Line #73 Literature/VariableStar


1	[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/variable_star_9040.jpg]]
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3	What do you do when the [[Creator/RobertAHeinlein Grand Master]] of science fiction leaves behind incomplete notes on a book never written? Give them to the man recognized as [[Creator/SpiderRobinson his disciple]] and tell him to get cracking. The result is recognizably the product of two minds, begun before one was born and finished after the other died. It received mixed reviews. The basic structure of the story is very much that of Heinlein's juveniles, which is what Heinlein intended it to be when he plotted it; a young man goes to the stars, and there he finds himself. Much of the story is very much ''not'' that of a Heinlein juvenile; there's sex and drugs and the main character is a musician, not an engineer-slash-soldier of fortune. As Heinlein was plotting it during his time as a writer for teen sci-fi magazines, it's likely the other elements were added by Creator/SpiderRobinson.
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5	Joel Johnston knows what he wants: to be a musician, composer, and conductor; to study music on scholarship at a fantastic school; to marry his darling girlfriend Jinny. Unfortunately, things take a serious left turn and he finds himself fleeing the solar system on a GenerationShip leaving for the star Peekaboo. He loafs a bit, he drinks a bit, he sluts a bit; then things go seriously wrong.
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7	----
8	!!This novel provides examples of:
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10	* AlienSky: Anticipated, discussed, never seen (partially because most of the action takes place before they actually ''get'' there).
11	* AllMonksKnowKungFu: Somewhat justified. He's not quite a monk, but he is Buddhist, and rather than Kung Fu, he practices a Japanese martial art. Because he's Japanese.
12	* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Somewhat justified, as we're talking about colonization efforts. Also, somewhat averted as the planet the Sheffield is going to is actually quite different. Its gravity is much lower, and therefore it can only be habitable with a much higher oxygen percentage (thinner atmosphere, more of it has to be O2), and therefore it can only be habitable if it has a much higher humidity (to keep everything from catching on fire), etc.
13	* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:A Class X-2 occurs halfway through the story when the Sun goes nova, destroying all life in the solar system. Even worse, the explosion releases a wave of gamma radiation that threatens all of humanity's colonies.]]
14	* ArtificialIntelligence: A more realistic treatment than usual; the computers are computers, albeit remarkably sophisticated. They're treated as marvelous machines, but never alive.
15	* AsteroidMiners: It's a Heinlein story.
16	* BigFancyHouse: The Conrad estate.
17	* BinarySuns: Peekaboo is a binary star system, but the second sun is far enough from the colony planet that it won't be a problem; but it will be brighter than the moon is on Earth.
18	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Earth and the rest of the solar system is toast, but the crew of the Sheffield are able to warn the rest of the colonies thanks to the experimental FTL engine from the Conrads' ship.]]
19	* BlackBox: How the Relativistic Drive works. It's treated as a BlackBox in the text, and Robinson explicitly calls that in a note after the text. No one, not even the people who operate it, knows how it works, or even how they are making it work.
20	* BoardingParty: Conrad's final appearance.
21	* TheBridge: Where the climax of the novel occurs, but never seen beforehand.
22	* BurialInSpace: Surprisingly averted. The dead are instead buried. In dirt. On the farm.
23	* ButNotTooBi[=/=]NoBisexuals: There are many heterosexual encounters and some important and positive homosexuals. Joel at one point mentions a gay relationship on his own part and describes himself as het-bi, but apart from that one relationship, is almost exclusively hetero.
24	* CabinFever: When the simulator goes down, people go a little stir crazy; then they start making their own entertainment and are fine.
25	* CantGetAwayWithNothing: Every time Joel does something stupid in the book, it comes back to bite him in the ass, usually in a pretty major way. Granted, this is in large part because the mistakes he's making are due to the fact that he's got some serious emotional issues, and keeps trying to run away from his problems. His screw-ups also tend to be fairly spectacular, again because of his emotional troubles.
26	* CassandraTruth / YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: Averted. When Joel gets around to explaining how he ended up on the Sheffield, his friends more or less accept what he says at face value. This is because they all figured that he had to be running away from something huge to be as messed up as he is.
27	* ColonizedSolarSystem: The Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn's moons, and various asteroids throughout the solar system have been settled (mostly as ShoutOut's to various earlier Heinlein novels), as have numerous planets outside the solar system.
28	* ComingOfAgeStory: For Joel.
29	* CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit: Of a sort. The banker on board the Sheffield helps everyone on board (with the necessary funds) to take advantage of TimeDilation.
30	* CosyCatastrophe: Straight and averted. The [[spoiler:complete destruction of the solar system]] leaves the denizens of the Sheffield alive, but they're very much affected by it.
31	* DarkActionGirl: Conrad's bodyguard.
32	* DeathByTransceiver: Telepaths are aware of the sudden, tragic deaths of their twins.
33	* DespairEventHorizon: After the [[spoiler:EarthShatteringKaboom]], things are bad. Then they lose [[spoiler: their third relativist, meaning they can never land and will all be dead in a few generations]]. That's when the suicides start.
34	** It turns out that [[spoiler:the astronomer]] was driven to this almost immediately after the Sheffield left Earth and never told anyone. He realized that the measurements he took as they left meant [[spoiler:the solar system was going to be destroyed.]] He quietly got addicted to the simulator and when that failed he became a hardcore alcoholic before committing suicide.
35	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: The unstable astronomer, after the destruction of the solar system]].
36	** [[spoiler: Also one of the Relativists, dooming the ship to travel through space at near-light speed for all eternity. The exact reason for his suicide is never given, as his suicide note is deleted sight-unseen, but he had never been very stable at the best of times.]]
37	* DuetBonding: How Joel's musical talent is introduced to the ship; an unexpected duet with an unseen partner.
38	* TheElitesJumpShip: [[spoiler: The Conrad family, the wealthiest people in the galaxy,]] develop a faster-than-light starship they use to escape Earth with a few servants when the sun goes nova. They catch up with Joel's GenerationShip and offer to help save its people. Most of them are sincere, but [[spoiler: Richard]] is just planning to steal the ship's supplies and then abandon the people onboard.
39	* EpicRocking: Joel's Master Piece. Fifteen minutes of sustained saxophone. Baritone sax, at that.
40	* ExactWords: See OhCrap.
41	* FailureToSaveMurder: Mr Jackson laments that he didn't invent his FTL drive sooner.
42	* FasterThanLightTravel: A marvelous breakthrough, just in time.
43	* Fiction500: Conrad, of course. Joel as well, eventually.
44	* FirstGirlWins: Somewhat. The first girl introduced in the book does not. But the first girl Joel meets in the course of the narrative does.
45	* GenerationShip: The starship Sheffield on which Joel flees the solar system.
46	** Though thanks to TimeDilation, even though the ship is slated to take 80+ years to get to Brazil Novo, to the ship's passengers it would seem like only 20 years had passed. Some of them do decide to have children in transit, however, partly so they'll be old enough to work as farmhands when the colonists land.
47	* GoldDigger: Conrad implies that Joel is this, just a bit, without condemning him for it. Joel can't tell if that was an insult to him or to Jinny, as he was completely unaware of the money - in fact the idea of marrying so much money ''terrifies'' him into fleeing not only the Earth but the solar system.
48	* HalfIdenticalTwins: Telepathy only happens between identical twins. Herb's twin is his sister... Given the sensibilities of the author, this could be half identical twins or a trans woman. Or a genetic disorder.
49	* HeelRealization: Almost everyone on Conrad's ship once they understood his plan.
50	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Herb]], in order to help save everyone aboard the Sheffield.
51	* HighHeelFaceTurn: Of a sort. Once [[spoiler:Ms. Robb]] understands just what [[spoiler: Conrad of Conrad's]] real plan is, she turns on him and kills to make sure he fails.
52	* HighTimesFuture: Marijuana is openly grown on the farming deck. Though opium is apparently still illegal as Joel gets mad when some guys ask him to grow poppy flowers, he may have misheard them as the security recording indicated a genetically engineered plant called "happy hour", which is legal.
53	* HollywoodEconomics: The time travel gambit, Joel's sudden wealth... what does any of it matter when they're traveling 80 light years and everyone's going to be a dirt farmer at the other end? And how do the backers expect to profit?
54	** However, this reflects the same thing that happened [[TruthInTelevision with the colonization of the Americas]], particularly the English colonies. Companies were founded and funded with the hopes of making big profits... somehow. Most didn't pan out.
55	* HypercompetentSidekick: Ms. Robb. Her boss isn't incompetent, far from it, but she has to be very, very good at many things to be his Enabler.
56	* HyperspeedEscape: How Conrad shows up.
57	* {{Improv}}: Joel's a jazz saxophonist; this is part and parcel.
58	* IncrediblyLongNote: Joel's Masterpiece is an improvised piece involving circular breathing, thus no phrase ever ends, but segues into the next. Plus, he does this on a baritone saxophone, which requires much more air to be pushed through to play. Marathons might be less exhausting.
59	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Joel attempts to cope with discovering the truth about Jinny by going on an epic bender. He goes on another one during his first week on the Sheffield. Neither one lasts long, because he's flat broke after the first binge, and the second one lasts only as long as his alcohol ration.
60	* InterplanetaryVoyage: The vast majority of the story takes place aboard the Sheffield.
61	* InvisibleAliens: Mentioned early on, then becomes more significant without ever answering the questions involved.
62	* KingIncognito: In a story, how Jinny reveals her background.
63	* LightspeedLeapfrog: Their relativistic ship gets rescued by the first FTL ship.
64	* {{Lightworlder}}: Joel grew up on Ganymede, with gravity 1/3rd Earth's, which made him ideal for the Sheffield.
65	* LostColony: A variant, rather than losing a colonized planet, a GenerationShip falls off the radar (having lost its telepaths and its Relativists).
66	* LonelyRichKid: Evelyn.
67	* LowerClassLout: Played with with the two transportees who approach Joel about growing illegal drugs (sort of like space weed). They're lower class, underachieving, not very bright, on the wrong side of the law, but they're not inveterate criminals.
68	* MoneyToThrowAway: Joel doesn't go crazy, but he does fix up the cubic he shares with his roommates, making all of them more comfortable.
69	* NamingYourColonyWorld: And its moons. Actually a discussion in-universe. The colony was technically and formally named "Brasil Novo" (New Brazil), but this was rapidly shortened to "Bravo". The moons were originally Phobos and Deimos, but were changed to those of [[WriterOnBoard famous musicians]].
70	* NeverMyFault: Discussed after things take a bad turn[[note]]specifically, they no longer have enough Relativists to (reliably) slow the ship back down[[/note]] -- If a kid hits his thumb with a hammer, he'll blame someone in the room. If he's alone, the ''hammer'' gets told "see what you made me do". The point of the speech is that everyone left shouldn't start 'pointing fingers', but find something positive to do with what they have.
71	* NoSeatBelts: Justified. If you need them at 0.97c, you don't need them. And when things go wrong on the Sheffield, gravity turns off and people float, they don't fly into walls.
72	* NonIdleRich: The Conrads. They're richer than Croesus, but they put themselves through hellishly difficult educations and work for the money. For all of their medically extended lives.
73	* NotWithThemForTheMoney: Joel's completely unaware of it. And when he is, he has to flee.
74	* OhCrap: There are a few such moments. It's a surprisingly dark book.
75	** When Joel finally twigs to the fact that Jinny is the scion of the wealthiest family ever to live, Conrad. Part of this realization is that their car ride back to her apartment is taking such a very long time because her ExactWords were to instruct the car to take her ''home''.
76	** Most of the way through the book, with the catastrophic [[spoiler:destruction of the solar system, and all but a few thousand human beings.]]
77	** A short time later when [[spoiler:the Sheffield's relativistic drive fails, dooming everyone on board.]]
78	* OneSteveLimit: Stretched to the breaking point with Joel Johnston's roommate, Joe Johnson. HilarityEnsues when they first meet.
79	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Religion for the most part is dead and buried in the novel's setting. See ReligionOfEvil below for more details.
80	* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: The Conrads.
81	* {{Polyamory}}: Mentioned in passing as one of the marriage options available on the ''Sheffield''.
82	* PunctuatedForEmphasis. "The time. For fear. Is ''past'' now."
83	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The ship's psychologist lays one down on the entire crew after the astronomer commits suicide. He had been spending all his free time in the simulators, and when they shut down, he spiraled into depression and took his own life. She was furious that no one had noticed his addiction, and had left him to his own devices when he was forced into withdrawal.
84	* ReligionOfEvil: The historical perspective is that the restrictive theocracy of Nehemiah Scudder was particularly vile, and the society of Earth is presented as having moved beyond religion and viewing monotheism and religion as being a backwards and rather unpleasant thing. Buddhism is still alive and well, thanks to the author not realizing that theism and religion aren't exactly synonymous.
85	%%* SecretlyWealthy: Jinny.
86	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Joel's response to being offered a position in a family that owns, roughly, one quarter of all human wealth is, "No thank you, I want to make my own way."
87	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Conrad's way of life.
88	* SheIsAllGrownUp: When Evelyn shows back up.
89	* ShoutOut: As well as being based on notes by Heinlein, this book features references to several of Heinlein's works. Here are the most notable examples, Website/TheOtherWiki has more.
90	** The idea of TwinTelepathy being used to communicate across interstellar distances was the central concept of ''Literature/TimeForTheStars''.
91	** Nehemiah Scudder and his oppressive theocracy was a prominent feature of Heinlein's "Future History" stories, most prominently ''Revolt In 2100.''
92	** The Conrad dynasty is very similar to the Rudbeks of ''Literature/CitizenOfTheGalaxy'', right down to how the head is referred to as "Conrad of Conrad."
93	** Joel was a farmer on Ganymede, much like the protagonist of ''Literature/FarmerInTheSky''. His hometown is Lermer, the same as the name of the character from ''Farmer''.
94	** The Sheffield is most likely a reference to another Heinlein character, Commodore Aaron Sheffield, also known as Lazarus Long.
95	** A non-Heinlein example, Jinny calls Rennick "Smithers," which is heavily implied to be a reference to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons.''
96	* SoleSurvivingScientist: Andrew Hamilton survives the destruction of the solar system onboard the FasterThanLightTravel ship he recently invented. He's is quick to consider ways to use it to rescue as many people as possible from the colonies that will be hit by solar radiation, [[spoiler: although it's someone else who proposes just putting his engine in a bigger ship.]]
97	* SongsOfSolace: After some good friends die, you might need cheering up.
98	* StandardTimeUnits: The fact that Brasil Novo has a slightly different length day, differing seasons, etc comes up, but never really becomes important to the story.
99	* StarshipLuxurious: Averted. Nowhere on the ship is there space enough for even the paltry 500 citizens aboard.
100	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Jinny and her younger cousin Evelyn resemble each other, to the point where [[spoiler: Joel initially thinks he's seeing two Jinny's when he meets the Conrads again after Evelyn's grown up.]]
101	* {{Telepathy}}: Limited to identical twins, and used to overcome the speed of light limitation for communication.
102	* TimeDilation: They end up traveling roughly 0.97c.
103	* TwinTelepathy: Telepathy is only available to identical twins.
104	* UnexpectedInheritance: Of a sort; Joel's stock turns out to be not worthless. Instead, it suddenly makes him very wealthy.
105	* YesMan: Rennick.
106	* YouCanRunButYouCantHide: Joel doesn't want a life of unearned, opulent wealth. He wants to be a musician, not an accountant. He wants to be ''free'', not caught up in the unimaginable machinations of the wealthiest family ever to live. Unfortunately, he is, and by attempting to run away he has embarrassed them. Literally the only way to be free of the Conrads is to not be on the same planet as them.
107	** And even ''that'' didn't entirely work; he successfully escapes his adult girlfriend, but [[spoiler:the ''pre-teen'' he meets while visiting the Conrad estate becomes hopelessly infatuated with his freedom-loving ranting, and sponsored the development of a FasterThanLight stardrive specifically to chase down the light-hugger he's on. Not the first time a young Heinlein girl has invoked TheJailBaitWait]].
108	* YouDidEverythingYouCould: The general response to Mr Jackson's feelings of guilt.

Context Literature / VariableStar