Universe

Heinlein, Robert A. "Universe." Astounding May 1941. Rpt. as book New York: Dell, 1951. Rpt. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Vol. IIA. Ben Bova, ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973. New York: Avon, 1974. Rpt. with its sequel "Common Sense" as Orphans of the Sky. London: Gollancz, 1963. New York: Berkley, 1970.

Possibly the definitive story about a generation-starship: a ship whose passengers and/or crew are "men and women, whose families breed, and whose remote descendants eventually reach the destination" (S. F. Ency., "Generation Starships"). The people of "Universe" have forgotten their mission and mistake the spaceship for a world. See in this Category E. Bryant's Phoenix without Ashes, H. Martinson's Aniara, K. O'Donnell's Mayflies, M. Leinster's "Proxima Centauri," R. J. Sawyer's Golden Fleece, N. Spinrad's "Riding the Torch," and E. C. Tubb's The Space-born; see under Drama, K.-B. Blomdahl's opera Aniara and at the film ANIARA, the TV series Starlost, and the Star Trek episode "For the World Is Hollow . . . ." Cf. and contrast RAH's later Citizens of the Galaxy (1957), which Sargent (1988; q.v. under Reference) says features space ships which are sovereign states. [[1]] "Universe" is discussed by Wolfe, esp. 61-65, and by H. Bruce Franklin in Robert A. Heinlein, 43-44; see Wolfe under Reference and both under Literary Criticism.[[2]]

For other works cited in this wiki, see here:[3].

For the argument that in these two stories Heinlein "initiates the subgenre" (p. 312) of the generation starship, see Christopher Palmer's "Generation Starships and After," cited at the embedded link.

RDE et al. hard-copy; ed. 19May20, expanded 11Jun22