Between Planets

The story moves briskly from a quiet ranch to a space station, then to the jungles and cities of Venus, and Heinlein keeps Don on the move throughout. The ring he carries gives the plot a simple but effective thread of suspense, and the gradual revelation of its importance ties the adventure together.

The heart of the book is Don's search for where he belongs. Born in space, with parents on Mars and friends on Earth and Venus, he has to decide where his loyalties lie. The native Venerians, especially a cultured, dragon-like scholar who befriends him, are among Heinlein's most charming alien characters.

The science is of its time, with a swampy, habitable Venus that we now know does not exist, and the war is handled in broad strokes. Some readers find the ending rushed. Read as a classic adventure about independence and identity, it holds up well, and it is shorter and quicker than many of Heinlein's other juveniles. It also pairs nicely with Red Planet, since both explore what it means to grow up on a frontier world far from Earth. About 190 pages in the Del Rey mass-market paperback.