Time for the Stars is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
published by
Scribner'sCharles Scribner's Sons is a New York City publisher that is best known for publishing a number of luminaries of American literature including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana and John Clellon Holmes.The firm published...
in 1956 as one of the
Heinlein juveniles"Heinlein juveniles" is a phrase that refers to the twelve novels written by Robert A. Heinlein and published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958. The intended readership was teenage boys, but the books have been enjoyed by a wide range of boys, girls, and adults...
. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911
thought experimentA thought experiment, sometimes called a gedankenexperiment in German, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis or theory....
in
special relativitySpecial relativity is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"...
, commonly called the
twin paradoxIn physics, the twin paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity, in which a twin who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he has aged less than his identical twin who stayed on Earth. This result appears puzzling on this basis: the laws of physics...
, proposed by French physicist
Paul LangevinPaul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the February 6, 1934 far right riots...
.
The Long Range Foundation is a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind that nobody else will touch. It has built a dozen exploratory spaceships (
torchshipTorchship is a term used by Robert A. Heinlein in several of his science fiction novels and short stories to describe fictional rocket ships that can maintain high accelerations indefinitely, thus reaching speeds that approach the speed of light...
s) to search for habitable planets to colonize.
Time for the Stars is a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
published by
Scribner'sCharles Scribner's Sons is a New York City publisher that is best known for publishing a number of luminaries of American literature including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana and John Clellon Holmes.The firm published...
in 1956 as one of the
Heinlein juveniles"Heinlein juveniles" is a phrase that refers to the twelve novels written by Robert A. Heinlein and published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958. The intended readership was teenage boys, but the books have been enjoyed by a wide range of boys, girls, and adults...
. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911
thought experimentA thought experiment, sometimes called a gedankenexperiment in German, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis or theory....
in
special relativitySpecial relativity is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"...
, commonly called the
twin paradoxIn physics, the twin paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity, in which a twin who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he has aged less than his identical twin who stayed on Earth. This result appears puzzling on this basis: the laws of physics...
, proposed by French physicist
Paul LangevinPaul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the February 6, 1934 far right riots...
.
Plot summary
The Long Range Foundation is a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind that nobody else will touch. It has built a dozen exploratory spaceships (
torchshipTorchship is a term used by Robert A. Heinlein in several of his science fiction novels and short stories to describe fictional rocket ships that can maintain high accelerations indefinitely, thus reaching speeds that approach the speed of light...
s) to search for habitable planets to colonize. The vessels can only gradually accelerate, and then merely to sub-light speeds, so the voyages will last many years. Therefore, each starship has a much larger than necessary crew to maintain a more stable, long-term shipboard society, as well as provide replacements for the inevitable deaths.
It is found that some twins and triplets can communicate with each other telepathically. The process seems to be instantaneous and unweakened by distance, making it the only practical means of communication for ships traveling many light years away from Earth. Before announcing the discovery, the foundation first recruits as many of these people as it can.
Testing shows that teenagers Tom and Pat Bartlett have this talent. Both are eager to sign up. Pat, the dominant twin, manipulates things so that he gets selected as the crewmember, leaving a fuming Tom to stay behind. However, Pat does not really want to leave and his
subconsciousThe term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a meaning-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
engineers a convenient accident so that Tom has to take his place at the last minute.
On board, Tom is pleased to find his uncle Steve, a military man, has arranged to get assigned to the same ship. The trip is fraught with problems as trivial as an annoying roommate and as serious as mutiny.
The ship visits several star systems. Due to the nature of relativistic travel (see
Twin paradoxIn physics, the twin paradox is a thought experiment in special relativity, in which a twin who makes a journey into space in a high-speed rocket will return home to find he has aged less than his identical twin who stayed on Earth. This result appears puzzling on this basis: the laws of physics...
), the twin who remained behind ages faster and eventually the affinity between them is weakened to the point that they are no longer able to communicate easily. However, some of the spacefaring twins, including the protagonist, are able to connect with the descendants of the Earthbound twins. Tom works with his niece, then his grandniece and finally his great-grandniece.
The last planet scouted proves to be particularly deadly. Unexpectedly intelligent and hostile natives capture and kill a large portion of the remaining crew, including the captain and Tom's uncle. The reserve captain takes charge, but is unable to restore the morale of the devastated survivors. When he insists on continuing the mission rather than returning to Earth, the crew begins to consider mutiny.
Shortly after he notifies Earth of the dire situation, they are surprised by the appearance of a more advanced spaceship. The scientists on Earth have discovered
faster-than-lightFaster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
travel, in part due to research into the nature of telepathy, and are collecting the remaining crews of the Long Range Foundation starships. The explorers return to an Earth they no longer recognize, and in most cases, no longer fit in. Tom, however, returns to marry his last telepathic partner, his own great-grandniece, who has been reading his mind since childhood.