Wow, this does not hold up well. Heinlein apparently thought at the time that it was OK for women to hold jobs, but not for them to have opinions, take useful actions, or have any attributes other than their attractiveness, so there are a lot of female characters in this book, all of whom are not allowed to accomplish anything useful -- one is literally told to shut up and go away because "this is man talk".

Plus there's a giant plot hole at the end -- at that point the characters have instantaneous communications with a civilization that has instantaneous interstellar travel, and yet they are allowed to blunder along in confusion until the right dramatic moment rather than making contact with a ship that will solve all of their problems.

Also interesting to see how Kim Stanley Robinson deals with most of the same elements in Aurora and comes out with a wholly different novel, tone, and conclusion.

When I first read this in the mid-1980s, I really enjoyed it. I think it was one of the first five Heinlein books I ever read. Later, what I mainly remembered was space travel, the torchships, the special relativity effects on Tom and Pat, and the telepathy. But when I came back to it recently, I found it filled with sexism ("a woman must be submissive to her husband"), fat-shaming (one woman is "shaped like a sofa pillow"), a slow-paced story, and dark overtones of colonialism (after the humans meet an intelligent alien species, they decide to come back later and wipe them out and the author seems okay with it).

(I published a longer review on my website.)

What a pleasant surprise. Prior to this I had only read Stranger in a Strange Land, which I was mostly neutral on, and failed to get into Time Enough for Love. I figured maybe Heinlein didn't click for me for some reason but picked up some old paperbacks of his at a used book store. Now I'm really glad I did. This has exciting space exploration, adventure and some real emotion. I would be shocked if this wasn't a direct inspiration for Joe Haldeman's "Forever War". Perhaps I'll get to that one some day.

The prose and attitudes of the '50s about gender roles are definitely there just to warn, but I thought the story was concise and effective on just about all fronts. It has a classic feel but still holds up, and doesn't waste your time. I loved it.

Bought this book at a discount awhile ago. When I was a kid I read many RAH novels. I didn't realize until I was 3 chapters in that I HAD read this one when I was a kid. I usually bought these novels from B. Dalton or Walden Books at the mall. (I still have them.) I must have borrowed this from the library and read it as I don't have a copy of it. At least I don't think I do!

Anyhow, it's a pretty good story and if you liked any of RAH's juveniles you will enjoy this. As it was written in 1956 there are definitely some cultural differences IE chauvinism and some technological things that he didn't see. However, it is still a good story, but doesn't compare to my favorites that I have reread many times. Space Cadet and Have Spacesuit Will Travel I remember to be my fav's and if you are picking up RAH for the 1st time, especially his Juvenile series, start with these. However, his later work that he wrote in the 1980's is not nearly as dated. His novel Friday has a cyberpunk feel to it long before that adjective was coined, so you may want to start with that title.

Interesting story of how two twins are telepaths and one is placed on a starship to act as communicator/radio with earth. For the hard science/SF fans out there RAH sticks to Einstein's theory of relativity: where as time slows down as a person approaches the speed of light on the ship, but many years pass on earth for his brother.

Anyway, it's a good story as they explore new solar systems and planets. I enjoyed reading this again for the nostalgia it brings me as well as the enjoyment of reading RAH.

*** 2023 reread -

This really is one of his best, probably certainly the best juvenile.

What’s so great about it?

Good question, this was not on my radar at all until I read it a few years ago. You always hear about the “big three” from Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and Moon is a Harsh Mistress. These three were first published in 1961, 1959 and 1966 respectively. Technically Starship Troopers is generally included as a part of Heinlein’s “early” novels but thematically this is more a part of the middle period, what I consider to be the height of his powers. Time For the Stars was first published in 1956, and was the tenth of twelve of Scribner’s juveniles.

First of all, there’s just a lot going on. There is telepathy between an Earth bound partner and a starboard astronaut, allowing extreme distant travel to be able to communicate with Earth instantaneously.

There is also lots of technical scientific and engineering talk about getting out to the stars and then there is alien contact and Bob really played this up for the kids with adventure and danger and shipboard drama. As in Joe Haldeman’s magnificent Forever War, and Poul Anderson’s Kith stories, we also play around with time relativity and the odd phenomena of star travelers aging slower than the folks on Earth.

And here is where we come to what I’m talking about this being so good. The title is a play on words: “time” for the stars about the relativity issues, but also the simultaneity of the communications (which provides some more fun) but most importantly, that time for the stars means time from humanity, the opportunity cost of exploration.

In the book there is a class of spaceships and they are all named for famous explores like Lewis and Clark and Robert Byrd and Columbus. This is a none too subtle examination of a type of person who leaves hearth and home behind to find something new. Heinlein usually has better than average characterization but here he takes extra time to explore the relationships between those who go to space and those who remain behind. Heinlein examines the human cost of leaving humanity behind, for the sake of humanity.

It’s a fun book for the YA crowd, as intended, but with much more for a discerning reader.

**

(Original review)

The Corsican Brothers go to space.

Or at least one of them.

First published in 1956, Heinlein’s Time for the Stars is one of his Scribner’s juvenile books, and one of the better ones, somewhat similar to Starman Jones. The Grandmaster tells the story of the first survey ships going out into deep space to look for suitable planets for humanity to colonize due to overpopulation on Earth. Needing a simultaneous communications system, the powers that be hire on groups of telepathic twins (or triplets) to provide real time coms between the ship and Earth. (Ten years before Ursula K. LeGuin’s ansible, which was first described in her 1966 novel Rocannon's World.

Central to the narrative is the accepted theory of special relativity, whereby a voyager on a spaceship traveling at close to light speed will experience a different time than a person on Earth. The protagonist aboard the Lewis and Clark remains relatively young while his telepathic twin on Earth grows old. This concept is also explored in Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and most notably in Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero.

Heinlein also explores the concept of faster than light travel and these ideas may have been included in his notes for the novel that would be completed and published after his death by Spider Robinson in Variable Star.

A good friend of mine suggested that a reader who favors Heinlein’s early / juvenile works over his middle works from the sixties and his later experiments with the tacky and wacky feels this way because that was the reader’s first exposure to Heinlein’s work. This could be true, as I have always liked his juveniles and these were my first books of his I read. In whichever camp one finds himself, Time for the Stats is one of his better novels.

My final point to make on this book is an unusual observation about Heinlein’s work in general. According to Goodreads, Time for the Stars is my thirty-second Heinlein book. Bob mentions cannibalism in a lot of his works. Weird, creepy, unusual. By my recollection, I think he has mentioned cannibalism in each of the following works:

Orphans of the Sky
Stranger in a Strange Land
Time for the Stars
Farnham's Freehold
For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs
Methuselah's Children
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Starship Troopers

I'm ambivalent about this one. I enjoyed it a lot and at the same time thought it quite flawed. Some thoughts:

* We seem to have lost the coming of age element that I loved so much in books like Space Cadet or Farmer in the Sky. We don't have here a wide-eyed youngster who has to work hard to realize his dreams and at the same time matures, earns other people's respect and becomes a man. Instead Tom Barlett, the first-person narrator, is already important because he, along with his twin brother Pat, is a telepath, and since telepathy happens to be instantaneous he is used as a valuable faster-than-light communication device with Earth in an interstellar exploration ship. He doesn't need to work for it, it's just who he is. However, there is a coming of age element here, because this is the story of how Tom gets out of the psychological influence of his dominant twin brother.

* This is also a story about how, because of relativistic effects, time for travelers in a slower-than-light spaceship traveling near the speed of light passes much slower than for people at home, so that people on Earth age decades while those on board only age a few years. This is an effect I'm very familiar with (intellectually, I mean, not in practice), so I suspect it has less impact on me than on the teenage readers in the target audience who might be less familiar with the concept. However, it was well done, exploring the sense of alienation as the people you used to love and your world changes while you remain the same. Because of this, the story seemed to me bleaker than the other Heinlein juveniles I have read.

* The bleakness is accentuated because
it turns out that all their efforts and sacrifice were for nothing, once faster-than-light travel is achieved. I know in the book they say that it was still important because it proved that telepathic communication was faster-than-light, but that could have easily been proved beyond any doubt within the solar system

* The space exploration and adventure components are not bad, but they are almost an afterthought. It's not what Heinlein is most interested in, in this novel.

* I thought it was unusual the way the twins were portrayed. Normally twins are portrayed as having a strong bond and being very loyal to each other. Here their relationship is more complex and less exemplary. I kind of liked that. Also, the main character is not as likable as the protagonists of other Heinlein juveniles, although most of the time he is a decent fellow.

* The book doesn't seem too aged in the technology department (we don't dwell on the absence of computers, for example, like in some of these books), but it feels clearly aged in the attitudes department. As usual in these books, we have competent women in important scientific roles. However, there's the attitude that women must be protected from risk (only when they are completely sure that a planet is safe are women allowed to leave the ship), and also that wives should look up to and, more or less, accept their husbands' authority. Also we have one of the most unromantic romances ever.
I'm not too bothered that Tom marries a distant relative, but where the hell did that romance come from? "Hey, I'm finally back after so many years" "Great, let's get married." I mean, OK, they had communicated telepathically, but that came absolutely out of nowhere, and it's a bit creepy that some of that communication was when the bride was still a young girl.

* Heinlein seems to have the idea that emigration to other planets can be a way to deal with the overpopulation of Earth, but that makes no sense. It's like trying to deal with rising sea levels by taking buckets of water out of the ocean. Also, his grasp of relativity is not good: he seems unaware, for example, that the closest to the speed of light that ship is traveling the harder it is to accelerate it more, or that both twins should have perceived the other one as slow when the ship is travelling at relativistic constant speed. There are other things that seem sloppy to me, like how the telepaths are all surprised and outraged when they are not allowed out of the ship, but they already knew that, because they had been warned repeatedly before taking off that they were too valuable to be allowed to explore any planets. Or how
at one time it is said that in case of finding a world with alien intelligence they were ordered to leave and let a later mission establish diplomatic relationships, but when they actually encounter intelligent beings (who react in a hostile manner) it is mentioned that later colonists will have to be prepared to deal with them... hadn't we established that a world with intelligent aliens was not open for colonization?


* And what about
the mutiny thing? When did it become a military spaceship? I thought it was a scientific mission. Still, it provided a nice moral dilemma for Tom.



In spite of the flaws, and even though large parts of the book have little action, I found it very readable and entertaining. It would not be the first I would recommend, but Heinlein is a really skilled storyteller.

I got hooked on science fiction in c.1952, when the school librarian handed me one of Robert Heinlein’s juveniles. This is one of his more thoughtful novels for the younger reader, heavy on speculative physics and the convolutions of psychology. If fact, it grew directly from the problem in special relativity called the “twin paradox.” The narrator is the teenage Thomas Paine Bartlett, and he and his twin brother, Patrick Henry, are discovered (after much testing) to have a telepathic bond. This is of great interest to the immensely wealthy Long Range Foundation, which is sponsoring a dozen of the new “torch” ships (capable of reaching nearly the speed of light) to explore other planets in our galactic neighborhood in hopes of finding expansion space for Earth’s overpopulation. Telepathy apparently pays no heed to the relativistic limitations of light speed, for communications can be maintained and information sent back to Earth by one twin on a ship “talking” to his sibling back home, so the LRF is gathering together as many of these “telepairs” as they can find.

After a considerable struggle between the brothers over who goes and who stays (and Heinlein makes this a major part of the plot), Tom lifts off as one of the large crew of the Leis & Clark -- and the adventure begins. A not-small part of which is dealing with the fact that the relativistic effects of traveling at near light speed mean that Pat, back home, is going to age far more than his twin on the ship.

Many of the details of the story -- the size of the ship’s computers, the fact that Tom keeps a paper diary, etc. -- will seem very strange to a Gen-Alpha reader, but the SF greats of the Golden Age were notably unable to predict just how rapidly technology would develop in just a few decades. This is a re-read for me, and I can remember how “futuristic” it all seemed to me as a kid, so the antique tech doesn’t bother me. And if you’re willing to just bleep over that stuff, this is still a very enjoyable and thought-provoking story more than sixty-five years after it was first published.

People familiar with the styles of science fiction writers of the 1950’s would recognize this as a work of Robert Heinlein very quickly. The father of the two main characters is very much anti-government, to the point of being on the edge of a revolutionary. Later, when there is discussion about the captain of the ship always being right, there is the clear expression of authoritarianism.
Tom and Pat are identical twin teenaged boys, and they were born outside the normal quota of children that married couples can have. They are close, yet far apart, certainly beyond the cliché of how identical twins are generally depicted. Yet, they do have one very significant skill in common. Properly trained and coached, they can communicate with each other telepathically.
With overcrowding a real issue, the government is embarking on project Lebensraum, where spaceships are being sent to investigate nearby stars in a search for other habitable planets. There is no faster than light drive, so it will take years for a ship to reach their assigned stars. In order to maintain communication over the vast differences, identical twins that demonstrate a significant level of telepathic ability are sought out and trained. One will remain on Earth while the other will depart on a spaceship. The ships will approach the speed of light, so the twin that remains on Earth will age must faster than the one on the ship.
Tom is the one that departs on the ship, and they have several adventures on the newly discovered planets. Heinlein makes most of his characters quirky, specifically the professionals. On one planet, they encounter a water dwelling species that fights back and nearly destroys the entire crew of the spaceship. Heinlein wraps up the adventure with a speech by an attorney explaining how important their mission was to the human species.
This is a YA adventure in the classic mold of the science fiction of the fifties. A powerful drive motor that allows for near light speed travel and telepathy are fundamental components of the plot with no attempt to explain how they work. It is narrated from the perspective of a young man, with the usual conflicts and rivalries between brothers. Even though their role in society is extremely critical, personal feelings creep in.

I haven't read this since it was new (written in 1956). It is still well written and holds up well. I was curious to see if I missed any discussion of the Special Theory of Relativity. Nope, just the General theory. It would have been easy to show both.

I expect most readers here are familiar with it - torch ships go to the nearest stars at relativistic speeds with the protagonist and his twin brother (left on Earth) as one of the telepathic instantaneous communicators.

Excellence in craft and in deed.

Robert Heinlein was crowned the Dean of Modern Science Fiction, and properly so. Every now and then in a Heinlein work, we might encounter an anachronism ir two, but even THEY still play well in a modern context. That's because its not about the details that might have changed since whatever you're reading by him was first written. Rather its because the STORY is about the PEOPLE and not the tech, or even the setting, although both must be well crafted to give the piece any real merit. No, its about the PEOPLE, and Heinlein understands the PEOPLE so well that they become real - almost friends, as you go through their experiences with them ! Then there's the "Science". In Time for The Stars, while WE have become used to starhips skipping across the galaxy using warp drives, or some such, the concepts underlying what we've become used to now, were pionered by authors like Robert Heinlein, who worked hard to make the SCIENCE work, even if it had to be within the limits of what was known at the time. THIS is what distinguishes Science Fiction from Fantasy, and why the distinctions between Hard Science Fiction and Sci-Fi are even MORE relevant to the genre today than they were when these works first came imto being. Heinlein is THE genuine MASTER at this, and Time For The Stats is a WONDERFUL example of the BEST true Science Fiction has to offer ! All the VERY BEST to all here, from Texas - Chuck .

Heinlein at his very best! Though Spider Robinson may be "the new Robert A. Heinlein", there is no one like the original. This book is not quite completely in the juvenile Heinlein group and yet not in the adult Heinlein group. As one reviewer (Manny) put it: "an important novel, marking the transition from juvenile-Heinlein to proto-dirty-old-man-Heinlein." (Edit: There's nothing explicit in this book much beyond the noticing of bits and pieces and the desire they inspire.) It is a quick thoroughly enjoyable read.

This 1950's prediction of the impact of faster than light travel on society and individuals is thorough and personable. It's a fast moving character study with technological and psychological undertones. It's exactly the kind of book I like to read.

There is an underlying theme present in the few books of Heinlein I have read. The separation from loved ones and , gaining the confidence of a young person and ultimately developing a relationship with them.
When brothers Tom and Pat are chosen because of their telepathic ability to communicate with each other.
One much choose to live a life in space and the other to be on Earth left out of the glamorous life.
This make me wonder the life choices Heinlein must have made. He plays with a young persons heartstrings. Fears of abandonment, isolation, neglect what child does not fear these things.
Tom our unwilling hero strives to find his place on a crew chosen for their talents and education. He is not the smartest peach and always feels like the low man on the totem pole.
Heinlein always a fantastic job with his stories.
I am wondering how all of his books tie together. Another great book.