ospalh reviewed Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein
Review of 'Space Cadet' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
On re-reading, and reading “Starship Stormtroopers” (or [b:Starship Storm Troopers|25655900|Starship Storm Troopers|Michael Moorcock|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1433340154s/25655900.jpg|45477326]), i went down from ★★★★★ to ★★★☆☆.
The paternalism is there, the authoritarian militarism, too, although that is somewhat tempered.
What really got me, though, was the underlying sexism.
Of course Heinlein made the Space Patrol for men (boys) only. All the time it’s “patrolman”, “he” &c.
When i read all the male pronouns i want to shout “They!” at the book, which means i can’t really read this on the bus any more.
The space travel and gadgetry bits are quite nice, when you remember that this was written some nine years before Sputnik (and 13 before Gagarin’s flilght). Some of the minor technical details mentioned are quite prophetic: teens have cellphones, but don’t like it if their parents call. Others not so much: No H-bombs only gun type A-bombs. No deep …
On re-reading, and reading “Starship Stormtroopers” (or [b:Starship Storm Troopers|25655900|Starship Storm Troopers|Michael Moorcock|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1433340154s/25655900.jpg|45477326]), i went down from ★★★★★ to ★★★☆☆.
The paternalism is there, the authoritarian militarism, too, although that is somewhat tempered.
What really got me, though, was the underlying sexism.
Of course Heinlein made the Space Patrol for men (boys) only. All the time it’s “patrolman”, “he” &c.
When i read all the male pronouns i want to shout “They!” at the book, which means i can’t really read this on the bus any more.
The space travel and gadgetry bits are quite nice, when you remember that this was written some nine years before Sputnik (and 13 before Gagarin’s flilght). Some of the minor technical details mentioned are quite prophetic: teens have cellphones, but don’t like it if their parents call. Others not so much: No H-bombs only gun type A-bombs. No deep space communications, space ships beyond roughly Mars are not in radio contact with Earth.