Have Space Suit, Will Travel (1958)

Robert A. Heinlein

Ballantine Books, New York; ISBN: 0-345-32441-2; Pages: 255

One of my favorite "juvies," HSSWT is fast-paced, witty, gripping, and charming. An unmistakable RAH can be seen throughout despite the slightly muted themes of responsibility, authority, and justice. Heinlein's fascination with science is pervasive, perhaps too obvious, but seems to be ultimately justified within the context of the novel.

The story of Clifford C. Russel (aka Kip aka Junebug), the unaware son of a cloak-and-dagger genius professor, begins with him winning a second-hand slightly worn space suit at a soap contest (it is even funnier than it sounds). A mostly self-taught high school senior, he cleans up the suit, tweaks it, names it "Oscar," dons it, and wears it while strolling in his backyard. Bizarre stuff and it gets weirder when one day a spaceship lands almost on top of him.

Briefly, he is taken prisoner by a Wormface creature, who is a member of a superior race bent on taking over the Earth and, naturally, having the present inhabitants for soup. Kip finds himself in the company of a very young girl of a genius, Peewee, the daughter of a world famous professor, and the Mother Thing, a lemur-like creature. After ascertaining that they are on the Moon, the trio manages to escape but are caught at the end of a forty-mile trek, within site of the moonbase. This time, the wormface takes them to Pluto, where Kip is held prisoner until one day Peewee gets him out of his cell. It turns out, the Mother Thing was able to rig two bombs and destroy the base. She had then gone out to set a beacon but had apparently frozen to death without succeeding in her mission. Kip, however, does with the help of Oscar (can you say schizoid?) and then finds himself on the fifth planet of Vega, his body completely "repaired" and his common sense wrecked beyond repair. This is the home of the Mother Thing, who turns out fine after being taken out of deep freeze.

After the recuperation, Kip and Peewee are taken to Lanador, the capital of the Three Galaxies, to stand trial for the human race. The same court dispatches the race of wormfaces to their gloomy deaths by rotating their planet out of its dimensions. A similar fate awaits the humans if they fail at the trial. Heinlein has a hard time concealing his admiration for the human spirit as Kip goes from trepidation to indignation during the trial. Although it is not what really saved Earth (it looks like the Mother Thing and the green monkey did) it is a proud stand for a high school senior to take. After the superior races agree to give Earth and its inhabitants a second chance and including our dinky neighborhood in Mother Thing's beat (as it turns out, she is the equivalent of a space cop), both children are sent back home, with some fancy knowledge to help the peaceful advance of the human race. Kip gets into M.I.T. with the indiscreet help of Peewee's father.

The story is quite linear without many unexpected twists, but RAH is not here to surprise. The narrative is engaging to the point where I held my breath during certain passages, as during a good movie. The novel actually reads like one watches a movie -- seamless action, with very little extraneous stops to mull over life's tough questions. RAH's philosophy is conveyed through action and dialogue, an excellent approach that only truly gifted story tellers can pull off.

March 5, 2000. BLS