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List Price: $13.99 | | Publisher: Baen
Salesrank: 310786
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| Our Price: $11.19 |
| Used Price: $18.84 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
The rollicking adventures of the Stone family on a tour of the Solar System. It all started when the twins, Castor and Pollux Stone, decided that life on the Lunar colony was too dull and decided to buy their own spaceship and go into business for themselves. Their father thought that was a fine idea, except that he and Grandma Hazel bought the spaceship and the whole Stone family were on their way out into the far reaches of the Solar System, with stops on Mars (where the twins got a lesson in the interplanetary economics of bicycles and the adorable little critters called flatcats who, it turned out, bred like rabbits; or, perhaps, Tribbles . . .), out to the asteroids, where Mrs. Stone, an M.D., was needed to treat a dangerous outbreak of disease, and even further out, to Titan and beyond.
Unforgettable Heinlein characters on an unforgettable adventure.
The Rolling Stones Reviews:
Classic Juvenile Heinlein 
2009-11-18 - The Rolling Stones is the classic science fiction family adventure written for the juvenile audience by the master, R.A. Heinlein. I first read this nearly 50 years ago and have looked forward to it coming out again. Many authors have been influenced by this and other Heinlein juveniles. Read about the Martian flat cats and you know where the idea for tribbles came from. I recommend this to any adult or teenager who enjoys space and a good story.
And Flat Cats too!
2009-09-29 - Many of the excellent reviewers have told you why you will love this book, and I heartily agree. But let's not forget the flat cats. David Gerrold swears he didn't mean to steal the idea as the inspiration for the "Star Trek" episode, 'The Trouble With Tribbles', and Heinlein agreed that the idea wasn't stolen; but you will see the connection.
And when you read Heinlein's later, grownup books (the ones with the annoying sex someone else mentioned), you will need to know where Hazel Meade Stone came from. She starts out as a child in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and we will see her later in "The Number of the Beast".
And in any case, this book is good family fun; the family that travels the solar system together always has a handy airlock in case little brother really gets to be too much, but they never actually throw him overboard, and later, he saves grandma.
a wonderful book well read
2009-09-11 - I don't want to say much about the story itself - it's a Heinlein, one of the books for younger people (and older, like me), sometimes in later books referred (Hazel Stone!).
It's very well read, one of the best audiobooks I ever heard, with perfectly choosen voices. You very well can forget the real world (is it real?). It's very understandable for non-native speakers, my 10-year-old (german) son has no problems to understand the book.
Amusing Heinlein Juvenile; Not one of his best 
2009-06-02 - The "Rolling Stones" concerns a family of wandering spacefarers who encounter a series of adventures on their travels from place to place. It was clearly written with a younger, early-teens audience in mind, and unlike some of Heinlein's other juveniles doesn't hold up quite as well to adult reading. As in many of Heinlein's works, there's a fair amount of "hard" sci-fi in "Rolling Stones," but it got distracting after a while. Recommend starting with one of his other tales - for instance, "Tunnel in the Sky," "Double Star," "The Red Planet," "Podkayne of Mars"
The Old Master Blasts Off Again!
2009-04-18 - //The Rolling Stones// is one of those fantasy science fiction books that every child should read. The plot: the Stone family, resident on Luna, embarks on a tour of the solar system in a private spacecraft. What actually happens is the conveyance of important life lessons; how to ethically raise children, by example, and to be decent people. The technology invented for this story is believable, because of a solid basis in real science, and some of the purely fictional devices are classic. The "Martian Flat Cats" saw reincarnation as Tribbles, for example!
There is an introduction by William H. Patterson Jr. that gives a glimpse into Heinlein's relationship with the Mrs. Grundy of editing, who so severely curtailed any sexuality creeping into his "juveniles". And there is an afterword, by Steven A. Hughes, who apparently feels that it is now necessary (this book came out when the reviewer was eight-years old) to explain to new readers the quaint frontier mindset of Heinlein's day. He does so well enough, but is it actually all that necessary? Robert Heinlein's juveniles are the high adventure way to introduce children to ethics, promise keeping, gallantry, and a love of learning. This is a book every parent needs as a classic for their children's library.
Reviewed by David Lloyd Sutton
