Book Review: Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein

Citizen of the Galaxy
-Author: Robert Heinlein
-Setting Genre: Science Fiction // Humanity and Mutated Humanity spread throughout the stars.
-Narrative Genre: Coming of Age, Rags to Riches
-Themes: Slavery, Income Disparity

Subjective Length: A day and a half or so.

Overall, 7/10. If you already like science fiction, this is worth buying.
This novel tells a compelling story about the meaning of freedom and the necessary disparity between individual desire and societal need. The vignettes of the main character, Thorby's, life form a series of case studies in how different societies deal with the strain between freedom and responsibility. The science fiction is not, in my opinion, a barrier to entry against non-fans of the genre, and all but the most vehemently anti-science fiction audience can find something compelling in the themes of this novel.

Controversial Themes and Cautions:
Trauma: Thorby as a child is haunted by early childhood experiences that he does not remember well. There is also a moment of a harsh look at our own world, when he tells well-to-do professors about his experiences as a slave, only to be "pooh-poohed" and told that the system that treated him as property and sold him isn't, by strict anthropological definitions, slavery. He is further mildly shamed for intolerant attitudes concerning the culture that treated him that way.
Sex Work: A character early in the book is a brothel owner. No secret is made of this, but no scenes even approaching sex, let alone any graphic sexual scenes, come of it.
Sexism: Industry on earth is treated as, "rightly", a boys' club. This book is from 1957, and, to some extent, reflects the attitudes of its time. That said, in exploring vastly different cultures, this is not shown to be the "natural" place of women, simply the way things are done on earth. Possibly this could be seen as sexist, possibly as a mix of progressivism and pessimism. Personally, I wasn't able to land on one side or another of that distinction.

**SPOLIERS AHEAD***SPOLIERS AHEAD***SPOLIERS AHEAD***SPOILERS AHEAD**
Synopsis: SPOILERS AHEAD
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein narrates the life of a boy named Thorby. He is bought as a slave by a man named Baslim. Baslim raises the boy as a son, imparting life lessons, as well as some specialized military training. Thorby grows up learning to beg, and, upon Baslim's death, Thorby is taken in by friends of Baslim's: the Free Traders.

Among the Free Traders, Thorby continues to grow among this adoptive family, learning that the cost of being beholden to no government is a society of strict and labyrinthine social mores, and that specific traditions can become absolutely essential for the society that develops them.

Eventually, the Free Trader captain sees his chance to fulfill the full letter of his promise to Baslim, by passing Thorby on to the Hegemonic Guard. In the Guard, Thorby learns another way of life as an enlisted soldier in the time it takes for the records department to find his lineage. In the end, he is revealed to be the lost heir of the owners of a large corporation.

At this point, the story takes another turn as Thorby enters a legal battle for his inheritance and sets to work using his newfound influence to embargo slaver groups and cut their industry to its knees.