“Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” by Isaac Asimov

“Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” is just one book from the series about Lucky Starr’s adventures and, from my point of view, the best of them all. I have read the whole series, but never had the desire to re-read the rest of them. “Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” was one of my first books in English; I have re-read it multiple times through the years and know parts of it by heart.

The book is not long, but it rewards the reader with a lot of excitement, as well as a mystery worthy of a detective story, just like most of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction pieces (he would have made a great detective story writer). The personality of Lucky Starr, a young Councilman of the Council of Science is presented most admirably – you can’t help falling for this strong, clever and knowledgeable youth with so much character! Lucky keeps a cool head under any circumstances and never visibly takes offence (so unlike his best friend Bigman).

Bigman is a different story altogether. While Lucky seems to never lose temper at all, Bigman does enough of that for the two – not only when anyone dares to refer to his small height, but upon any provocation, however small and insignificant. And, of course, the circumstances of their investigation are such that provocations surround the two friends day and night, so Bigman seldom goes without his fists clenched.

He also tends to act before thinking, thus giving Lucky additional trouble sorting out his messes. Still, when the important moment arrives, Bigman, as usual, plays his role in the game – a role of vital importance. Without him, Lucky wouldn’t have succeeded. As it is, an extremely dangerous – almost impossible – situation once again ends happily for all involved people, except, of course, the bad guys.

Some parts of the book look really naive. The book is about distant future – five or more thousand years from now. They harness gravity, travel to distant stars through hyperspace – and at the same time still use a computer whose description makes me think of ancient punched tapes or, at best, tape cassettes. Certain ideas about some of the planets in the Solar system, common at the time the Lucky Starr series was written, have now proven to be wrong, too. But the book itself is so good that I readily forgive the author for these small omissions.

I don’t know the reason why some books keep calling me to re-read them again and again, whereas others (often written by the same author) return to the shelf for good after the first time. There must be something subtle and deeply personal involved here, but the book either resonates with the wave length of my heart, or it doesn’t.

“Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter” resonates very strongly with me.