Starman Jones

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a desperate time, when one's next meal and the comforts of home couldn't be taken for granted. Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. But when reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land - until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship.

But to where? And when? And how can he ever get back? With the ship's pilot dead and his charts and tables all destroyed, Max must call upon all of his untested knowledge and skills in order to survive.

©2003 The Robert A. & Victoria Heinlein Prize Trust (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Characters are very life like and interesting.

Warning... spoiler. This story has a surprising twist as the evil Sam becomes a hero.

Ancient as Sci-fis go.

Worth a read. If for no other reason than Mr. Heinlein's forward thinking. Expressed well.

Nice!!!!

Perhaps I need to stick to the classics! This is an excellent example of being able to tell a story without the use of profanity. If there was any, I dont remember them. Mr Garcia was a very good narrator also. There was not alot of action like one might want but my attention was held and my profanity mental meter did not peg every other paragraph. Mr Heinlein and others like him should teach the others this ability. Good job!

Little action, lots of world building..

Is there anything you would change about this book?

More action and space encounters would be nice. Almost the whole book was world building with light politics and how the main character struggles to become a spaceship crewman/Navigator/Captain.

Unexpected Gem

Would you consider the audio edition of Starman Jones to be better than the print version?

This story was gem. I loved the character, the 'future' that was created in the story. My only problem was the story ended just as it was getting really interesting.
Well worth a listen.

What does Paul Michael Garcia bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I liked that his voice was stiff and formal as I picture the main character.

good story

I may have read this 40 years ago bit it is still a great story.

Fun But Basic

Easy read, but there isn't much here to digest. Really not a fan of how technical the characters got with explaining the 'science' of space flight in completely inappropriate scenarios. Don't love 'chosen one' storylines either, which this turns out to have in its own way. [AUDIBLE]

Exciting YA science fiction adventure

I did not realize that Heinlein wrote young adult books. But this old adult thoroughly enjoyed Starman Jones. Max is a teenage farmer living on earth but dreaming of becoming an astrogater and traveling through space. When his stepmother marries a brute of a man, Max runs away from home. He hooks up with Sam, a former Marine with his own reasons for returning to space. With some forged IDs and minor cosmetic adjustments to make Max appear older, the two adventurers become crewmen on a grand old starship. They are in for the trip of a lifetime.

A good story from the Golden Age of sci-fi...

I really enjoyed this book. A few points nagged at me throughout the book, but they were due to the age of the book. The story itself was great.

Given that computers of the day would hardly be recognizable to anyone who uses them today, it's perfectly understandable that Heinlein portrayed them as a niche a technology.
It initially struck me as odd that the starship computer's feedback was limited to a series of lights blinking in binary. I found it strange that one of the most important people on the ship was the guy whose job it was to translate these binary blinking lights into decimal, and to read off those digits to the even more important guy who did the math himself. Then the math guy would rattle off the solutions back to the first guy so that they could be translated back to binary and fed into the computer. The computer, apparently, was completely incapable of doing math (which is the exact opposite of today's systems), but was primarily used for taking instrument readings (again, in binary) as well as steering the ship using a pre-programmed magnetic tape.

I mention this to warn the reader of today that if you can't let go of your ideas of what a computer can do, you may have a hard time with this book (and you'll only be hurting yourself). I'm something of a computer guy, so I struggled with it a little. However, if you can get past it, this is a great story that will really pull you in. I agree with other reviewers here who wish the book had been longer. It ended too soon!

Another winner by RAH

Robert Heinlein begins his story slowly and then builds to a crescendo so the reader loves the ending and doesn't want it to stop. He doesn't have strange villains- he just has a wonderful story built upon the reality of the interactions of humans and adds a little bit of Science Fiction.