Amateur Megalomania

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel - A Review

The first entry in the Wiley Library review is, fittingly, the first book I recall buying on my own (but I doubt I bought it with my own money).  I certainly picked it out, and I think it was the first book I ever read outside of the traditional children’s fare presented in bookstores.

The Ballentine version I own was printed in 1977, and I purchased it new.  I’m guessing I bought it in 78 or 79 at the latest, so I had to be nine or ten years old.  The fact that a ten year old could plow through a seventy-five thousand word novel without coming up for air speaks more to Heinlein’s skill than my abilities as a reader.

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel was part of the Heinlein Juvenile series; twelve books written with boys (or girls) in mind.  The protagonist was almost always a teenage boy with above average intelligence, possessed with a worldly sophistication beyond his years.  Even with their gifts, they struggled, suffered, and sometimes failed.  Nothing was sugar-coated for youth, and really bad things happened to people.  Heinlein’s universe was unforgiving.  Naivety or stupidity didn’t earn you a pass from the laws of physics.

As a young reader, I loved the fact that Heinlein didn’t condescend to me.  He pushed me with new terms and concepts, forcing me to pepper my father with endless questions about basic mechanics or simple physics.  I had to figure out why a pressure suit had issues with joint flexibility when pressurized, or why operating a suit in one atmosphere didn’t work that well when it came to walking around.  The story entertained, as well as serving as a solvable puzzle.

My physics degree probably stems from my young exposure to Heinlein, and my ever-growing library is certainly his fault.

The specifics of Have Spacesuit might sound a little corny today, but it touched upon so many dreams of a young boy keeping an eye on NASA in the late Seventies, yearning for SOMETHING to happen during the lull between Apollo (too distant to remember) and the Shuttle (not yet flying).

Kip is a smart young boy dreaming of space, in the might-have-been that followed from an aggressive space exploration policy in the US (the book was written in 1958, and assumed we would go to the moon to stay).  Kip enters a slogan contest that offers a trip to the moon as the grand prize, only to be crushed to find out his winning slogan had been beaten by an identical entry with an earlier postmark.

As consolation, an old, surpless space suit is delivered to his front door, still in the packing crate and minus a bunch of critical systems.

Now what kid wouldn’t want a fantasy prop like that?

Kip, being a really smart kid, spends his time tinkering with it.  He cobbles together an air system and a cheap radio, and spends a lot of time walking around in fields and the woods, imagining his coveted trip to the moon.  His determination to enter the Air Force Academy forces him to consider selling “Oscar” for tuition money (am I the only kid who had a name for his bicycle?  Naming the space suit seemed natural to me.)

On Kip’s final outing with Oscar, his fantasy radio calls are answered by the voice of a young girl, requesting help.  The next thing he knows, a spaceship lands and another space suited figure flees from a hatch, along with a large feline looking ‘thing’.   A bright flash occurs and Kip is unconscious.

Only to wake up in a ‘cell’ occupied by the feline and a young girl (who is also smart beyond her years).  From there, we are in for a fun ride of ‘help the good alien escape from the bad aliens’, with the young humans drawing on tenacity and intelligence to squeak by a number of close calls.  The story spins from the moon, to a near fatal freeze on Pluto, and ending up around the star Vega and eventually a court of civilizations in the Lesser Magellanic Clouds as the fate of humanity is judged.

Heady topics for a young boy.

I haven’t read Have Spacesuit in twenty-five years or more.  Recently, I did loan another Heinlein Juvenile to a friend who had never read them, and he reported that the story held up very well, even for an adult.  I’ll return to these books someday, but I’m guessing the nostalgia will be overwhelming.  I remember my grandmother - an avid reader like my mother - would take me to the bookstore every week and buy me a paperback.  Many of the Heinlein Juveniles were bought by her.  Reading them will remind me how much I miss her.

If you have youngsters in your life, the Heinlein Juveniles are a great gift.  You might just shape a life.