This and That
Hearty thanks to everyone who responded to my poll about a Halloween-athon this October. If you haven't yet replied and would like to do so, the poll is still open here!
In other news, my article from the latest issue (October 2014) of Reason Magazine, "Not Your Parents' Dystopias: Millennial fondness for worlds gone wrong," is now online here at ( Read more... )
In other news, my article from the latest issue (October 2014) of Reason Magazine, "Not Your Parents' Dystopias: Millennial fondness for worlds gone wrong," is now online here at ( Read more... )
I remember reading a number of the Tom Swift Jr. series in elementary school. But I was more a fan of the Rick Brant series, which appeared about the same time: the characters were more lifelike, and the scientific scenes were more convincing-rereading them in adulthood, I got the sense that the author had actually been in a scientific research organization at some time in his life.
From Robert Heinlein's letters, it appears that he originally envisioned Rocket Ship 'Galileo' as the first of a similar series, in which later volumes would have taken his young heroes to Mars, to the asteroids, and then had them go into business. I can't imagine this would have been as good as the books he actually wrote, or as lasting a success, but I kind of regret not having been able to read them back then.
(Curiously, the first Rick Brant novel, The Rocket's Shadow, also featured an atomic-powered moon rocket-more realistically than Heinlein's, an unmanned probe rather than a crewed vessel, though on the other hand it was launched not from the New Mexico desert but from a small island off the coast of New Jersey. Not much worry about radioactive contamination back then!)
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Thanks so much for reading it! I'm delighted you enjoyed it.
Oh, Rick Brant! Great stuff! And that's a very useful comparison/contrast with Tom Swift Jr.
I can't imagine this would have been as good as the books he actually wrote, or as lasting a success
Good point.
but I kind of regret not having been able to read them back then.
Yes, I see what you mean! I would've loved to read those, too.
Curiously, the first Rick Brant novel, The Rocket's Shadow, also featured an atomic-powered moon rocket-more realistically than Heinlein's, an unmanned probe rather than a crewed vessel
Oh wow. Fascinating!
Not much worry about radioactive contamination back then!
LOL! Indeed!
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