Starman Jones - Robert A. Heinlein

Starman Jones
Robert Heinlein
Del Rey
Original Copyright: 1953
978-0345328113

The indigo.ca product description:

Where were they? In fact, when were they? and how could they get back?

It''s easy to stow away on an intergalactic spaceship, if you''re a smart lad like Max Jones. But it''s quite another thing when the spaceship touches down on an unknown planet after passage through a time warp...perhaps an unknown century. Especially when the spaceship''s pilot dies, and his charts and are destroyed. Now survival was up to Max...

 With an original copyright dating from 1953, the novel Starman Jones is over fifty years old, but it's still a very readable novel, not being too dated in feeling. It's a bit such, with the characters still using log tables, slide rules and the like, but not so much that it feels overly unrealistic. After all, the book most definitely predates computers by a substantial amount.

Of course, I'm a bit biased. I like the science fiction of Robert A. Heinlein, so I'm generally looking for the positive as I read his books. Still, I didn't like this one as much as I did Space Cadet and Starship Trooper (my original review). Now, that's a good novel.

It's the characters that make this book: Sam, the vagrant, Max Jones and the astrogator, Dr. Hendrix especially, but all of the characters have an important role. 

Anyway, Starman Jones is suited for all ages from teens on up and is an exciting read for anyone who likes classic science fiction, and my copy is likely to stay as a permanent part of my collection.