Four Frontiers

By Robert A. Heinlein and Tricia Levenseller

4 in one book. Includes Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739453459
• ISBN13: 9780739453452
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Science Fiction Book Club
• Length: 709 Pages
• Weight: 1.66 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Colonizing the Solar System

Four Frontiers (2005) is an omnibus edition of the first four SF novels in the Juvenile series, including The Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet and Farmer in the Sky. These novels were originally written for young adult readers and still appeal to that age group. However, they may also excite many older readers who remember these books from their younger days. Rocket Ship Galileo (1947) is the first novel in the series, depicting the initial flight to the Moon. Published in 1947, the story is now the history of an alternate timeline, in which the atomic weapons used to end World War II were succeeded by a more vigorous development of nuclear power as well as the growth of internationalism into a more powerful form of world government. Rocket ships are used routinely to carry passengers and freight to the ends of the Earth. In this story, Doctor Donald Morris Cargraves has designed a system of power generation that is too powerful for existing turbines to handle. However, it would make an excellent rocket engine. He takes the idea to his corporate bosses, but they reject the technology as unlikely to have an adequate return on investment. His corporation owns the rights to power generation, but not those to rocket propulsion. Cargraves resigns, with no hard feelings on either side, to work on the idea. While he is considering his options, Cargraves decides to visit his sister and nephew. However, Art is with his friends, Ross and Morrie, at the Galileo Club test site, trying out a new model rocket, so Cargraves drives out to meet them. The boys are running a test as he approaches and have set the engine to full thrust. All is going well until, suddenly, the engine hesitates and then explodes. After the boys have checked the remains and covered the instruments and test stand, they leave only to find Cargraves face down at the gate. They call an ambulance that takes him to the hospital. The next day, the boys have gathered all the pieces of the rocket and tidied up the site when Cargraves shows up with a turban bandage on his head. They show him their clubhouse, with its workbench, equipment, logs, and reference books as well as a few SF novels and magazines. They talk for a while and then eat lunch at Ross's house with his father and mother. Afterwards, they return to the clubhouse and Cargraves suggests that they might want to join him in constructing a nuclear rocket ship to fly to the Moon. This novel is the inspiration for the film Destination Moon, originally scripted by Robert Heinlein and Alford Van Ronkel, but the final script was much modified from the original. Nevertheless, Heinlein was employed as the technical advisor, so most of the realism in the movie comes from his efforts. Space Cadet (1948) is the second SF novel in this series. It is set several decades in the future when colonies have been established on the inner planets and the moons of Jupiter. It also occurs during a time of peace for huma

Four of Heinlein's best

This book contains the full text of 4 novels from Grand-master of science fiction Robert A. Heinlein. Rocket Ship Galileo, Space Cadet, Red Planet, and Farmer in the Sky. These were the first 4 novels of Heinlein's and were written from 1947 to 1950. Some of the instruments are anachronistic, such as the frequent reference to slide rules, but most of the gadgets are not at all a stretch of the imagination even 50 years later. Heinlein's later work got a little weird, in my opinion, with lots of time travel and varying sexual mores, but these are solidly clean and suitable for any age. Indeed, one was serialized in Boy's Life, the scouting magazine. Rocket Ship Galileo involves a scientist and 4 youth he uses to help him and their converting a limited rocket into a moon rocket. Besides the adventure of this, there are Nazi bad guys and traces of an ancient civilization. Space Cadet follows a few young men threw the Space Academy and into several of their missions. Heinlein, a former Naval officer, loves to use these kinds of books to moralize and how to raise competent boys and the duties of a citizen. How far we have fallen in just a few years! Red Planet is an account from Mars and includes interaction with aliens. This book includes another frequent theme - how to get rid of an oppressive government. Heinlein heroes tend to be counter-culture figures who fight back against an oppressive bureacratic colossus - shades of current events. Last is Farmer in the Sky about pioneering efforts on another planet. This story gives Heinlein a chance to moralize on how to make a just society from the ground up. These are still excellent novels and have aged gracefully with the added bonus of making you examine some basic beliefs about society and government. Highly recommended.

The best and the not so best of early Heinlein juveniles

"Four Frontiers" is a collection of four of Robert Heinlein's Juveniles. This book contains the best and the not so best of the early juveniles. "Rocket Ship Galileo" is Heinlein's first juvenile. I consider it a three rating because of an ending I didn't like. However, the first two thirds of the story is terrific. Imagine: a real scientist joins up with a teenager rocketry club to build a real rocket to space! Some of the wordage is dated, but the main story holds up well and has sound science. "Space Cadet" is, to my mind, one of the very best juveniles that Heinlein wrote. Prepare to accompany Matt Dodson, who has just recieved his invitation to the Space Academy. Be prepared for a really long journey, with some adventures! It is a wonderfully accurate prediction of how a space cadet may actually learn his/her future job. Rating: 5. "Red Planet" is a very good story about human colonists on 'Heinlein's' Mars. Science has outmoded the 'facts' of this story, but it holds up reasonably well and is a decent adventure. Two boys find out that the company colonizing Mars is up to no-good. They do something about it. rating: 4 "Farmer in the Sky" is a very good story about human colonists on Gandymede. Again, science has outmoded 'Heinlein's' Gandymede, but the story of a boy growing up and maturing into a man, while having adventures holds up well. rating: 4 Advice: Pace yourself. Read only one story per week.

Not Just For Boys...

_Four Frontiers_ (2005) is an omnibus of the first four juvenile science fiction novels by Robert A. Heinlein: _Rocket Ship Galileo_ (1947), _Space Cadet_ (1948), _Red Planet_ (1949), and _Farmer in the Sky_ (1950). All were originally published by Scribner's. The first novel is clearly Heinlein's weakest juvenile, but some allowances should be made. It was a pioneering work of juvenile sf, and it opened the door for a lot of quality science fiction for young readers that followed. One should not expect perfection from a work breaking new ground. The other three novels are all excellent in quality. All four novels are unabashedly boy's books. The roles of women are few, and they tend to be kindly mothers, bratty little sisters, and bossy dowagers. You can also find teenaged boys making comments like "the idea that [the Company] is a nonprofit organization is the biggest joke since women were invented" (_Red Planet_, Chapter Four). But I think that it is probably an oversimplification to label Heinlein a misogynist. He was writing a particular type of book (boy's sf adventure) at a particular time (the late 1940s). Of course he did not have 1970s sensibility. A quick look at later Heinlein novels reveals more women characters in juicier roles. Heinlein's style is crisp and confident, his dialogue has snap and carries the story along, he usually follows the dictum of "show, don't tell," and his mastery of detail is consistently impressive. How will a Patrol training ship be structured? How will Cadets be trained how to move about in spacesuits? What will the Martian ecosystem be like? Why will students need to learn calculus and astrogation in grade school? How does one farm the surface of Ganymede? Why are bees and worms so important? What does a multiple eclipse look like on Jupiter? Why are table manners important when dealing with Venusians? Heinlein knows, and it gives his stories a kind of realism and authenticity. Heinlein was fond of throwing a few mild "shockers" into his juveniles that gave them a bit of life: mild profanity from a space officer or a father, the loudmouthed bully who thrashes the hero, the son who addresses his parents by their first names, the notion that frontier teenagers should tote handguns, and the idea that teenagers can exercise political power (at least, before the grownups step in). It is that sense of realism again-- a hint that the future will hold customs a bit different from our own and that some cliches do not work out in real life. But perhaps what gives these books their real value is the sense you get that Heinlein is having fun. There are a lot of talented and creative writers who give you the feeling that they are a bit world-weary. Not Heinlein. The future may be difficult and trying at times. But it will be interesting and exciting for those who are willing to seize it. A global rating for an omnibus is always going to be somewhat misleading. Here are my ratings for the individual books. _Roc