If You Like Heinlein,
Try Gerrold
Tue., August 12, 06:14 PM
I’ve been reading Leaping to the Stars by David Gerrold , which is the end of the trilogy that began with Jumping Off the Planet and continued with Bouncing Off the Moon. I don’t care if it’s classified as a kids’ book. I loved it. Hardly anyone writes that kind of science fiction any more.
The story begins on a grossly overpopulated, drowning-in-credit earth, where every problem of adolescence is magnified by the all-over difficulties. It continues to the moon, which has its own society and economy and which is easily accessible via the “elevator.” There’s science (or pseudo science; I don’t think there’s anything real in those gravity lenses) and philosophy and interesting characters and coming of age... (Y’know, in some ways it’s better than Heinlein.) I hated for it to end.
David Gerrold has written other books, including a very amusing (yes, amusing!) chronicle of some terrifying monsters called chtorr. But among aficionados he is best know for having written “The Trouble With Tribbles” for Star Trek: The Original Series.
Our local UPN channel has been running Star Trek: Deep Space Nine every evening, and I’m really enjoying it. It seems as if they have chosen the episodes that were really character driven, and since I liked the characters, these were always among my favorites. U.D. says “you’re skipping ‘Jeopardy’?” But I know that “Jeopardy” will still be there when they’ve gone through these episodes.
What I’m really waiting for is an episode I remember that reprises “Tribbles.” “Deep Space” characters were inserted into sections of the original episode. It was great!
