Variable Star

Milking a famous author's name after death seems almost inevitable (see "Herbert" and all the books which are very much not Dune) but even when done with the best of intentions and a modicum of talent, the result usually disappoints.

 

Variable Star was based on a seven (8-1) page outline discarded by Robert Heinlein in 1955. Its core plot recalls his other stories from that time to the point of repetitiveness, especially Starman Jones and Time for the Stars (and I already said one reminded me heavily of the other) but much of the rest reads like fan fiction. So if you're into dropping a lot of names and references from Heinlein's career, it's not the worst thing to spend a couple days on. But it's still, unmistakably, Robinson's book and not the master's.

 

Characters adopt a 1940s "wise guy" patter more than Heinlein's cowboy gentleman banter, military references are replaced with jazz, lessened social transgressions would freak out few mundanes and alien mindsets are not delved. Still though, it was nice to catch echoes of The Roads Must Roll and Farmer in the Sky and the core plot's individualism shines through and though I'm not crazy about his style, for the life of me I can't deny Robinson "gets" the old sailor so thoroughly that no digressions come across as insulting to his memory. If you go into it looking for an homage and not a recovered work, you'll probably enjoy Variable Star well enough.

 

But I do have to wonder at returns on time investment.

Though I've sampled a bit of each, I generally avoid the by-products of creativity: adaptations, fan works, biographies, comment sections, etc. They leave a sour aftertaste of idolatry, no matter how interesting the central opus or personage, a squelching muck sensation of group validation. Though I've spent far more time on The History of Middle Earth, its frequent tedium has been offset by added value, not that of fiction but of a study in the creative process itself. The same was to a lesser extent true of For Us the Living, which retained enough meat on the original bones to be contrasted fruitfully with the author's later approach to storytelling. Something like Variable Star, on the other hand, cannot help but feel watered down in its primary field (SF) for all the effort spent on referencing the original author, which references in turn serve no further purpose but fan service.

 

At some point it probably is best to let dead authors lie.