"Between Planets" by Robert A. Heinlein (1908-1988)

Publisher: Ballantine Del-Rey
Copyright: 1951
ISBN: None listed

Between planets is the fifth book in what are known as the Heinlein juvenile series. 

The dustjacket's blurb describes this book more concisely that I can: "Don, The hero of this story, is a citizen of the Federation but not of any planet. His mother was born on Venus, his father on Earth, and Don himself was born on a spaceship in trajectory between planets.  This curious citizenship makes difficulties for him when the rebellion starts on Venus. Whether or not Don can resolve his future allegiance to his best advantage remains to be seen."

Don is on his way to Mars to join his parents. But before he leaves Earth (where he is attending school) he is instructed to visit a family friend before he leave - this causes him no end of trouble, as the Federation forces are looking for him for some reason unknown to him.

Don never actually makes it to Mars until the last part of the story as he chooses to go to Venus rather than return to Earth when the space station he is on his attacked by the revolutionary forces. In the meantime he is a young man who is wanted by just about everybody.

On the surface this story seems to take place a number of years after "Farmer in the Sky". Because between the time of Farmer in the Sky and Between Planets there has been a limited nuclear war on Earth. For example Chicago, is now New Chicago and "Old Chicago" is described as an "... enormous field, still slightly radioactive ...". But it is also stated later on in the book that Mars is primarily a scientific establishment and is not colonized, which would actually put it before "Red Planet", and possibly even before "Space Cadet". There are other inconsistencies as well, but I won't go into them here.

Due to these differences I would say that this story does not really fall within the same storyline as the other books, but this does not detract from the story.

Once again this is a good story to introduce teenagers and young adults to classic science fiction, and it's well worth the read.