Citizen of the Galaxy - book review

[watervole]

'Citizen of the Galaxy' by Robert Heinlein is one of my favourite books, I've read it many times.  It was written before I was born and yet it's dated remarkably well.  The lack of mobile phones is about the only thing that feels wrong in this space-going society.

Thorby, a young slave boy, is bought by old Baslim, a crippled beggar.  But there is much more to Baslim than meets the eye and Thorby learns much from him.  Baslim quickly becomes a beloved father and mentor.

Eventually events force Thorby to leave Sargon and to travel with the Free Traders.  The Free Traders are an interesting culture and the complexities of their social structure with its stress on knowing exactly whom you are related to and how is initially confusing to Thorby.  When he finally leaves his second adoptive family, he is forced into yet another different culture - the one of his birth.

In some ways, this is the hardest culture of all for him to adapt to, but he comes to understand that the best way he can fight back at the slavers is in the way he least expected to.

It isn't an easy decision for him, and when I first read the book as a child, I disliked the ending - I was looking for 'happy ever after'.  As an adult, I really like the ending.  It deals with maturity and acceptance of responsibility, and understanding that to give freedom to others, you may have to lose it yourself.

Comments

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

I've read a couple of Heinlein's books but not that one.. Sounds interesting. I might give it a try.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I think it's one of his best. Well worth reading.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this tempting review. I am always eager to read but somehow it mostly remains only a wish. I also confess that I learnt not to like most of the Czech translations, they are so bad ...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

It's easy to get cheap second-hand copies of the English version via Amazon...

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

:-) Thamk you, I have already bought some books there.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

Whilst I agree with your points, as I've mentioned to you before, my criticism of the book is that it shows definite signs of having been "written backwards", ie IMO Heinlein seems to have started with an idea of where he wanted things to end and then written the previous sections in order for Thorby to have the knowledge/ skills that he'd need at that point.

[kerravonsen]

Oh yes, "Citizen of the Galaxy" is one of my favourites also. Yes, the ending is not "happy ever after" but it is still hopeful, which is all I ask for an ending.

[kerravonsen]

It didn't strike me that way. Sure, the different sections were fairly distinct, but I think the Free Trader part was done painstakingly enough that it was done for its own sake, not just as a means to an end.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

But in the last part, for instance, Thorby is given a document to sign with the expectation that he's naiive enough to do so without checking. He doesn't do so because he learned as a Free Trader not to do so.

There's quite a few other examples of him doing things (or being able to do things) because of what he's learned previously.

And, of course, there's the unanswered question of why Baslim would even think about buying him in the first place, except, of course, that it's required to establish what happens when he finds out who he really is...

[nwhyte]

Hmm, that brings me back - must look out for it!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Because the auctioneer said "any bid at all" and Baslim knew he'd do a damn sight better by the boy than anyone else would.

He'd never have bid a sum that allowed a slaver to make a profit, but a minim bid was within even a beggar's income.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

Except there had to be more than one bid and then he had to be subbed again by the Syndonian for the Stamp Tax, all things that Baslim would have known...

It just shouts Plot Device to me.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

It shouts 'wanting to piss off the auctioneer' to me.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

But why would Baslim want to do that? And if he pissed off the auctioneer enough he'd being kicked out (or even a good kicking) neither of which would be good for what he was doing.

There are just too many events in that book which appear to happen simply to ensure that something else can happen later on and that stretches my credulity.