Time for the Stars (Čas pro hvězdy, 2011)

Přidal: Přemek |

Leden 9, 2012

Robert A. Heinlein. Audiobook – audiokniha.

Čte Barrett Whitener.

Vydavatelství Blackstone Audio, Inc., Unabridged edition v roce 2011 (1 CD mp3; 6:37 hod.)

Pozn.: Time for the Stars is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published by Scribner’s in 1956 as one of the Heinlein juveniles. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911 thought experiment in special relativity, commonly called the twin paradox, proposed by French physicist Paul Langevin. The story bears many similarities in plot and concepts to Variable Star written by Spider Robinson from an incomplete outline created by Heinlein around the time this book was written, and published in 2006.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.
Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds. When they are recruited by the Long Range Foundation, the twins find out that they can, indeed, peer into each other’s thoughts. Along with other telepathic duos, they are enlisted to be the human transmitters and receivers that will keep the ships in contact with Earth. But there’s a catch: one of the twins has to stay behind—and that one will grow old—while the other explores the depths of space and returns as a young man still.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Many science fiction writers have done stories involving space travel at near-light speeds, and/or human colonies on far distant planets. One of the common themes that goes along with stories of this nature, is the problem of communication between colonies and the home planet. As sci-fi fans know, this presents a problem because regular radio transmissions would take years to travel the vast emptiness of space. Different science fiction writers have come up with some different ways to overcome the difficulty, usually involving some very complicated scientific theories.
Robert Heinlein, on the other hand, came up with a very simple solution. Good old-fashioned telepathy! In Time For The Stars, scientists have discovered that some humans have telepathic abilities, especially and mostly where twins are concerned. Through a lot of testing, they also learned that telepaths communicate with each other at more than light speed, providing nearly instantaneous communication between any two points, no matter how far apart they are. Of course, the obvious drawback is that the twins have to be split up, one on Earth, one on a distant colony. Sci-fi fans will also realize that the twin traveling through space will age much more slowly than the one left on Earth. So, while the twins are in constant communication with each other, the one on Earth is getting older very rapidly, while the one traveling through space doesn’t seem to age at all. I wonder what kinds of psychological problems that might cause?
Robert Heinlein’s novels are always classified as science fiction, but the sci-fi is usually just a platform for his commentary, whether political, religious, or social. Time for the Stars, on the other hand, is science fiction of the purest form. Interstellar travel, exploring new planets, encountering alien life; this is old school sci-fi and I loved every minute of it.
Barrett Whitener did an okay job with the narration of Time for the Stars, but it was nothing special I’m afraid. It seemed like he struggled a little with foreign dialects, although there were only a couple of them in this audiobook so it wasn’t a fatal flaw..