| Citizen Of The Galaxy |
Article Index for Citizen |
Website Links For Citizen |
Information AboutCitizen Of The Galaxy |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY | |
| 1957 novels | |
| novels by robert a. heinlein | |
| science fiction novels | |
| serialized novels | |
|
Citizen of the Galaxy is a Science Fiction Novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1957 . Influenced by Rudyard Kipling 's '' Kim '', it is arguably the finest of Heinlein's novels for young adults. Like many of Heinlein's novels, it is influenced by the author's background in and nostalgia for the U.S. Navy , which he had to leave as a young officer due to ill health. SYNOPSIS Thorby is a young, defiant slave boy on a strange planet. He is bought by a beggar, Baslim the Cripple, for a trivial amount of money as a jest of a rich buyer and taken to the beggar's underground hideout -- which is surprisingly well-furnished. The old man treats Thorby more like a foster child than a slave, drilling him in mathematics, history and several languages including Galacta and System English. He sends him on errands all around the planet's capital city, passing messages to starship captains and helping keep track of the comings and goings of ships involved in the slave trade. Thorby eventually realizes that his new master is more than a beggar -- he's a spy! One day, coming back from an errand gone awry, Thorby finds out that the old man had been captured in a police raid. He foiled his captors though, taking poison before he could be tortured for what he knew. His head, impaled on a pike by the authorities, still has a defiant grin. Once he gets over his shock, Thorby seeks the help of an innkeeper, the only person he might be able to trust; all of his "friends" would turn him in for the reward. Baslim had made Thorby memorize a contingency plan in case something happened to him. The innkeeper disguises herself as a rich dowager and smuggles Thorby into the spaceport. A friendly starship captain hides Thorby in his cargo, which is then loaded aboard the ship of a Free Trader. The Free Traders owed a great debt to Baslim for once rescuing one of their ships which had been captured by slavers. Thorby is adopted by the captain (thereby gaining considerable social status) and adjusts to the insular, clannish, Matriarchal culture of the traders, just as he has adjusted to everything else in his turbulent life. The advanced education provided by Baslim and the fast reflexes of youth make him an ideal "fire controlman," someone who protects the ship in the vulnerable period approaching and leaving a planet. In fact, he manages to destroy an attacking pirate ship by hitting it with a nuclear missile. His superior, a young woman named Mata, begins to eye him as suitable husband material. But Thorby is uprooted once more. The captain obeys Baslim's last wish, by turning the boy over to the authorities to find his family. In order to implement a search (without paying a prohibitive amount of money), it is found convenient to enlist Thorby in the military service of the Earth-based space republic which is the dominant power in the galaxy. The military, performing a routine background check, would end up paying for everything. Ultimately, he is identified as the main, long-lost heir to a vast business empire. He returns to Earth where he discovers the link between his past and present lives. EDITIONS
|
|
|