Events

The trouble with bringing home a pet from another planet is that no one knows how large it might eventually become—or what it might decide to eat.

For generations, the Stuart family has cared for Lummox, an alien creature brought home from the stars by John Thomas Stuart’s great-grandfather. Once small enough to fit beneath a table, Lummox has since grown into an eight-legged, nearly indestructible neighborhood catastrophe with a fondness for metal, an alarming appetite, and a talent for escaping at precisely the wrong moment.

When Lummox’s latest adventure leaves a trail of property damage across town, John Thomas must defend his beloved pet against neighbors, courts, and officials who see nothing more than a dangerous animal.

But Lummox may not be an animal at all.

Far beyond Earth, a powerful alien civilization is searching for something it has lost—and humanity is about to discover that the troublesome family pet at the center of a small-town legal dispute may also be at the center of an interstellar diplomatic crisis.

Robert A. Heinlein’s The Star Beast begins as the wonderfully comic story of a boy and his oversized alien companion, then expands into a clever exploration of intelligence, loyalty, prejudice, diplomacy, responsibility, and humanity’s habit of judging unfamiliar creatures by familiar standards.

Join the League of Science Fiction Explorers at Curious Owl Bookshop on Saturday, September 26, as we discuss one of Heinlein’s most charming adventures—a story in which a hungry pet can eat a used car, bewilder a courtroom, and possibly determine the fate of Earth.

Come prepared to answer one very important question:

Who exactly owns whom?