BOOKS: Orphans Of The Sky

By Jordan! What the huff is going on here?

Orphans Of The Sky, by Robert A. Heinlein

 

    I'd like to get something out of the way now, before I continue with my thoughts of this (generally) good book. I did a little reading on Goodreads about this book. It's average rating is 3.78 (out of 5), so almost 4 out of 5. Pretty good. I saw some people complaining about the misogynistic tones of this (and other Heinlein/50's-era sci-fi work) book, however. I went into this book, not judging, necessarily, but with a keener eye to try to pick up on this. I've enjoyed a few Heinlein novels that I read years ago (Starship Troopers, Door Into Summer, The Man Who Sold The Moon, The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag, and Citizen Of the Galaxy, but I really didn't care for that one), so I'm not new to him. I honestly cannot possible recall any sort of anti-woman things in those. That doesn't mean they aren't there, I just haven't read those books in a long time. I'm sure they do exist in those books, but I was a dumb teenager and didn't notice them. Now I'm a dumb adult. Unfortunately, there is some misogynistic garbage in here.
    The book is short (my copy was 128 pages), and basically the first 100 pages are fine. There is a passing mention of woman at the beginning, and then nothing until the end. Perhaps the fact that there are no female characters in the book, by and large, can be seen as misogynistic, but that didn't bother me too much. I mean, half the characters in the book are mutants anyway. However, the finale of the book has several cringe-worthy passages. The main character, Hugh, has two wives. Apparently, in this universe, it's the husband's job to name his wife (I guess?). He doesn't even give his second wife a name, and is so gracious as to allow his first wife to keep her old name. What a guy! It must be stated, Hugh has both these wives simultaneously. Other than this, the general tone of how the wives are treated is pretty bad. They are basically just less-than-human (maybe even less than the mutants? The mutants get much more respect from Hugh, and the two other main "good guys", Alan and Bill Ertz) pieces of properties of the men. It's a shame that this comes up, and it adds to the underwhelming ending of the book.
    Let's discuss some good. Overall, this was an enjoyable book, and it had an interesting idea. It's kind of a slam on organized religion (which I'm always down for), and shows how easy it is to manipulate people into believing whatever you tell them. The gist of it is that there's a gigantic spaceship floating through space, and it's inhabitants were all born on the ship, and they all think the ship is their entire universe. Nothing exists outside of the ship. I mean, how can something exist outside of the entire universe? Let's just say, all it takes to convince the main characters is a look at the stars beyond their ship, in the recesses of space.
    There is a whole religion and a set of rules based upon the idea that The Ship (as it is referred to throughout) is the universe. Learning about how the people on the ship live is interesting. It's an existence similar-yet-bafflingly-different than ours. I will say, the mutants (oft-referred to as "muties", which I assume is a derogatory term, although the mutants themselves use it too) were my favorite part of the book. They are basically just humans that were born deformed (due to space radiation, I wanna say), and ostracized from society. The humans fear them, and want them dead. The strongest of them is a two-headed man named Joe-Jim (not a hillbilly, actually. One head is named Jim, one is named Joe). They can be brutally violent (especially barely-brained Bobo. He constantly looks for opportunities for violence and to just eat people), but they don't yearn for it.
    This was an easy read, and I faced none of the confusion I did with Solaris, although I still preferred that book. The ending of this book (despite a nice, bloody final battle) was just a bit too deus-ex-machina for me. In describing how the main characters escape certain death, Heinlein uses the word "luck" (or any of its derivatives) at least half a dozen times. They were lucky enough to be able to use the space pod. They were lucky that it was easy to pilot, despite none of them knowing really how to operate it. They were lucky to be close enough to land on a moon. And hey, they were sure as hell lucky that the moon they landed on was inhabitable.
    Besides the final ten-or-so pages (with all the awful treatment of women, and all that damn luck), this is a good, fast read. It's interesting, has some good action, some diverse mutant characters, and some religious/social commentary. I'm sure you could do far worse.

I'd suggest this book. If you are super-sensitive about characters (and most likely the author) subscribing to the ancient bullshit of women not being equal, perhaps you should pass.