| Author: | Robert A. Heinlein |
| Copyright: | 1948 |
| Date Reviewed: | 8/11/85 |
| Rating: | 6.0 |
Synopsis: For years, Matt Dodson wanted to join the Space Patrol and as soon as he came of age, he did. Matt leaves his home in Des Moines, Iowa and travels to Terra Base station where his training begins. There he learns about the customs and real purpose of the Space Patrol. The Space Patrol was formed to keep the peace in the solar system. They use weapons when they have to but they prefer to settle arguments peacefully. The Space Patrol is also responsible for all orbiting nuclear weapons. The Space Patrol is rich with customs. At every muster, the sacred four are called: Dahlquist, Martin, Rivera and Weeler.
At Terra Base, Matt joins up with three other recruits, a loud mouth but friendly Tex Jarmen, Oscar Jensen from Venus and Pierre Armand from Ganymede. The four friends also have a run in with Girard Burke a standard bully. Training at Terra Base consists of intensive study in astrogation and languages. There are many examinations to test the recruits abilities and integrity. Candidates are dropped off a cliff to simulate free fall and subjected to seven or more G's. They are tested in an actual flight. After several weeks those who have not been disqualified are promoted to cadets and sent aboard the Randolph for more training. This includes more study, piloting duties, space walking, and training younger cadets.
Finally the "passed list" is posted and the four friends find themselves assigned to duty aboard real ships. Matt, Tex and Oscar are assigned to the P.R.S. Aes Triplex. Their first mission is to find the P.R.S. Pathfinder, missing in the asteroid belt. They do find her but the crew is dead from asphyxiation when a small meteorite pierced an air lock. The captain of the Aes Triplex decides to commission the Pathfinder and assigns half his crew to bring it home. This leaves him with a skeleton crew including the three cadets.
On their way back home, a distress call is sent from Venus. No details, just a local uprising. The Aes Triplex does not have enough fuel to land at Venus. They have just enough to swing passed and drop a jeep ship. This is commanded by Lieutenant Thurlow. The crew of course are our cadets. The ship lands in a mud flat and sinks, leaving the lieutenant badly injured and unconscious. This leave Oscar in command (it's his home planet) and he calls for help from the native amphibious intelligent beings. It is these creatures that are "responsible" for the local uprising. Days before, Girard Burke captained his father ship to Venus to search for minerals. Having found them, he tried to make a land deal with the queen who was not interested. Frustrated, Burke kidnaps the queen and the next day her troops kill all of Burke's men and kidnaps him. The four men from the Aes Triplex are also kidnapped because they assemble Burke. Thanks to Oscar's knowledge of native customs, they are eventually freed. Burke's and their own ship are hopelessly destroyed but with an old relic that came to Venus 100 years before, the five make it back to South Pole Base and rescue.
Review: This is the eighth Heinlein adolescent coming of age novel that I've read and in the past I always enjoyed them. Either I'm finally growing out of it or this one just wasn't that good. It certainly can't compare to the last one, "Tunnel in the Sky". I suppose the thing I disliked most about "Space Cadet" is that it took so long to get started. I understand the need for showing the training sequences but they dragged on for most of the book. What's more, they said nothing that hadn't been read by me so many times before (not Heinlein's fault, the book was published in 1948). By the time the action started, I was bored. The last few chapters on Venus were somewhat interesting, if not at all believable.