Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Robert A. Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy as adapted by Robert Lazaro




I have always been a big fan of Robert A.Heinlein. Citizen of the Galaxy was one of the first books of his that I read. I remember well meeting and getting to know the main character, Thorby Baslim. I must have reread his adventures 10 or 12 times. So I was predisposed to like the graphic novel.

The basic story starts with Thorby being bought at a slave market as a child by what seems to be a beggar. As he grows older, Thorby realizes there is more to his "father" than just a beggar. Eventually Thorby winds up on a Free Trader ship, adopted into their family as a way to repay a debt. Then he joins the military and sooner rather than later winds up on Earth, in a way that he could never have imagined. There he realizes that his troubles are far from over.

While this was a reasonably good adaptation of the story, I felt it could have been better served as a multivolume edition. There were some important subplots that had to be removed in order for the book to fit into a single edition graphic novel. I was sorry to see them gone.

As far as that goes, however, it was a good introduction to Heinlein's story that could entice new readers, younger readers, to read the book after finishing the graphic novel. I will look for a copy to put in my classroom library. It is worth a read.

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