Have Space Suit-Will Travel
|
|
Have Space Suit—Will Travel is a juvenile science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1958. Like his other juveniles, it is a well-constructed adventure story, but compared to many of them, it takes a more philosophical approach, examining what is noble and ignoble about the human race through a varied cast of characters that includes humans, aliens, and even a cave-man. (The "What is man?" theme is also explored in another of his juveniles, The Star Beast, but there the tone is more comedic and ironic, whereas Have Space Suit—Will Travel is heroic, and sometimes even tragic.) Heinlein makes good use of his engineering expertise to bring a sense of realism to the story; for a time during World War II, he had been a civilian engineer working at a laboratory where pressure suits were developed for use at high altitudes.
Kip, a bored high-school senior, enters an advertising-jingle contest, hoping to win an all expenses paid trip to the moon. He doesn't, but as a consolation prize he gets a used spacesuit. Resigned to making the best of a disappointing situation, he fixes it up and is walking around in it playing with the radio when a flying saucer lands, and he's captured by aliens and taken to the moon! Once there, he escapes with the aid of a fellow captive. However, they are recaptured and taken to the alien base on Pluto where their doom seems sure—until they are rescued by another race of aliens, only to discover that much more than their own fates hang in the balance...
Editions
- 1977, Ballantine, paperback, ISBN 0345260716
- May 1, 1977, MacMillan Publishing Company, hardcover, ISBN 0684148579
- July 12, 1981, Del Rey, paperback, ISBN 034530103X
- May 12, 1985, Del Rey, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 0345324412
- July 1, 1987, Hodder & Stoughton General Division, paperback, ISBN 0450007294
- June 1, 1994, Buccaneer Books, hardcover, ISBN 156849288X
- October 1, 1999, Sagebrush, library binding, ISBN 061313639X
- July 2003, Del Rey Books, hardcover, ISBN 0613949072
- July 29, 2003, Del Rey, paperback, 240 pages, ISBN 034546107X
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 1932076395
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 1932076409
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, CD audiobook, ISBN 1932076417
- February 8, 2005, Pocket, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 1416505490fr:Le Jeune Homme et l'espace