Synopsis
A. J. Libby is one of a group of youths who volunteer to work on converting an asteroid into a space station. Libby is a math savant.
History
First publication: Astounding November 1939
Review
This is true Hard Science Fiction, full of science and math, and a young man who is a genius. Don’t read this if you are bored by numbers and scientific facts. This stuff makes the whole story. It’s what makes science fiction different from all other types of literature. The point of the story is to discuss science. At the time it was published there wasn’t a space program, man had never gone into space. Heinlein thought this through and figured a lot of the sciecne and engineering necessary to convert an asteroid into a space station. Readers of science fiction magazines back then wanted this sort of thing. They were blown away by the wonders of science and technology. They would argue in letters columns about the numbers presented. It was the beginning of a whole new art form, one that is born of the space age. This story isn’t for everyone. I bet most people would hate it and think it is a bad story with little characterization and way too much technical discussion. But that is what makes the story unique and great. Recommended to anybody that truly loves science and math.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
The Great SF Stories 1 (1939), edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, paperback, DAW Books, 1979-03-00
The Past Through Tomorrow, hardcover, Ace/SFBC, 1987-07-00
All of the stories in the Future History series:
Coventry
Blowups Happen
Logic of Empire
—We Also Walk Dogs
The Green Hills of Earth
Space Jockey
It’s Great to Be Back
The Black Pits of Luna
Gentlemen, Be Seated!
Ordeal in Space
Delilah and the Space-Rigger
The Long Watch
The Menace from Earth
Searchlight
The Roads Must Roll
Life-Line
Misfit
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
If This Goes On—
Orphans of the Sky
Let There Be Light
