Ratings15
Average rating3.4
The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either needed connections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money than Max, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was ever going to have. What Max does have going for him are his uncle's prized astrogation manuals¾books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word for word, equation for equation. When Max's mother decides to remarry a bullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his Uncle Chet's manuals, and Max's near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars. But serving on a spaceship is no easy task. Duty is everything, and a mistake can mean you and all aboard are lost forever. Max loves every minute of his new life, and he steadily grows in the trust of his superior officers, and seems to be on course for a command track position. But then disaster strikes, and it's going to take every trick Max ever learned from his tough life and his uncle's manuals to save himself and the ship from a doom beyond extinction itself. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Featured Series
15 released booksHeinlein's Juveniles is a 15-book series first released in 1948 with contributions by Robert A. Heinlein and Роберт Э. Хайнлайн.
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“Max, a lot of things can happen to a man when he thinks he has the world by the tail.”
Lost in space!
That's not the only reference that came to mind. Max entering Earthport for this first time and staring at an alien reminded me of Men in Black. I'm sure this book has been a source of inspiration for many over the years. It's one of his best juveniles and a special one to me for having a plot that takes place outside the solar system for the first time (if I'm not mistaken). How exciting!