21 January 2011

Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein (1957), Audio CD read by Lloyd James (2004)

'Citizen of the Galaxy' is one of many juvenile SF novels written by Robert Heinlein. It tells the story of a boy named Thorby. At the beginning of the novel, Thorby is a child slave on a feudal planet, who is bought by the beggar Baslim. Baslim becomes his surrogate father and teaches him the value of education and hard work. However, Baslim is more than a mere beggar and leads a mysterious second life. When the police arrest Baslim, Thorby flees the planet on a space freighter.

The early part of the story about Thorby's adventures with Baslim on the Arabian-Nights-like planet are moderately interesting. Once the boy begins his journey on the space freighter, the story grinds to a halt as Heinlein brain dumps his study of anthropology on the reader. Perhaps back in the 50s, the idea that there could be societies based on extended families was new and exotic but in this age of the multiculturalism, Heinlein's laborious explanation is tedious. At that point, I gave up continuing the story.

1 out of 5 stars.