but to educate his readers in citizenship—that is, Heinlein-style, politically of the right,
non-pacifist and libertarian, supporting revolution in colonies on planets such as Mars
and Venus. But his novels, for all their terse titles —The Star Beast (1954), Between
Planets (1951), Farmer in the Sky (1950)—address complex political issues; Citizen of the
Galaxy (1957) is even a homage to Kipling’s Kim! Heinlein’s view of gender roles is also
unexpected—women may be doctors, pioneers, pilots, or even soldiers and survivalists.
His Starship Troopers (1959), was rejected by his juvenile publisher as being too violent
and militaristic; published for adults, it won the Best SF Novel Hugo award.
Heinlein’s influence on children’s SF (and on the young adult novel) was immense,
establishing its literary credentials and establishing classic plot motifs. He co-scripted
Destination Moon, the first post-war SF film, and his Space Patrol, an ethical
organisation run on naval lines, moulded Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the cult TV and
film series Star Trek.
One of Heinlein’s early disciples was Lester del Rey, with such books as Marooned on
Mars (1952), Attack from Atlantis (1953), and Moon of Mutiny (1961) about a teenage
space pilot with the gift of calculating courses without a computer. In the 1950s, Isaac
Asimov wrote a series of short thrillers about David ‘Lucky’ Starr, a ‘Space Ranger’;
Asimov’s second wife, Janet, who also wrote SF, collaborated with him on the Norby
Chronicles in the 1980s. These are humorous tales which are far-fetched even for SF,
and might best be called science fantasy.
Arthur C. Clarke, a British author writing for the American market, using American
genre conventions, wrote two juveniles. Islands in the Sky (1952) describes Clarke’s
vision of space satellites between earth and the moon, but the balance between
predicted fact and story is weighted towards non-fiction, and the book is a near
documentary. Dolphin Island (1963) is much better, a story enhanced by Clarke’s
personal experience of underwater exploration. Both books are set during the twenty-
first century, a time of world peace. Of Time and Stars (1972) is a collection of his short
pieces selected for young readers.
Ray Bradbury, another of SF’s all-time great authors, wrote no SF juveniles, but made
two selections from his adult short stories for the juvenile market, R is for Rocket (1962)
and S is for Space (1966), the latter including the chilling ‘Zero hour’ in which aliens
seduce the USA’s children into abetting their conquest of earth with the promise of late
nights and plenty of TV.
James Blish made A Life for the Stars (1962), the second volume of his Cities in Flight
quartet, a Heinleinian rite-of-passage story about a teenager press-ganged aboard a city
just before its take-off into space. He also wrote The Star Dweller (1961) and Welcome to
Mars! (1967)—both optimistic and rather intellectual.
Harry Harrison, one of today’s leading SF writers for adults, has written a few
juveniles, such as the very simply written The Californian Iceberg (1975), and the
humorous The Men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T. (1974). With Spaceship Medic (1970),
however, Harrison produced a book which deserves classic status. When a meteorite
holes a spaceship travelling to Mars, nearly all the ship’s officers are killed and the
ship’s doctor assumes command; he appoints new officers, corrects the ship’s course,
copes with solar storm and mutiny, and works out an antidote for the meteor-borne
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