Coming soon... (Tor Paperback, November 2007) An unexpected posthumous gift for SF Fans everywhere, Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson is a new novel based on a detailed outline completed by Mr. Heinlein in 1955 and recently rediscovered by archivist Bill Patterson. It's a story of interstellar travel to colonize a star 85 light years away, a powerful tale of love and of tragedy on a cosmic scale.
Robinson himself reports, "There simply are no words adequate to describe what it was like to work with the Grandmaster. The first book I ever read, Robert's Rocketship Galileo, found me when I was six – almost exactly one year before he outlined Variable Star.
Maybe a musician asked to complete an entire album of unreleased John Lennon songs - from his best period - would grok how I feel.
If, that is, half the proceeds were earmarked to promote one of Johnny's dearest dreams." The Variable Star project is intended to help the Heinlein Trust continue to fund the $500,000 Heinlein Prize for commercial manned spaceflight, recently awarded for the first time to Dr. Peter H. Diamandis.
