Rating: 
Summary: Heinlein's fine tale of boy who goes from slave to magnate
Review: As Thorby goes from slave to son to stranger in, then member of a trading society, to enlisted man in a space navy, to galactic magnate, he finds that each position brings him freedoms he barely dreamed of, yet each has obligations as strong as steel.Heinlein took risks in this juvenile--almost every juvenile hero is your average, bright, well-adjusted kid, sometimes with a special talent. Thorby is damaged goods, psychologically, and the anger within from unresolved and repeated traumas never far from the surface. Yet we can identify with this boy, because we see in him what we all know to be true--you can never go back. Thorby repeatedly finds acceptance in the four society he experiences--as beggar, crew member on a Trader, crew member on a military vessel, and as a playboy on Earth. Three times he is forced to move on by events beyond his control. The final time, he chooses to fight those who would control him and take on the job of corporate magnate. He is not satisfied with the result-- he wants to go back into the military, or follow in Baslim's footsteps--but we know (and, in his heart, he knows) he will never have that opportunity, and will have to find peace where he is. The ending makes it clear he is moving in that direction. Some have complained about Heinlein glorifying tribalism by making Sisu, a ship where if you are not of the people, you are filth, seem like such a nice place. I think he's using an extreme example to make kids think about their own tribe--nation, religion, whatever--and how they and their family members treat non-members of that tribe. A fine, fine book about the growth of a boy into manhood.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, but the ending....?
Review: It was fun to read everything that happens to Thorby because he's seeing everything for the first time. There are basically 3 segments to the story. I think the best story was his time on Sisu, but you learn about the culture of the Family. But the ending was not so great. Believe it or not, the last 50 pages were about .... bureaucracy! That ruined a sense of mystique about the book, but it had a point since Thorby experienced life in different cultures. It was still weird, though.
Rating: 
Summary: A border book between Heinlein's juvenile and adult fiction
Review: Heinlein wrote a number of juvenile novels, meant to appeal to the barely-teenager set. Citizen of the Galaxy is often listed as a juvenile by his fans (as is Starship Troopers occasionally), but I would not consider it so. The book's interest is not in its one-dimensional characters. The interest is sustained in the number of new social and political entities that Heinlein invents, all of which are plausible. The hero, Thorby, starts the book on a planet with three "castes" - the nobility, the poor but free non-nobles, and slaves (which is how Thorby starts out). He then moves into the Free Trader society where all members of a trade ship are related (in name, at least) and have both a military rank and a familial hierarchy that is painfully exclusive. Finally, Thorby ends up on Earth ("Terra"), which is not as well developed fictionally; it is revered as the birthplace of mankind with where day-to-day life similar to our own. Naturally, these societies are painted with Heinlein's broad brush. There are a number of things that make you scratch your head, especially since it was written in 1957. While there are strong female characters, including the leader of the Free Trader ship, there's still that underlying Heinlein chauvenism ("You know women - they have no head for business"). Perhaps these statements are tongue-in-cheek, but it doesn't sound like it. More disturbing is his pessimism about slavery - numerous times he mentions the "inevitability" of slavery - and his apparent glorification of tribalism (the Traders call themselves "people" and everyone else are untermenschen). His condemnation of slavery and glorification of racism are incompatible to a modern ear, but it is thought-provoking and brings the story out of its potential mundacity. Flashes of Heinlein's future are included as well - Thorby's lawyer on Terra is eerily similar to Jubal Harshaw of "Stranger in a Strange Land". So, overall, I enjoyed the book. It was thought-provoking, interesting for its depiction of possible future civilisations, and you didn't know what was going to happen next so wanted to keep reading.
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Summary: A definition of freedom
Review: Citizen explores just what freedom really is as it follows a young man as he matures from boy to man. Starting as a slave sold to a most unusual beggar, we see the first aspect that many equate with the opposite of freedom. The society he paints here is vivid and believable (though the economics of slavery in a star-travelling culture has always seemed a little dubious to me). Sent to live with the Free Traders, Thorby discovers another aspect of freedom: a person's ability to do as he wishes is severely constrained by the culture in which he lives. The Free Trader society (which owes much to Margaret Mead's seminal ideas) of rigid matriarchal domination and separation into moieties provides security and peace of mind, but has as its downside great limitations on freedom of choice. This section of the book may be the best part, as the society is so different from today's American culture that it becomes fascinating in its own right, apart from its effects on Thorby. The last section deals with Thorby as the heir to a vast fortune, within a society not much different from our own, and shows a third aspect of freedom: the internal courageousness to make your own decisions and act upon them. Freedom is just as constrained by internal timidity as by external forces. As this last section offers little in terms of new or different views of society, it isn't as engrossing as the first two sections, but is highly important in terms of completing Heinlein's thematic investigation of all aspects of freedom. This book is not Heinlein's absolute best, nor even the best of his so-called 'juveniles' (which are typically better reading than most 'adult' mainstream bestsellers), but still provides an engrossing, fun, and illuminating read. Recommended for all readers willing to look at life styles different from their own.
Rating:
Summary: Good but shows why editors are sometimes needed
Review: One of the things I do like about Heinlein novels, especially the shorter ones is the apparent sprawl, a story can start out one way and then out of nowhere start going somewhere else entirely, so by the end you're nowhere near where you started. This would be one of those books. Thorby is a slave who doesn't know who is parents are and winds up getting sold to a one eyed, one legged beggar who isn't exactly what he seems. From there Thorby starts to begin rediscovering where he came from and who he is and by the time the story finishes you're going to have a hard time believing it's the same person. Actually, Heinlein does manage to convince you the Thorby you start with is the Thorby you end with but that's because he's a tad . . . boring. That's right, reading it reminded me of reading the adventures of an eager puppy, perhaps it's Heinlein's comment on what slavery does to you but Thorby for most of the story is basically looking for someone to tell him what to do it's pathetic. And even when he seems to be getting more initiative, it's only to go find someone else to give him better orders. So don't read it for the dazzling character study (the best character is probably Baslim the beggar, but he doesn't last long anyway . . .) read it for the plethora of ideas Heinlein splatters all over the page. From the slave trade and beggar existence to the Free Traders and beyond that, he crams in stuff that lesser writers would need entire series to tackle. He just tosses it off in a few pages and it feels like it has some actual depth to it. That's talent, folks. Here he has a knack for making the situations seem plausible and even likely, and the hard part about SF is making the reader believe. He convinced me here. The only other complaint with the book is that he falls in love with his ideas a bit too much and some parts of the book drag a bit, the fact that Thorby isn't all that interesting doesn't help and in parts the book has little drive whatsoever, it just sort of drifts. But if you've got the patience (and the book's not that long) and just keep plowing forward, it turns out to be fairly rewarding. Yeah, the ending is kind of "eh" but getting there is half the fun. Not his best, but still enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite of all
Review: Heinlein is one of my favourite authors, and I would certainly recommend this book to any one first reading him. It was a book I read as a teen-ager, re-read as a young adult and read again as I got older. It does what many of Heinlein's books do for you - they tansfer you to another place full of rich tapestries, worlds and people. You root for the character, feel sad for him and wish the best for him. After you read enough of his works, you see and hear many things that come from other books. Can be read alone, but serves as treats for loyal readers. Gret book by a great author.
Rating:
Summary: He could have ended the book 100 pages earlier
Review: From the first word I loved this book. It was captavating and itruiging for the first 200 pages, and then it crashes. The lovable book I just knew a couple pages ago turned a slave boy learning to be free into a business man suing a relative over stocks! At the end, I wasn't sure if I was reading Heinlein or a bad Clancy book! The ending was pointless, uninteresting, and just plain bad. If you want to read this book, stop at page 200 (I liked it a lot until then), because the rest is pure garbage.
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Summary: Be all that you can be - a citizen of the galaxy!
Review: Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galaxy" made me consistetly uncomfortable because I could never quite rid myself of the impression that the author was advancing the idea of the government as a benevolent, motherly institution. The main character's time about the Sisu, a veritable space city of the clannish Free Traders, is an excellent chance for the author to preach: he justifies excessive nationalism by trying to differentiate narrow-mindedness from ignorance; Heinlein depicts personal conflict in terms of a machine component in need of an oiling; and tradition ("no matter how pig-headed") is just the casing necessary to keep the parts from spilling; in several places Heinlein ridicules pacifism and admonishes that youth are best suited for war. The rest of the book provides further continual discourse on balancing the individual and the community. The Losians are a clear parody of communism. The character's time on the Hegemonic vessel is a spoof on bureaucracy. Heinlein's Engineers are in actuality lucid scientists - but try as they might arguing with Grandmother Sam, no one will pay attention to them. The under(over?)lying plot didn't really interest me except at the outset, where we find the child protagonist, Thorby, bought at a slaver's auction by an unseemly beggar, Buslim the Wise. Baslim happens to be more than he seems - he teaches Thorby various feats of memory, and how to be a proper, humane person. Baslim is also puzzled by Thorby's enigmatic parentage. The rest of the book details Thorby's journey to find his kin, picking up whatever lessons life teaches him on the way. Nevertheless, as a main character Thorby just isn't interesting. Despite having slaved for many different masters on several planets, he lacks an exotic psychological flavor. He also says "uh..." a great deal, and overall he is an archetypal teenager of the fifties. Similarly, despite being short on the science, the fictional aspect of this book hasn't aged gracefully: Heinlein's spaceships are just big battle cruisers, and his computers are simply big calculators. I'm not one to judge, but heed my words: this just doesn't seem the inspiring classic it is said to be. The lessons it offers are heavy-handed and questionable at best.
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Summary: From Jubbelpore to Finster to Woolamurra to Earth....
Review: We are introduced to Thorby as a scruffy young boy, being auctioned off as a slave on the planet Jubbelpore. He is so unpromising-looking that he ends up as the property of a one-legged resident of the Plaza and licensed mendicant (read, beggar) Baslim the Wise. Baslim drags Thorby home to his dwelling in the maze under the Plaze arena and thus begin the surprises in this very well-drawn novel. Baslim feeds, then teaches the young boy, who is pig-ignorant, dirty and starving. He learns to read, then learns other surprising skills from Baslim the Wise, who is not only a beggar and wise man on the Plaza, but something more. Just how much more we don't find out til much later in the novel. Thorby soaks up the rich lessons of the street and Baslim's teachings until one day he must flee for his life. He is assisted by the Free Traders, a society of space-faring traders who live on their ships and pay allegiance to no planet. This is a huge adjustment for Thorby--he must become a member of this insular group and follow their rigid customs and laws. Thorby does adjust and is so well accepted he is about to be given (mostly without his knowledge) a bride, until....it's time for him again to move on. Where Thorby does end up, and who he really is and how he finds out is the underlying story, but the real enjoyment is reading each distinct section of the book and savoring the different societies that Heinlein creates for us. This is rather like a sci-fi version of a "Bildungsroman" --the genre of novel where a young man comes of age and finds himself, but in a really imaginative and touching way.
Rating:
Summary: A Touching, Fast-Paced Read
Review: Except for the somewhat slow middle section, this is an extremely fast-paced read that more emotional than perhaps any other work of Heinlein's. It's a pretty touching story that will stay with you for a while after you read it. This is in contrast to much of Heinlein's work, which is generally preachy and heavy-handed. This is top-notch stuff... invigorating, touching, fast-paced, thought-provoking, and memorable. I would reccommend this book to youth or adults.
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