Time for the Stars
by Robert A. Heinlein · first published 1956
33% recommend67% neutral
This is a coming of age story about a set of twins who embark on a journey of exploration in space, but one never leaves planet earth. One grows old, the other ages much more slowly due to the relativity aspects of the journey. The explorations are more than just in space and time; they also deal with the exploration of self. Like most of Heinlein's novels, this story has a delightful optimism.
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And Robert A. Heinlein's 1956 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_the_Stars, one of his "juveniles" that I liked as a teenager.
on “US scientists find potentially habitable planet near Earth” ↗I love just about every one of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile science fiction novels [1] and still love them as an adult. When I was a teenager, Time for the Stars [2] was probably my favorite, but as an adult, I've come to appreciate Citizen of the Galaxy [3] more. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinlein_juveniles [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_the_Stars…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗There are very few sci-fi movies or books where relativity is important and they treat it seriously. Tau Zero is one, I'm not sure about Time for the Stars, but Forever War does have FTL. I created a list of all these works I could find a few years ago. Here is one link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=l6q90mvssgscsj... I think this is a…
on “How far could a spaceship go if we never ran out of thrust? (2020)” ↗And the people in the faster ships will be your grandchildren, yup. Plot of Heinlein's "Time for the Stars", pretty much.
on “Seven-Planet System Detected” ↗... what? It's been part of SF for decades. The first three that come to mind are: Heinlein's "Time for the Stars", Haldeman's "The Forever War", and Anderson's "Tau Zero". From those titles, a DDG search finds http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/relativity listing more, also containing the line "Very many sf stories…
on “How far could a spaceship go if we never ran out of thrust? (2020)” ↗…she is an intelligent redhead, and clearly modeled on Virginia Heinlein, even having a version of her name and her childhood nickname, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." As another example, Tom's great-grandniece in 'Time for the Stars'. I think to understand Heinlein's female characters, you also need to know more about Virginia Heinlein and their relationship. And be aware that the Heinleins were not always truthful about their accounts…
on “Sci-Fi Author Robert Heinlein Was Basically MacGyver” ↗In Robert Heinlein's novel Time for the Stars, a non-profit organization called the Long Range Foundation ("LRF") funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind that won't show results for decades or centuries. Some of these projects…
on “Where are the “big problem” jobs?” ↗Some of us first heard of Bode's Law[0] in childhood in the late 1950s, from reading Heinlein's "Time for the Stars"[1]. I have never forgotten a throw-away remark by one of the characters, when Earth's first-ever starship has for the first time entered a different planetary system, to the effect that "the astronomer…
on “Walter Murch: The legendary film editor on underlying patterns in the cosmos” ↗…paper posits "Scientific progress .. may even solve the riddle of travel at light speeds or beyond", we must also posit posit that scientific progress may solve the riddle of time travel. In Heinlein's "Time for the Stars" (1956) at https://archive.org/details/timeforstars0000unse/page/230/mo... the relativistic sublight ships are eventually met by FTL ships after about 63 years of Earth time, while only a few years of…
on “The Lazy Tyranny of the Wait Calculation” ↗…Heinlein added a few things to remind you that it is the future. Kilts are a trend in Methuselah's Children, white gloves for men in Double Star, nail polish for men in Beyond this Horizon, and at the end of Time For The Stars we realize that women throughout the story were always wearing hats, while back on Earth that fad had passed and women had naked heads "like an animal." While in Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, the…
on “Ask HN: Which scifi authors to interview about immortality?” ↗"Time for the Stars"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_the_Stars Not quite a worldship, but a large exploration vehicle.
on “World Ships: Feasibility and Rationale [pdf]” ↗Time for the Stars has FTL at the end. (Physical FTL, that is. Telepathic FTL exists at the beginning.) But it's otherwise it's deliberately structured around the twin paradox - the main character is even a twin. Indeed,…
on “How far could a spaceship go if we never ran out of thrust? (2020)” ↗