Robert A. Heinlein’s Time for the Stars is an entertaining romp through the dark of space and the labyrinths of time. Twin brothers Thomas Paine Leonardo da Vinci Bartlett and Patrick Henry Michelangelo Bartlett are recruited by the mysterious Long Range Foundation for a project that may take the whole of their lives to see through. In fact, this touches on the one characteristic that must be inherent in any experiment before the LRF will even consider touching it—it must take generations to produce any results.
The particular project Tom and Pat sign on for initially seems to be one of exploration. One twin goes aboard a ship bound for distant star systems while the other stays on Earth. Together, they function as a telepathic communication team that allows for instant transmission of information between ship and home planet. The implications at first seem obvious—radio signals take years to span the light years separating a ship and Earth, and thus are of no use by the time they are received. Telepathic twins like Pat and Tom eliminate this problem. As the ship and its crew streak through space, making pit stops at strange planets and eventually returning home, the brothers realize that the implications of their ability are far more important than dependable communication—they can tear down the walls of time altogether!
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