Variable Star: Difference between revisions

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What do you do when the [[Robert Heinlein|Grand Master]] of science fiction leaves behind incomplete notes on a book never written? Give them to the man recognized as [[Spider Robinson|his disciple]] and tell him to get cracking. The result is recognizably the product of two minds, begun before one was born and finished after the other died. It received mixed reviews. The basic structure of the story is very much that of Heinlein's juveniles, which is what Heinlein intended it to be when he plotted it; a young man goes to the stars, and there he finds himself. Much of the story is very much ''not'' that of a Heinlein juvenile; there's sex and drugs and the main character is a musician, not an engineer-slash-soldier of fortune. As Heinlein was plotting it during his time as a writer for teen sci-fi magazines, it's likely the other elements were added by [[Spider Robinson]].

Joel Johnston knows what he wants: to be a musician, composer, and conductor; to study music on scholarship at a fantastic school; to marry his darling girlfriend Jinny. Unfortunately, things take a serious left turn and he finds himself fleeing the solar system on a [[Generation Ship]] leaving for the star Peekaboo. He loafs a bit, he drinks a bit, he sluts a bit; then things go seriously wrong.

 

* [[Alien Sky]]: Anticipated, discussed, never seen.

* [[All Monks Know Kung Fu]]: Somewhat justified. He's not quite a monk, but he is Buddhist, and rather than Kung Fu, he practices a Japanese martial art. [[Captain Obvious|Because he's Japanese]].

* [[Artificial Intelligence]]: A more realistic treatment than usual; the computers are computers, albeit remarkably sophisticated. They're treated as marvelous machines, but never alive.

* [[Asteroid Miners]]: It's a Heinlein story.

* [[Binary Suns]]: Peekaboo is a binary star system, but the second sun is far enough from the colony planet that it won't be a problem; but it will be brighter than the moon is on Earth.

* [[Black Box]]: How the Relativistic Drive works. It's treated as a [[Black Box]] in the text, and Robinson explicitly calls that in a note after the text.

* [[Coming of Age Story]]: For Joel.

* [[Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit]]: Of a sort. The banker on board the Sheffield helps everyone on board (with the necessary funds) to take advantage of [[Time Dilation]].

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Conrad's bodyguard.

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: After the {{spoiler|[[Earthshattering Kaboom]]}}, things are bad. Then they lose {{spoiler|their third relativist, meaning they can never land and will all be dead in a few generations}}. That's when the suicides start.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|The unstable astronomer, after the destruction of the solar system}}.

* [[Duet Bonding]]: How Joel's musical talent is introduced to the ship; an unexpected duet with an unseen partner.

* [[Epic Rocking]]: Joel's Master Piece. Fifteen minutes of sustained saxophone.

* [[Fiction 500]]: Conrad, of course. Joel as well, eventually.

* [[First Girl Wins]]: Somewhat. The first girl introduced in the book does not. But the first girl Joel meets in the course of the narrative does.

* [[Heavyworlder]]: Inverted. Joel grew up on Ganymede, with gravity 1/3rd Earth's, which made him ideal for the Sheffield.

* [[Gold Digger]]: Conrad implies that Joel is this, just a bit, without condemning him for it. Joel can't tell if that was an insult to him or to Jinny, not least because he was completely unaware of the money.

* [[Heel Realization]]: Almost everyone on Conrad's ship once they understood his plan.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Herb}}, in order to help save everyone aboard the Sheffield.

* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Ms. Robb. Her boss isn't incompetent, far from it, but she has to be very, very good at many things to be his Enabler.

* [[Hyperspeed Escape]]: Why Conrad shows up.

* [[Incredibly Long Note]]: Joel's Master Piece is an improvised piece involving circular breathing, thus no phrase ever ends, but segues into the next.

* [[Interplanetary Voyage]]: The vast majority of the story takes place aboard the Sheffield.

* [[Money to Throw Away]]: Joel doesn't go crazy, but he does fix up the cubic he shares with his roommates, making all of them more comfortable.

* [[Polyamory]]: Mentioned in passing as one of the marriage options available on the ''Sheffield''.

* [[No Seat Belts]]: Justified. If you need them at 0.97c, you don't need them. And when things go wrong on the Sheffield, gravity turns off and people float, they don't fly into walls.

* [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]: If you marry a Conrad and end up not being useful to the family, they'll pension you off.

* [[Secretly Wealthy]]: Jinny.

* [[Songs of Solace]]: After some good friends die, you might need cheering up.

* [[Standard Time Units]]: The fact that Brasil Novo has a slightly different length day, differing seasons, etc comes up, but never really becomes important to the story.

* [[Twin Telepathy]]: Telepathy is only available to identical twins.

* [[Unexpected Inheritance]]: Of a sort; Joel's stock turns out to be not worthless. Instead, it suddenly makes him very wealthy.

* [[You Did Everything You Could]]: The general response to Mr Jackson's feelings of guilt.

 

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[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]