Well, that was fun.
This book was an extremely fun romp through space and the titular mushroom planet, Basidium-X. It's about two ten-ish-year-old boys, David and Chuck, who build an 8-foot-long spaceship. With the help of a mysterious scientist guy, Tyco M. Bass, they fly their spaceship to the Mushroom Planet and have an adventure which I won't spoil here.
Considering that the book was written in 1954, three years before Sputnik 1 was launched, the author got a surprising amount of science correct (even the minimum escape velocity of the earth; I did the math!). My only two major quibbles here are that 1) a 35-mile-diameter planet shouldn't have enough gravity to hold humans onto it (or an atmosphere!), and 2) even if normal astronomers couldn't see Basidium-X for mostly handwaved scientific reasons, they should still be able to see a perfectly normal spaceship flying straight at it.
It was, however, a very fun book. It may be a bit unrealistic, but that's science fiction for you. It's riddled with minor plot holes that can be fixed if you think about them too hard. (I do want to know where two ten-year-olds got a piece of curved plexiglass, though.)
This one gets four stars for being a super fun book. You meet some people in the second half that are really funny, as well, but I can't really say more than that.
Favorite lines:
"...you must on no account forget the canning jar of Basidium air." This canning jar of Basidium air and their not forgetting it becomes a thing throughout the book.
Page 63.
This does sound like a really fun book, despite its scientific anomalies. I especially like the "canning jar of Badisium (whatever that is) air"
ReplyDeleteGreat job of reviewing, Sarm!
- Grammy
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBasidium, or more properly Basidium-X, is the titular mushroom planet. Therefore, the canning jar of Basidium air is just a canning jar full of the planet's atmosphere.
Sam, reading these books are doing more than you think. They are training you to see how various themes are interwoven through a book. That's an invaluable lesson for you with your own writing style. That puts you way ahead of the class with most young men, not only your age, but those above and beyond your age. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteGrandpa O.
Thank you! I'm not entirely sure how intelligent most people are, or how many books they read; my life is a weird bubble.
DeleteI try to do 2-3 posts a month, but I am wildly inconsistent with these things.