Um livro ágil e equilibrado sobre imigrantes que vão a colonizar Ganímedes, em Júpiter, abordando sua viagem, seus problemas, e a difícil missão de prosperar como fazendeiros. Não deixa de ser curioso o quanto esses humanos do futuro são tipicamente estado unidenses da década de 50, com todo o lado macho garoto escoteiro, patriarca engenheiro, dona de casa atrapalhada e vizinhos guerreiros, "sobreviventes". Mas creio que a escrita cativante e os episódios mundanos, mas futuristas, e as considerações sobre agricultura superam esse lado retrô, em um bom livro, com essa ressalva.

Vencedor do prêmio Hugo 1951 (retro-Hugo 2001). ( )

More representative of RAH in his Boy's Life phase, a city boy and his father join the fledgling colony on Ganymede and find it's even harsher than they expected. The hours and days in the promised land are not just filled backbreaking work but also with politics, arguments over land and gumption, and fields of rock. Very strong characters and story. ( )

Interesting story of a teen going to one of Jupiter's moons in order to homestead. There's enough science to make the narrative believable, but not so much as to bore the reader. I liked it quite a bit, and am keeping my copy for a future reread. ( )

This is a 1950s era youth oriented science fiction novel by the grand master of the early years of the genre. It tells the story of a teenage boy and his family as they leave a critically overcrowded Earth and immigrate to the frontier colony on Ganymede, the terraformed moon of Jupiter.

The plot movement is slow as Heinlein explains in detail how everything works. The effort to provide a plausible description of yet to be invented or understood developments is a distinctive feature of early SF. It is analogous to the convention in literary fiction which emphasizes word choice and an obsessive focus on character development at the expense of plot movement.

I suspect most readers today will find this novel lacking in appeal but the story in its essence is the stock tale that underlies “coming of age” teen literature. ( )

I’ve read this book in Russian translation some 25 years ago and now re-read the original. I enjoyed the novel then and I liked it now. While today I can clearly see the severe censorship the author met in his juveniles, which are quite unlike either modern YA books or his own works for more mature audience, it is great how he overcome it to preach his vision on how a man (they are mostly for boys after all) should behave – honest, helping, independent and self-reliant.
The story takes place on overpopulated Earth, from which the protagonist and his family moves to the moon of Jupiter, Ganymede to settle a farm there. There is a lot of edu-tainment, Heinlein style, a bit of hand-waving technology to advance the plot and, as usual for RAH, a lot of adventure in space and on the planet.
Honestly, I cannot state that this is the best Heinlein’s juvenile, there are a few I’d prefer, but it is quite solid if you like the author or have a nostalgia about good old SF, with not much sex and gore.
( )