The Star Beast - renovating a classic

As Gillian mentioned in the previous post, Bruce Coville and the folks at Full Cast Audio have been producing dramatized audio versions of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels. With three books adapted thus far (Have Spacesuit Will Travel, The Rolling Stones, and The Star Beast), and three more to come (including Red Planet and Between Planets), Full Cast is doing a great job of bringing these somewhat forgotten titles new life.

The Star Beast was first published in 1954 and is out of print in book form, though it's fairly easy to find a copy. The story shows its age a bit, particularly in the portrayal of female characters and in failures to predict technology. Some of our current technology has already overtaken Heinlein's 23rd century predictions. As for the female characters, Heinlein was always sexist, though not necessarily in a bad way -- he had a firm sense of gender roles. This softened somewhat in his later works, but in the 1950s, it was decidedly a traditional and old-fashioned, occasionally unflattering view. And his juveniles were squarely aimed at pre-adolescent and teen boys, and sometimes serialized in Boy's Life magazine.

A 1985 article in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, "Heinlein's Juveniles: Still Contemporary After All These Years" calls attention to the timeless nature of Heinlein's work, despite the dated sociology and technology. There's still tremendous humor, satire, and the exaltation of personal responsibility, common sense, kindness and practical science. But mainly, Heinlein was a gifted storyteller, with a fine sense of character and plot. For all these reasons, it's a good thing that Full Cast Audio is reviving these neglected works.

I've listened to several Full Cast books and have never been disappointed, but The Star Beast is the best yet. With a large cast of over twenty performers, the production is engaging and the performances, particularly by the leads, are excellent. The book is eight hours on eight discs.

At the ALA conference in Toronto in 2003, I talked with Bruce Coville about the then-fledgling Full Cast Audio. I thanked him for reviving Edward Ormondroyd's David and the Phoenix, another childhood favorite. He was pleased that others remember these books, and was committed to bringing back some of the old classics as well as providing opportunities for contemporary writers to get their work dramatized.

Coville is working to make "family friendly" audiobooks, which he defines as "Can an intelligent adult and an intelligent youngster listen to the recording at the same time with mutual pleasure and a lack of embarrassment?" So he helps remind us that you don't have to outgrow children's books and that one of the strengths of audiobooks is the way they create opportunities for sharing.

He's succeeding admirably in all aspects.