo ship would operate in a guild-based economy flung across a mostly unexplored galaxy.

The "science" part of Heinlein's fiction is interesting. This must be one of the earlier conceptions of faster-than-light "space warp" travel, and Heinlein's explanation of how man could use the concept of folded space to travel great distances across the galaxy instantaneously makes far more sense than anything ever proposed in a Star Trek episode. (Although it must be admitted that Heinlein, for whatever reason, ignores the time-dilation effects of near-light-speed travel, even though his method involves the ship spending most of its time traveling near the speed of light.)

On the other hand, his speculations about the operation and capabilities of computers in the future are laughably off the mark. The transistor had already been invented, after all, and other writers of the time, including, if I recall correctly, Heinlein himself, were envisioning handheld calculators and even full-featured computers. Yet in Starman Jones, the navigation computers were large, clunky (steam-powered, perhaps?) calculators incapable of remembering the results of a calculation from one step to the next. And this failing plays a crucial part in the plot.

Yet, if a modern reader can overlook this minor flaw, Starman Jones is classic Heinlein and worth the reading.

I read this book when I was a youngster, and as remarked by other reviewers, it stuck with me. It is a well-told tale of a young man fighting to change his situation in life, even bucking the system. The "world" of the story is well developed.

But... a central point of his universe is the utter lack of computing machines. There is a huge "computer" used to navigate and possibly to use FTL travel at all. But it is programmed by hand in binary. Things to be input are tabulated on paper, then encoded by hand, and finally converted to binary (I think it was binary, might have been hex?) to input in that form. And the people doing this never learned, never got the hang of it, so Max was seen as a freak when he didn't have to look them up in the appendix of the handbook (no wall charts?). Now, I can do exactly that, and picked up codes through repetitive use, sometimes in the span of a day. Expressing a number as binary isn't even that hard to figure out, if you don't have it memorized.

That central flaw, though, is what made me think about it and remember it after many years. Having starships co-exist with sliderules is a central feature of much SF from this era.

This is just about my favourite of Heinlein's "juveniles". Like other SF authors of the era (particularly Andre Norton), Heinlein realised that the audience he was aiming at would, aside from being younger than the audience he reached through magazines like "Astounding", be just about as literate and as quick to accept and comprehend new ideas as the audience for his "adul" works.
So, like Norton (and Edward Eager, to mention another) his sole concessions to the "juvenile" nature of the market were the age of his protagonists and a tendency to slightly less complex language -- not writing down, just speaking a bit more plainly. He assumed that his audience would be familiar with things that, perhaps, the general audience would not -- the discussions of the implications for a "truck" of negative-lift streamlining and an anti-gravity field that varies by an inverse-cube law in this book are a classic example of that.
The story here, of a young man's passage into adulthood, is one that Heinlein has told many times in many guises, but i think that this may be the most poignant (except possibly for the relativity-separated twins of "Time for the Stars"), as Max Jones must be, essentially, orphaned twice along the way to that maturity.
Heinlein postulates a time when unions/guilds so totally control work qualifications that if you're not a guild member, you can't work. Max Jones, whose father has died, has nothing more to look forward to than a life on a back-country farm with his mother and her jerk of a new husband. That is -- he has nothing to look forward to unless he can persuade the Astrogators' Guild, of which his uncle was a member, to accept him as an apprentice.
Taking his uncle's working manuals, Max sets out to hitch-hike to Guild HQ and sign up.
Of course, that doesn't work -- along the way he meets Sam -- the only name he'll give -- who attempts to, in essence, steal Max's identity and get himself appointed a Guild Apprentice. But the Guild will accept neither.
So Sam -- convincing Max that he wants to get off Earth just as badly as Max does and that, with his connections and Max's money (a legacy from his uncle via the Guild), they can get faked papers and get into space. And they do -- as members of the Stewards' Guild.
To this point, a description of the book reads like a lot of other formula juvenile adventure books; but it's the details woven into the story that make the difference -- like the story Sam tells casually about this fellow he knew who wound up accidentally deserting the Imperial Marines... a story that sounds a lot like a first person narrative, though Sam denies it.
By a series of unforeseen events, Max is allowed to become an astrogator after all, becomes an officer, and eventually he is the *only* astrogator surviving after a seemingly-hospitable planet upon which the ship lands turns hostile...
But he and one of the passengers have been taken prisoner by the nasty centauroids who rule the world...
Max Jones is a brave young man who does all that is asked of him and answers the call whenever he is needed. His friend Sam is a probable deserter, a card cheat, a con man and a brawler.
It's Sam, the man who "...ate what was set before him" that you will remember forever after you read this book.

Young Jones is a farmer, who hates being a farmer and can think of nothing better than to head out into space. His uncle was an astrogator, and left his books to Jones when he died. After an upheval of his home life(which he wasn't really attached to anyway) he decides it's time to head out on his own, hopefully to become an astrogator.
Being young and nieve, he makes some bad calls in charachters of someone he meets on the way, and finds out the hard way that you can't trust everyone who seems nice. I'd write more, but don't want to give away the storyline. Being one of heinlein's early 'juvies' this book isn't as involved as his later and better known works, and at times I felt it was too predictable. But, Heinlein was a master of portraying people, thier dreams and desires and fears.
This is a fun young adult book about growing up.

This is one of the best pieces of sci-fi ever written.
The story is a moves right along, the characters are interesting and varied, and the action is as fast paced as you would want, without feeling like a Stel Pavlou book. Nothing against Stel, he just writes in an awful damn hurry. It bogged down a little for me on the unknown planet, the capture by the creatures seemed a bit much, but otherwise I dont know that I would change much if I Buettnered this tomorrow and rewrote it in my own homage style.

All in all though, this is just a fun story of space travel and the people on the journey, and a fine example of why Robert Heinlein is considered the grandmaster of the genre.

This is one of the few books that I read as a boy that stuck with me all the rest of my life. While I never studied to be an "astrogator", this book did inspire me to study astronomy, navigation, physics, and calculus. It gave me a dream to build on. You see, the hero, Max, is a poor, rural kid from a highly dysfunctional and abusive family (actually, white trash is more accurate.) Being lower class, Max has no realistic chance of going to college or entering a profession ( a "guild".) Yet Max not only escapes, he goes on to Captain a starship. He succeeds entirely on his own against incredible odds. Instead of accepting a life of rural idiocy and poverty he literally remakes himself and his destiny from the ground up.

Whenever I was up against it in my own life I inevitably remembered Max. How many modern books provide an example like this for lower class kids? My only regret is that there wasn't an Astrogator's Guild that I could have joined. If Max could cut it, so could I....

I will dispense with the plot summaries and get to my point. This book, and all his juvenile sf books, are Heinlein being Heinlein, under the restrictions of the time period and genre. His authority-bucking "11th Commandment" is embodied in Sam, a sort of mini Lazarus Long, cutting corners and cheating the system (with honor, in his own way) to do the right thing. The technology is inaccurate, but if read through the filter of the Future History, it's easy to imagine the what-if aspects of such technology not being anachronistic if some of our choices as a race went differently.

The characters are not fleshed out, outside of a few main ones, and there is a reason: this book is not long, and to get the whole story out, one dispenses with turning this into "The Stand"

I see nothing sexist about his portrayal of the female characters: Max sees girls as a boy his age sees girls, and Ellie is smarter, in Max's own admittance, than he is...and he gets his comeuppance for his misunderstanding. However, she also knows that in reality, its sometimes easier for a girl to act like she doesn't know as much as she does. Its not Heinlein's sexism, its Heinlein POINTING out sexism. Besides, she's not exactly a love interest, anyway, though people seem to really want her to be. Max is married to the sea, so to speak, and not nearly matured enough to think seriously about marriage.

Yes, there is a formula in anything, and Heinlein's juvenile fiction has a pretty basic formula, but its the imagination, realism, and respect for the reader's intelligence (even children) that has always made me love Heinlein.

It's just kind of too bad that not all his readers grew with him.

Heinlein's series of juveniles has never been matched by any other series writer for teenagers, with the possible exception of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which has much the same narrative drive and interest for both young people and adults. "Starman Jones" grabs the reader by the neck on the first page, and never lets you go. Although the science has become badly dated (NO science fiction writer predicted what computers would be like by the end of the twentieth century), the situations and surprises still ring true. Max Jones is a great Heinlein character, full of the grit and intelligence that so often marked his protagonists. Yet the character's humility and innocence also come through to the reader. I read this in high school, and loved it; I just reread it, and felt even stronger about this book. A great read.

It is unfortunate that Heinlein has received a lot of press for some of the worst things he wrote for an adult audience, such as _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_. His genius was in his "juvenile novels" -- the stories he wrote for serialization in boy scout magazines, later published as books.

Max Jones dropped out of high school to support his lazy irresponsible stepmother by working on their farm, which has only those amenities that would have been commonplace in 1850. But he dreams of becoming an astrogator aboard a starship like his late Uncle Chet, who instructed him in that profession. When his stepmother marries a man who is uneducated and cannot appreciate his ambition, Max leaves. The world being badly mismanaged, he must hitchhike to the city of Earthport to find out whether he has been appointed his uncle's professional heir.

I will not give away spoilers, but herewith I will tease you a little bit. Heinlein was a graduate of the Naval Academy, where he learned some of the laws in force aboard ships. While Max is serving aboard a ship that has become lost and set down on an unknown planet, with no realistic hope of finding its way home, the First Officer explains to the passengers and crew certain legal rights and obligations that apply in such an emergency. A passenger objects: "There are no laws HERE." The First Officer corrects him, saying the law goes where the ship goes. That sets the context for a climax several chapters later, involving legal, moral, political, and psychological aspects of leadership in an emergency.

The book dramatizes the role of intelligent purposefulness in human life. A scene occupying about the first four pages of the second chapter is a beautiful example: Max is alone facing difficulties and using his head.

The book has various readily identifiable flaws, which it would be easy for me to list. Those don't matter at all.

"Starman Jones" is a very good Heinlein 'Juvenile'. When I read it, I think I wanted to be Max.

There are a large number of future technology ideas in this book. I hope several of them come true.

Please remember that this novel was written when 'computers' were huge masses of vacuum tubes and barely could add two plus two and used IBM punch cards as their input device. This is why the "Starman Jones" ship computers seem so poor today.

Max is memorable. I really liked him. However, he does have a few talents that are unusual. I always did wonder what a novel about a thiry or forty year old Max might be like.

Read the book. It is an excellent 'juvenile'.

A fine old SF yarn, laced with intelligence, about a young farmboy trying to realize his dream of venturing into space as a trained "astrogator", a kind of space navigator. I liked the way the book shows young Max Jones making some bad decisions and mistakes in judgement early on, but thanks to good advice and honest self-examination, recovers from those mishaps and gets back on the right path. The result is a story that sends a nice message to its intended audience of young people that nobody's perfect and one can not only recover from mistakes but become a stronger person because of them.

Nicely juxtaposing elements such as high adventure and romance with tough decisions and the realities of life, this is a great little book, and I can see why it's still in print 50-plus years after its original publication. And I didn't even talk about the scene-stealing alien pet, the "spider-puppy" known as Mr. Chips! Wait'll you get a load of that little bugger.

I loved this novel as a boy, and I recently listened to the audio-book with my 16 year-old son. It's a sweet, old-fashioned story, and very dated, but I did find that I enjoyed this 40 years later. This is a feel-good story similar to a Disney family movie. This novel is dated in terms of technology, where an astrogator running a space ship must do lots of calculations quickly and accurately. The characters lack depth, but are likable. This story feels like it is written for a 10 year old, but it appealed to the 10 year-old in me. It's a fun story of a boy who is in a tough situation, and bends the law to fulfill his dream of space travel.

Heinlein told one of his greatest coming-of-age stories in this novel. The characters are perhaps more varied and interesting than in some of his other great juveniles and the things that they go through are fascinating.

It will be difficult for a juvenile reader to envisage a future with interstellar flight but without computers that could make astrogation trivial, and thus destroy much of the story. If the youngster, or adult, who reads this story can suspend his or her disbelief about this matter the reward will be one of the best juvenile novels of all time.

Starman Jones is one of Heinlein's best, along with Space Cadet, Tunnel in the Sky, Time For The Stars...well it's one of his top ten best. The enthralling account of an orphan escaping abusive step parents by stowing away on a starship kept me reading and thinking and dreaming which continued the second and third time through. It's a well-written coming of age story and precursor to Star Trek combined, and I've never seen it done better than by Heinlein. Recommended for young readers along with any other Heinlein novel written in the 1950s. Rocketship Galileo, Citizen of the Galaxy, Between Planets...

prompted to write review on kindle by two other reviews. kindle awkward so you know i care.

heinlein not sexist but pointing out sexism. bingo. for the most part.

his morals outdated. what. what. what are yours sir or madam.

love this for same reason i love most other heinlein. like to hang out with the characters and agree with the morality.

While browsing through a used book store in Charlottesville, Virginia, I stumbled onto this gem of a science fiction novel intended for teens, but just as applicable to and enjoyable for adults. I must admit that I was expecting this book to be much less than it turned out to be, based on the hilarious mock Logan's Run cover depicting Max, Eldreth, and comic relief mascot Mr. Chips posing next to a control console. That cover, and the truly unforgettable blurb mentioned in the title to this review, were what swayed me to hand over my hard earned $2.50.

This is only the second Heinlein novel I've ever read (I enjoyed another juvenile work, Glory Road, back in the 80's, but had only recently begun to be interested in looking into his work again). If his adult fiction is anything like the quality of Starman Jones, I will definitely be reading a lot more Heinlein in the years to come.

What's so great about Starman Jones, you might ask? For one thing, it is very straightforward, with an extremely simple plot that emphasizes character development over elaborate storytelling. It states its facts concisely with minimal exposition, and it ends when it needs to end (after a brisk 250 pages or so). Yet as one would expect from a novel written for juveniles, it takes its time to instruct readers in various hard science concepts such as astronomy, astrophysics, navigation, and even (surprisingly) husbandry and other fields. Even the more advanced concepts are dealt with in a masterly way that makes them appealing to both adults and (one would presume) juveniles.

The next quality that I greatly admire in this book is that it is very well grounded in reality. Max's life struggles are highly realistic and the choices he and others make are believable. The main characters and most of the minor ones are drawn from life, not stereotypes or sci-fi cliches. This aspect of the novel leads to some surprising developments down the line; in fact, at several points in the book I was pleasantly surprised to see characters making choices that I did not at all expect them to make.

The last two points that cause me to rate this work so highly are its prescience and its educational value. By prescience I mean that this novel, which was written in 1952, anticipates much of what was to follow in space travel and colonization narratives that were written later on. But what I came to realize toward the end of the book is that it also anticipates (in an abbreviated way) the socio-cultural science fiction of the 60's, especially Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes, published over a decade after Starman Jones. In fact, if one considers the ratio of space narrative / slave narrative in Planet of the Apes, one might say that Starman Jones contains the inverse, as it dwells for the first 7/8 or so on space matters, then briefly explores the idea of humans being held captive by a primitive anthropomorphic race (another unexpected twist in SJ).

Perhaps the most significant achievement of SJ is its educational value. It might have been enough that Heinlein was able to instill hard science into a format easily digestible to 50's (mostly male?) teens, but SJ expands its scope to include topics such as friendship, responsibility, ambition, ethics, politics, diplomacy, trust, patience, subtlety, handling stress, and soooo many other areas. It's just a shame that books like this aren't required reading in high schools today, although the way things are, I don't know if today's teen readers would "get it."

Check this book out. You won't be disappointed.

I thought it was a fun fast read. I missed it when I was a kid and every once in a while, I enjoy going back and checking out the classics. Considering it was published in 1953, I believe it has held up fairly well considering that over 60 years has passed. Maybe because I still know how to use a slide rule and understand a Logarithm Table, the outdated technology did not offend me.

Although this book was a huge inspiration for me, growing up during the 70's, I think that today it would be a difficult read for anybody. It's just too old to take digital technology into account and "suspension of disbelief" has just reached the point of being impossible. A crude computer working on "readouts," requiring paper books to navigate, in this day and age it's just not anywhere near believable. If you love Heinlein then it's a must-read in any case but the dated representation of technology kills it.

Every so often, I like to come back to this book and give it a quick read. I first read it when I was about 10-11 years old (back in the late 50's - I'm dating myself). Yes, there are a few things that today seem rather dated, but even now I am amazed how plausible Heinlein makes everything seem (especially in 1953)! The notion of accelerating to light speed and finding a pre-calculated "short-cut" in space (black hole?) is still intriguing. This is a solid entry in the Heinlein canon of great stories.

I happened upon this book quite by accident, and it brought back to life a memory from over 40 years ago of experiencing the distant future first-hand by reading Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky." As a thirteen year-old, I lost myself in the futuristic yet believable world he created in that book. The same is true of "Starman." Heinlein is at the top of his craft when he can weave snapshots of incredible technological developments into a personalized storyline that could occur to anyone in any age. Almost as incredible is the offhand way he causes the reader to contemplate a 'reality' that could be just beyond our current understanding of physics - like "Starman's" routine use of discontinuities in space-time to enable travel to distant parts of the galaxy with cruise-ship efficiency. I now view Heinlein's work through the filter of age and way too much education, but I can truly say that getting lost in one of his fictional worlds still holds a certain fascination that lingers long after you finish the book. His work leaves a feeling that the world of tomorrow will be exciting, new and challenging, but ultimately it can be understood and even conquered by ordinary people. This book still seems fresh and plausible, even after all these years. I highly recommend "Starman Jones."

I literally picked up a copy of this book because I was stranded on a tropical island and it was one of the few available in English. As such, I must admit reading it was more enjoyable than counting grains of sand or staring at my toes. Higher praise than that I am unable to dispense. I am an occasional Heinlein enthusiast (loved The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land but detested The Cat Who Walked Through Walls and The Number of the Beast) and this book seemed to distill all of the very worst of Heinlein's writing (a two dimensional, unbelievable hero, a sexist view of women etc.) Perhaps I am just too old to enjoy Starman Jones but I suspect that most adolescents are a lot smarter than this book is.

The Afterword says it very well. I own copies on paper but really wanted a copy on my Kindle also so I could carry it with me to re-read. The computer technology is laughable to us in 2013 - 60 years later - but the teen boy's growing-up story remains enjoyable.

This is one of the classic Heinlein juvenile novels in which a precocious teenage protagonist throws caution to the wind and risks life and limb on adventures in space. Max Jones is a young boy in an unhappy family situation who decides to leave home and jump on a spaceship. Overall, this is a good, but not outstanding novel. There are definitely some dated ideas (Max memorizing tables of logarithms, for example) that would be absurd to the 21st century reader. The story follows the development of Max as he goes from stowaway to valued member of the crew, and ultimately everyone's life depends on him. We watch Max gain confidence, both in himself and of the crew around him. Not Heinlein's best, but worth a look.

I read this as a teenager and found it refreshing to read again. It is a great inspirational story for reading to children (grandchildren) to spark their imaginations. And it is a lot of fun to read for your own restful pleasure.

Starman Jones is one of the few sci-fi novels that I have re-read and look forward to doing so again. I have owned three copies of this novel over the years. The technology is dated but the story is one of those that you can't put down. Also nice to read a novel that doesn't have any profanity. Now if they would only re-issue a hardback version...

The typical hero of Heinlein's "juveniles" is a decent, modest--yet heroic--lad who overcomes challenges as he comes of age. Starman Jones, along with Space Cadet and Starship Toopers, is one of the best of these novels. Readers dismayed at Heinlein's at-times lecherous novels for adults should overcome their fears and buy this book for a youngster. Those dismayed to find Heinlein writings stories that *aren't* lecherous should read it anyway. ;)

One of my favorite Heinlein stories for youth. A good parable of what it takes to grow up, accept responsibility, and make adult choices.\
believable on a personal growth level, but some of the technical discussions really missed the mark = this dpoes NOT detract from the overall story.

A classic adventure novel, early Heinlein. While the technology and morality are dated by modern standards, the plot is straight forward and as with all Heinlein, the story-telling is absorbing. May not be the best first novel for a young sci-fi fan to be Ñ due to most youngsters knowledge of modern technology Ñ but the story still has a lot to offer.