Billed as a collaboration beyond the grave, crossing much of the same history one of the authors had written about and predicted, Variable Star is a mixture of old and new science fiction. Before he died, Robert A. Heinlein left behind eight pages of a juvenile science fiction novel he never got around to writing. He was on the cusp of going from writing young adult novels to stepping into the edgier adult market that he left a permanent imprint on as well.

If there’s one thing I have to say left a permanent impression on my growing years and was probably the reason I became a writer, I have to point to the childhood science fiction I devoured at the public library. Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton forever changed the course of my life. Edgar Rice Burroughs did as well, but his stuff spoke to me in different ways, even though it’s regarded as foundation science fiction these days as well.

Spider Robinson was also one of those young readers affected by Heinlein’s no-nonsense approach to science fiction. Obviously enamored of Heinlein and science fiction in general, Robinson has written several novels in that genre. He’s best known for his Callahan’s Cross-Time Saloon series, which is filled with puns and inside jokes as well as adventure and science fiction.

A few years ago, as Robinson explains in his afterword to the book, he was at a convention where it was announced by Robert A. Heinlein’s literary agent that the novel outline existed. One of the audience members suggested that Robinson, who was touted as a Heinlein aficionado head and shoulders above the rest, write the novel based on that outline. After a few months and some serious negotiations, that came to pass.

Unfortunately, the idea of the book is much better than the final execution. The plot revolves around Joel Johnson, a young protagonist – though he often reads as so much older that reference to his age often jarred me. Joel is dating Jinny Hamilton, and is getting pressured into getting married and having children. He protests, stating that they’ve only just completed university (they’re 18) and money is an issue.

Jinny then proceeds to reveal that she is the daughter of the solar system’s richest man. If Joel doesn’t inherit that position through marriage, then his son is scheduled to be. Freaking out, Joel flees and tries to figure out what to do with himself.

Since the Conrad family, especially Conrad of Conrad, is so powerful, he figures that in order to escape the marriage or their vengeance, he has to leave the planet. So he signs up aboard a colony ship.